Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd (QCHB) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Construction - Raw Materials
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd (Malaysia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices,
geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd
2. Improving business portfolio management of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Malaysia
4. Making a Construction - Raw Materials sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd
Strengths of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Construction - Raw Materials industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
High brand equity
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd staying ahead in the Construction - Raw Materials industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd is one of the most innovative firm in Construction - Raw Materials sector.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Construction - Raw Materials industry
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Construction - Raw Materials industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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.
Training and development
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd has one of the best training and development program in Capital Goods 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd is present in almost all the verticals within the Construction - Raw Materials industry. This has provided Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd is one of the leading players in the Construction - Raw Materials industry in Malaysia. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Malaysia. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Construction - Raw Materials
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd is one of the leading players in the Construction - Raw Materials industry in Malaysia. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Construction - Raw Materials industry in Malaysia but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd are -
High dependence on Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Construction - Raw Materials industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Construction - Raw Materials industry, Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Construction - Raw Materials industry, but Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd to focus more on services in the Construction - Raw Materials industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Construction - Raw Materials 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd has high operating costs in the Construction - Raw Materials industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Construction - Raw Materials industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Malaysia, Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the Construction - Raw Materials industry.
Lack of clear differentiation of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring in Construction - Raw Materials industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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.
Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd can develop new processes and procedures in Construction - Raw Materials 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Construction - Raw Materials sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Construction - Raw Materials industry. This can help Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd to build a more holistic ecosystem for Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd products in the Construction - Raw Materials industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Construction - Raw Materials sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Construction - Raw Materials sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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 Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Construction - Raw Materials industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Construction - Raw Materials industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd can utilize new technology in the field of Construction - Raw Materials industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Threats Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd in Construction - Raw Materials industry. The Construction - Raw Materials industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
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. Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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 Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd prominent markets.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Construction - Raw Materials sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Construction - Raw Materials industry regulations.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Construction - Raw Materials industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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 Construction - Raw Materials industry and other sectors.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd is facing in Construction - Raw Materials sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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. Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Construction - Raw Materials industry.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd in the Construction - Raw Materials sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
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 Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd.
Increasing wage structure of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd
– 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 Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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 Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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 Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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 Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd 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 Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.