Cycle Carriage Bintang (CYCB) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Cycle Carriage Bintang (Malaysia)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Cycle Carriage Bintang is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cycle Carriage Bintang

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Cycle Carriage Bintang can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cycle Carriage Bintang, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cycle Carriage Bintang operates in.

According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Cycle Carriage Bintang can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Cycle Carriage Bintang
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cycle Carriage Bintang
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Malaysia
4. Making a Retail (Specialty) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Cycle Carriage Bintang

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Strengths of Cycle Carriage Bintang | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Cycle Carriage Bintang are -

Organizational Resilience of Cycle Carriage Bintang

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Cycle Carriage Bintang does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Strong track record of project management in the Retail (Specialty) industry

– Cycle Carriage Bintang is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Digital Transformation in Retail (Specialty) industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cycle Carriage Bintang digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cycle Carriage Bintang has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Cycle Carriage Bintang has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Cycle Carriage Bintang staying ahead in the Retail (Specialty) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

High brand equity

– Cycle Carriage Bintang has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cycle Carriage Bintang to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Retail (Specialty) industry

– Cycle Carriage Bintang has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cycle Carriage Bintang to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Retail (Specialty) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cycle Carriage Bintang to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Analytics focus

– Cycle Carriage Bintang is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the Retail (Specialty) industry. The technology infrastructure of Malaysia is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Cycle Carriage Bintang has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Cycle Carriage Bintang in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Cycle Carriage Bintang has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cycle Carriage Bintang to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Cycle Carriage Bintang in Retail (Specialty) industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Training and development

– Cycle Carriage Bintang has one of the best training and development program in Services industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Cycle Carriage Bintang comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Retail (Specialty) industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.

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Weaknesses of Cycle Carriage Bintang | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Cycle Carriage Bintang are -

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Cycle Carriage Bintang is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Cycle Carriage Bintang to provide better information regarding Retail (Specialty) products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Cycle Carriage Bintang needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Retail (Specialty) industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Cycle Carriage Bintang can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cycle Carriage Bintang is planning to shift buying processes online.

Employees’ less understanding of Cycle Carriage Bintang strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Cycle Carriage Bintang don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.

Need for greater diversity

– Cycle Carriage Bintang has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Cycle Carriage Bintang is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Retail (Specialty) industry, but Cycle Carriage Bintang needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Cycle Carriage Bintang to focus more on services in the Retail (Specialty) industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Retail (Specialty) industry, Cycle Carriage Bintang needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Cycle Carriage Bintang has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Cycle Carriage Bintang, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Retail (Specialty) industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Cycle Carriage Bintang is one of the leading players in the Retail (Specialty) industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Retail (Specialty) industry in last five years.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, Cycle Carriage Bintang has high operating costs in the Retail (Specialty) industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Cycle Carriage Bintang lucrative customers.

Skills based hiring in Retail (Specialty) industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cycle Carriage Bintang has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.

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Cycle Carriage Bintang Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Cycle Carriage Bintang are -

Identify volunteer opportunities

– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Cycle Carriage Bintang can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cycle Carriage Bintang to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Retail (Specialty) industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Cycle Carriage Bintang can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cycle Carriage Bintang can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help Cycle Carriage Bintang to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cycle Carriage Bintang is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Cycle Carriage Bintang can utilize new technology in the field of Retail (Specialty) industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Cycle Carriage Bintang to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.

Developing new processes and practices

– Cycle Carriage Bintang can develop new processes and procedures in Retail (Specialty) industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Cycle Carriage Bintang can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Cycle Carriage Bintang can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Retail (Specialty) industry.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cycle Carriage Bintang in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Retail (Specialty) industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Loyalty marketing

– Cycle Carriage Bintang has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Cycle Carriage Bintang has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Retail (Specialty) industry. This can help Cycle Carriage Bintang to build a more holistic ecosystem for Cycle Carriage Bintang products in the Retail (Specialty) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Cycle Carriage Bintang can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.

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Threats Cycle Carriage Bintang External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Cycle Carriage Bintang are -

Backlash against dominant players

– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Cycle Carriage Bintang business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

High level of anxiety and lack of motivation

– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Cycle Carriage Bintang needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Retail (Specialty) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Capital market disruption

– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Cycle Carriage Bintang.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Cycle Carriage Bintang can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the Retail (Specialty) industry.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Retail (Specialty) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Cycle Carriage Bintang can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Environmental challenges

– Cycle Carriage Bintang needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Cycle Carriage Bintang can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Retail (Specialty) industry.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Cycle Carriage Bintang demand

– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in Retail (Specialty) industry and other sectors.

Instability in the European markets

– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Cycle Carriage Bintang will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.

Aging population

– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Cycle Carriage Bintang may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Retail (Specialty) sector.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Retail (Specialty) industry are lowering. It can presents Cycle Carriage Bintang with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Retail (Specialty) sector.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cycle Carriage Bintang can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate Cycle Carriage Bintang prominent markets.

Increasing wage structure of Cycle Carriage Bintang

– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Cycle Carriage Bintang.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cycle Carriage Bintang Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Cycle Carriage Bintang needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants. We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –

First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of Cycle Carriage Bintang is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.

Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of Cycle Carriage Bintang is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.

Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Cycle Carriage Bintang to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Cycle Carriage Bintang needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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