K Seng Seng Corp (KSSC) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Iron & Steel
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for K Seng Seng Corp (Malaysia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , K Seng Seng Corp is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that K Seng Seng Corp can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the K Seng Seng Corp, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which K Seng Seng Corp 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 K Seng Seng Corp can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of K Seng Seng Corp
2. Improving business portfolio management of K Seng Seng Corp
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Malaysia
4. Making a Iron & Steel sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of K Seng Seng Corp
Strengths of K Seng Seng Corp | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of K Seng Seng Corp are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– K Seng Seng Corp has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – K Seng Seng Corp staying ahead in the Iron & Steel industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- K Seng Seng Corp is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at K Seng Seng Corp is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at K Seng Seng Corp emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the K Seng Seng Corp are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of K Seng Seng Corp
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing K Seng Seng Corp does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– K Seng Seng Corp 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 Iron & Steel 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of K Seng Seng Corp in Iron & Steel industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of K Seng Seng Corp comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Iron & Steel 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Iron & Steel industry
– K Seng Seng Corp 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 Iron & Steel industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For K Seng Seng Corp digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. K Seng Seng Corp 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– K Seng Seng Corp is one of the leading players in the Iron & Steel 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of K Seng Seng Corp in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. K Seng Seng Corp has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps K Seng Seng Corp to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– K Seng Seng Corp is one of the most innovative firm in Iron & Steel sector.
Weaknesses of K Seng Seng Corp | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of K Seng Seng Corp are -
Lack of clear differentiation of K Seng Seng Corp products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, K Seng Seng Corp needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Iron & Steel industry, K Seng Seng Corp 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
K Seng Seng Corp has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Iron & Steel industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of K Seng Seng Corp is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Iron & Steel industry, but K Seng Seng Corp needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help K Seng Seng Corp to focus more on services in the Iron & Steel industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on K Seng Seng Corp ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of K Seng Seng Corp still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Iron & Steel industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though K Seng Seng Corp has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring in Iron & Steel industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at K Seng Seng Corp 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, K Seng Seng Corp 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.
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 K Seng Seng Corp supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, K Seng Seng Corp is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left K Seng Seng Corp vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, K Seng Seng Corp has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the Iron & Steel industry using digital technology.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that K Seng Seng Corp needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Iron & Steel industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at K Seng Seng Corp can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as K Seng Seng Corp is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at K Seng Seng Corp, in the dynamic environment of Iron & Steel industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. K Seng Seng Corp has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
K Seng Seng Corp Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of K Seng Seng Corp are -
Manufacturing automation
– K Seng Seng Corp can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Iron & Steel 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects K Seng Seng Corp can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– K Seng Seng Corp 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for K Seng Seng Corp in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Iron & Steel industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, K Seng Seng Corp 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.
Buying journey improvements
– K Seng Seng Corp can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Iron & Steel industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, K Seng Seng Corp can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that K Seng Seng Corp operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Iron & Steel sector.
Loyalty marketing
– K Seng Seng Corp 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for K Seng Seng Corp to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for K Seng Seng Corp to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Iron & Steel industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for K Seng Seng Corp in the Iron & Steel industry. Now K Seng Seng Corp can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. K Seng Seng Corp 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 K Seng Seng Corp 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at K Seng Seng Corp 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 Iron & Steel industry.
Threats K Seng Seng Corp External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of K Seng Seng Corp are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Iron & Steel industry are lowering. It can presents K Seng Seng Corp with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Iron & Steel sector.
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. K Seng Seng Corp needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Iron & Steel industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of K Seng Seng Corp
– 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 K Seng Seng Corp.
Consumer confidence and its impact on K Seng Seng Corp 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 Iron & Steel industry and other sectors.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for K Seng Seng Corp in Iron & Steel industry. The Iron & Steel 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.
Environmental challenges
– K Seng Seng Corp 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. K Seng Seng Corp can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Iron & Steel industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– K Seng Seng Corp high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, K Seng Seng Corp may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Iron & Steel sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that K Seng Seng Corp is facing in Iron & Steel sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, K Seng Seng Corp 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 K Seng Seng Corp prominent markets.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– K Seng Seng Corp 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 Iron & Steel industry regulations.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Iron & Steel industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. K Seng Seng Corp can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of K Seng Seng Corp Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at K Seng Seng Corp 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 K Seng Seng Corp 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 K Seng Seng Corp 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 K Seng Seng Corp 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 K Seng Seng Corp needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
