SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for CITIC Envirotech (Singapore)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , CITIC Envirotech is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that CITIC Envirotech can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the CITIC Envirotech, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which CITIC Envirotech 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 CITIC Envirotech can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of CITIC Envirotech
2. Improving business portfolio management of CITIC Envirotech
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Singapore
4. Making a Waste Management Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of CITIC Envirotech
Strengths of CITIC Envirotech | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of CITIC Envirotech are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Waste Management Services industry
– CITIC Envirotech has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled CITIC Envirotech to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Waste Management Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped CITIC Envirotech to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– CITIC Envirotech is present in almost all the verticals within the Waste Management Services industry. This has provided CITIC Envirotech 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.
Learning organization
- CITIC Envirotech 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 CITIC Envirotech is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at CITIC Envirotech emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that CITIC Envirotech 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– CITIC Envirotech is one of the leading players in the Waste Management Services 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 CITIC Envirotech in the Services sector have low bargaining power. CITIC Envirotech has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps CITIC Envirotech to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management in the Waste Management Services industry
– CITIC Envirotech is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– CITIC Envirotech 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 Waste Management Services 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.
High brand equity
– CITIC Envirotech has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled CITIC Envirotech to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– CITIC Envirotech 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– CITIC Envirotech has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. CITIC Envirotech 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of CITIC Envirotech in Waste Management Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses of CITIC Envirotech | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of CITIC Envirotech are -
Lack of clear differentiation of CITIC Envirotech products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, CITIC Envirotech needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of CITIC Envirotech is just above the Waste Management Services industry average. It needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, CITIC Envirotech has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Waste Management Services industry over the last five years. CITIC Envirotech even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, CITIC Envirotech 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 Waste Management Services industry using digital technology.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of CITIC Envirotech, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Waste Management Services 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of CITIC Envirotech is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Waste Management Services industry, but CITIC Envirotech needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help CITIC Envirotech to focus more on services in the Waste Management Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ less understanding of CITIC Envirotech strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of CITIC Envirotech 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.
High dependence on CITIC Envirotech ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of CITIC Envirotech still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Waste Management Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though CITIC Envirotech has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, CITIC Envirotech has high operating costs in the Waste Management Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract CITIC Envirotech lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Singapore, CITIC Envirotech needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at CITIC Envirotech, in the dynamic environment of Waste Management Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. CITIC Envirotech has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
CITIC Envirotech Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of CITIC Envirotech are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– CITIC Envirotech 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.
Buying journey improvements
– CITIC Envirotech can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Waste Management Services 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects CITIC Envirotech can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for CITIC Envirotech in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Waste Management Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for CITIC Envirotech 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, CITIC Envirotech 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 CITIC Envirotech to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– CITIC Envirotech 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, CITIC Envirotech is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. CITIC Envirotech can utilize new technology in the field of Waste Management Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, 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. CITIC Envirotech can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– CITIC Envirotech has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Waste Management Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled CITIC Envirotech to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help CITIC Envirotech to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– CITIC Envirotech can develop new processes and procedures in Waste Management Services 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Waste Management Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. CITIC Envirotech 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. CITIC Envirotech 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Waste Management Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for CITIC Envirotech in the Waste Management Services industry. Now CITIC Envirotech can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats CITIC Envirotech External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of CITIC Envirotech are -
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 CITIC Envirotech in the Waste Management Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, CITIC Envirotech 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 CITIC Envirotech prominent markets.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– CITIC Envirotech 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.
Regulatory challenges
– CITIC Envirotech 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 Waste Management Services industry regulations.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Waste Management Services industry are lowering. It can presents CITIC Envirotech with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Waste Management Services sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– CITIC Envirotech has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Waste Management Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, CITIC Envirotech needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Waste Management Services sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– CITIC Envirotech 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 Waste Management Services industry.
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. CITIC Envirotech 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.
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.
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. CITIC Envirotech needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Waste Management Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, CITIC Envirotech may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Waste Management Services sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Waste Management Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. CITIC Envirotech can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that CITIC Envirotech is facing in Waste Management Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of CITIC Envirotech Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at CITIC Envirotech 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 CITIC Envirotech 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 CITIC Envirotech 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 CITIC Envirotech 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 CITIC Envirotech needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.