China Xuefeng Environmental Eng (CXEE) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Retail (Catalog & Mail Order)
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for China Xuefeng Environmental Eng (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , China Xuefeng Environmental Eng is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that China Xuefeng Environmental Eng can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the China Xuefeng Environmental Eng, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 China Xuefeng Environmental Eng can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng
2. Improving business portfolio management of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng
Strengths of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order)
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng is one of the leading players in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled China Xuefeng Environmental Eng in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng is one of the most innovative firm in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) sector.
Diverse revenue streams
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng is present in almost all the verticals within the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry. This has provided China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled China Xuefeng Environmental Eng to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped China Xuefeng Environmental Eng to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) 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.
Analytics focus
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry. The technology infrastructure of United States 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
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled China Xuefeng Environmental Eng to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing China Xuefeng Environmental Eng does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For China Xuefeng Environmental Eng digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 China Xuefeng Environmental Eng is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at China Xuefeng Environmental Eng emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng are -
High dependence on China Xuefeng Environmental Eng ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though China Xuefeng Environmental Eng has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As China Xuefeng Environmental Eng is one of the leading players in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry in last five years.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, China Xuefeng Environmental Eng has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry over the last five years. China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, China Xuefeng Environmental Eng has high operating costs in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract China Xuefeng Environmental Eng lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng is just above the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at China Xuefeng Environmental Eng, in the dynamic environment of Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. China Xuefeng Environmental Eng has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry, but China Xuefeng Environmental Eng needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help China Xuefeng Environmental Eng to focus more on services in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though China Xuefeng Environmental Eng has some of the most successful models in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. China Xuefeng Environmental Eng should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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.
China Xuefeng Environmental Eng Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. China Xuefeng Environmental Eng can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 China Xuefeng Environmental Eng to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng can develop new processes and procedures in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects China Xuefeng Environmental Eng can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 China Xuefeng Environmental Eng to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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, China Xuefeng Environmental Eng can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that China Xuefeng Environmental Eng operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help China Xuefeng Environmental Eng to increase its market reach. China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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. China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled China Xuefeng Environmental Eng to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help China Xuefeng Environmental Eng to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. China Xuefeng Environmental Eng can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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.
Threats China Xuefeng Environmental Eng External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, China Xuefeng Environmental Eng needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for China Xuefeng Environmental Eng in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry. The Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that China Xuefeng Environmental Eng is facing in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, China Xuefeng Environmental Eng may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) sector.
Increasing wage structure of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng
– 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 China Xuefeng Environmental Eng.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. China Xuefeng Environmental Eng can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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.
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 China Xuefeng Environmental Eng in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry and other sectors.
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. China Xuefeng Environmental Eng needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 China Xuefeng Environmental Eng prominent markets.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of China Xuefeng Environmental Eng Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 China Xuefeng Environmental Eng 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 China Xuefeng Environmental Eng needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.