East Asia Holdings Investment (900110) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Footwear
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for East Asia Holdings Investment (South Korea)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , East Asia Holdings Investment is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing,
there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of East Asia Holdings Investment
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that East Asia Holdings Investment can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the East Asia Holdings Investment, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which East Asia Holdings Investment 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 East Asia Holdings Investment can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of East Asia Holdings Investment
2. Improving business portfolio management of East Asia Holdings Investment
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in South Korea
4. Making a Footwear sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of East Asia Holdings Investment
Strengths of East Asia Holdings Investment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of East Asia Holdings Investment are -
Digital Transformation in Footwear industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For East Asia Holdings Investment digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. East Asia Holdings Investment 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Footwear industry
– East Asia Holdings Investment is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of East Asia Holdings Investment comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Footwear 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.
High brand equity
– East Asia Holdings Investment has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled East Asia Holdings Investment to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that East Asia Holdings Investment 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– East Asia Holdings Investment is present in almost all the verticals within the Footwear industry. This has provided East Asia Holdings Investment 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the East Asia Holdings Investment 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.
Analytics focus
– East Asia Holdings Investment 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 Footwear industry. The technology infrastructure of South Korea 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)
– East Asia Holdings Investment has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – East Asia Holdings Investment staying ahead in the Footwear industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of East Asia Holdings Investment in Footwear industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- East Asia Holdings Investment 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 East Asia Holdings Investment is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at East Asia Holdings Investment emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– East Asia Holdings Investment is one of the leading players in the Footwear industry in South Korea. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in South Korea. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses of East Asia Holdings Investment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of East Asia Holdings Investment are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, East Asia Holdings Investment 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 Footwear industry using digital technology.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that East Asia Holdings Investment needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Footwear industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at East Asia Holdings Investment can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as East Asia Holdings Investment is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As East Asia Holdings Investment is one of the leading players in the Footwear industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Footwear industry in last five years.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, East Asia Holdings Investment has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Footwear industry over the last five years. East Asia Holdings Investment 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.
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 East Asia Holdings Investment supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, East Asia Holdings Investment is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left East Asia Holdings Investment vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Footwear industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in South Korea, East Asia Holdings Investment 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 Footwear industry.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Footwear industry, East Asia Holdings Investment 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of East Asia Holdings Investment, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Footwear 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
East Asia Holdings Investment has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Footwear industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, East Asia Holdings Investment has high operating costs in the Footwear industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract East Asia Holdings Investment lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– East Asia Holdings Investment 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.
East Asia Holdings Investment Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of East Asia Holdings Investment are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at East Asia Holdings Investment 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 Footwear industry.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Footwear industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. East Asia Holdings Investment 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. East Asia Holdings Investment 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– East Asia Holdings Investment 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, East Asia Holdings Investment 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, East Asia Holdings Investment can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that East Asia Holdings Investment operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Footwear sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for East Asia Holdings Investment 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, East Asia Holdings Investment is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. East Asia Holdings Investment can utilize new technology in the field of Footwear 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. East Asia Holdings Investment can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– East Asia Holdings Investment 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Footwear industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. East Asia Holdings Investment can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of East Asia Holdings Investment has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Footwear industry. This can help East Asia Holdings Investment to build a more holistic ecosystem for East Asia Holdings Investment products in the Footwear industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– East Asia Holdings Investment has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Footwear sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled East Asia Holdings Investment to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help East Asia Holdings Investment to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects East Asia Holdings Investment can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats East Asia Holdings Investment External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of East Asia Holdings Investment 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 East Asia Holdings Investment in the Footwear sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Footwear industry are lowering. It can presents East Asia Holdings Investment with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Footwear sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, East Asia Holdings Investment may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Footwear sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– East Asia Holdings Investment 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 Footwear industry.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– East Asia Holdings Investment has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Footwear industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, East Asia Holdings Investment needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Footwear 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.
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. East Asia Holdings Investment needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Footwear industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Footwear industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. East Asia Holdings Investment 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 East Asia Holdings Investment is facing in Footwear sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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. East Asia Holdings Investment 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.
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 East Asia Holdings Investment business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 East Asia Holdings Investment.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of East Asia Holdings Investment Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at East Asia Holdings Investment 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 East Asia Holdings Investment 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 East Asia Holdings Investment 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 East Asia Holdings Investment 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 East Asia Holdings Investment needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.