SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Alibaba Pictures (Singapore)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Alibaba Pictures is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Alibaba Pictures can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Alibaba Pictures, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Alibaba Pictures 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 Alibaba Pictures can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Alibaba Pictures
2. Improving business portfolio management of Alibaba Pictures
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Singapore
4. Making a Motion Pictures sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Alibaba Pictures
Strengths of Alibaba Pictures | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Alibaba Pictures are -
Organizational Resilience of Alibaba Pictures
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Alibaba Pictures does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Motion Pictures industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Alibaba Pictures digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Alibaba Pictures 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
– Alibaba Pictures is one of the leading players in the Motion Pictures industry in Singapore. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Singapore. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Alibaba Pictures in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Alibaba Pictures has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Alibaba Pictures to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Alibaba Pictures 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 Motion Pictures industry. The technology infrastructure of Singapore 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Alibaba Pictures has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Alibaba Pictures staying ahead in the Motion Pictures industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Motion Pictures
– Alibaba Pictures is one of the leading players in the Motion Pictures industry in Singapore. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Motion Pictures industry in Singapore but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Alibaba Pictures in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Alibaba Pictures 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 Alibaba Pictures is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Alibaba Pictures emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Alibaba Pictures 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
– Alibaba Pictures 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Alibaba Pictures is one of the most innovative firm in Motion Pictures sector.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Alibaba Pictures in Motion Pictures industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses of Alibaba Pictures | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Alibaba Pictures are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Alibaba Pictures is one of the leading players in the Motion Pictures industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Motion Pictures industry in last five years.
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 Alibaba Pictures supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Alibaba Pictures is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Alibaba Pictures vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring in Motion Pictures industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Alibaba Pictures 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, Alibaba Pictures 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 bargaining power of channel partners in Motion Pictures industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Singapore, Alibaba Pictures 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 Motion Pictures industry.
Employees’ less understanding of Alibaba Pictures strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Alibaba Pictures 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Alibaba Pictures, in the dynamic environment of Motion Pictures industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Alibaba Pictures has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on Alibaba Pictures ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Alibaba Pictures still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Motion Pictures industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Alibaba Pictures has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Alibaba Pictures is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Motion Pictures industry, but Alibaba Pictures needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Alibaba Pictures to focus more on services in the Motion Pictures industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Alibaba Pictures has some of the most successful models in the Motion Pictures industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Alibaba Pictures should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Alibaba Pictures 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 Motion Pictures industry using digital technology.
Alibaba Pictures Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Alibaba Pictures are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Alibaba Pictures to increase its market reach. Alibaba Pictures will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Motion Pictures industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Alibaba Pictures 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. Alibaba Pictures 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Alibaba Pictures 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 Motion Pictures industry.
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. Alibaba Pictures can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Alibaba Pictures can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Motion Pictures 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Alibaba Pictures 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Alibaba Pictures is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Alibaba Pictures can utilize new technology in the field of Motion Pictures industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, 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, Alibaba Pictures can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Alibaba Pictures operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Motion Pictures sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Alibaba Pictures 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Alibaba Pictures can develop new processes and procedures in Motion Pictures 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Motion Pictures industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Alibaba Pictures in the Motion Pictures industry. Now Alibaba Pictures can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Alibaba Pictures 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Alibaba Pictures 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 Alibaba Pictures to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Alibaba Pictures External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Alibaba Pictures are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Alibaba Pictures in Motion Pictures industry. The Motion Pictures 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.
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 Alibaba Pictures.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Alibaba Pictures 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 Alibaba Pictures prominent markets.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Alibaba Pictures 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 Motion Pictures 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. Alibaba Pictures 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Alibaba Pictures 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 Motion Pictures industry regulations.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Motion Pictures industry are lowering. It can presents Alibaba Pictures with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Motion Pictures sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Alibaba Pictures is facing in Motion Pictures sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Alibaba Pictures 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. Alibaba Pictures can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Motion Pictures industry.
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 Alibaba Pictures business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Alibaba Pictures
– 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 Alibaba Pictures.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Alibaba Pictures 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 Motion Pictures industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Alibaba Pictures Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Alibaba Pictures 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 Alibaba Pictures 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 Alibaba Pictures 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 Alibaba Pictures 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 Alibaba Pictures needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.