GD Power Dev (600795) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for GD Power Dev (China)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , GD Power Dev is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of GD Power Dev

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that GD Power Dev can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the GD Power Dev, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which GD Power Dev 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of GD Power Dev can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of GD Power Dev
2. Improving business portfolio management of GD Power Dev
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Electric Utilities sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of GD Power Dev

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Strengths of GD Power Dev | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of GD Power Dev are -

Innovation driven organization

– GD Power Dev is one of the most innovative firm in Electric Utilities sector.

Successful track record of launching new products

– GD Power Dev has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. GD Power Dev 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Electric Utilities industry

– GD Power Dev has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled GD Power Dev to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Electric Utilities industry. The sustainable margins have also helped GD Power Dev to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– GD Power Dev has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – GD Power Dev staying ahead in the Electric Utilities industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Strong track record of project management in the Electric Utilities industry

– GD Power Dev is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of GD Power Dev in Electric Utilities industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Diverse revenue streams

– GD Power Dev is present in almost all the verticals within the Electric Utilities industry. This has provided GD Power Dev 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of GD Power Dev in the Utilities sector have low bargaining power. GD Power Dev has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps GD Power Dev to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that GD Power Dev 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.

Digital Transformation in Electric Utilities industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For GD Power Dev digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. GD Power Dev 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the GD Power Dev 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– GD Power Dev has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Electric Utilities industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of GD Power Dev have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

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Weaknesses of GD Power Dev | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of GD Power Dev are -

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, GD Power Dev is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help GD Power Dev to provide better information regarding Electric Utilities products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Products dominated business model

– Even though GD Power Dev has some of the most successful models in the Electric Utilities industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. GD Power Dev should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of GD Power Dev is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Electric Utilities industry, but GD Power Dev needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help GD Power Dev to focus more on services in the Electric Utilities industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Lack of clear differentiation of GD Power Dev products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, GD Power Dev needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Skills based hiring in Electric Utilities industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at GD Power Dev 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.

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 GD Power Dev supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, GD Power Dev is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left GD Power Dev vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of China, GD Power Dev needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Need for greater diversity

– GD Power Dev 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.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

GD Power Dev has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Electric Utilities industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Electric Utilities industry, GD Power Dev needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, GD Power Dev has high operating costs in the Electric Utilities industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract GD Power Dev lucrative customers.

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GD Power Dev Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of GD Power Dev are -

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, GD Power Dev 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 GD Power Dev to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, GD Power Dev 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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Electric Utilities industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. GD Power Dev 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. GD Power Dev 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 Electric Utilities industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for GD Power Dev in the Electric Utilities industry. Now GD Power Dev can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, GD Power Dev can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that GD Power Dev operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Electric Utilities sector.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at GD Power Dev 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 Electric Utilities industry.

Loyalty marketing

– GD Power Dev 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– GD Power Dev has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Electric Utilities sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled GD Power Dev to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help GD Power Dev 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

– GD Power Dev can develop new processes and procedures in Electric Utilities 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.

Buying journey improvements

– GD Power Dev can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Electric Utilities 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– GD Power Dev 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.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Electric Utilities industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. GD Power Dev can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects GD Power Dev can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

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Threats GD Power Dev External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of GD Power Dev are -

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, GD Power Dev may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Electric Utilities sector.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for GD Power Dev in Electric Utilities industry. The Electric Utilities industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.

Environmental challenges

– GD Power Dev 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. GD Power Dev can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Electric Utilities 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. GD Power Dev 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.

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. GD Power Dev needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Electric Utilities industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Increasing wage structure of GD Power Dev

– 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 GD Power Dev.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– GD Power Dev has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Electric Utilities industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, GD Power Dev needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Electric Utilities 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that GD Power Dev is facing in Electric Utilities sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Regulatory challenges

– GD Power Dev 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 Electric Utilities industry regulations.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Electric Utilities industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. GD Power Dev can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Electric Utilities industry are lowering. It can presents GD Power Dev with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Electric Utilities sector.

Consumer confidence and its impact on GD Power Dev 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 Electric Utilities industry and other sectors.

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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of GD Power Dev Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at GD Power Dev 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 GD Power Dev 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 GD Power Dev 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 GD Power Dev 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 GD Power Dev needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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