Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media (600637) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Broadcasting & Cable TV
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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 Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media
2. Improving business portfolio management of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Broadcasting & Cable TV sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media
Strengths of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Broadcasting & Cable TV industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media staying ahead in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media is one of the leading players in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry in China. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in China. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Broadcasting & Cable TV
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media is one of the leading players in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media, in the dynamic environment of Broadcasting & Cable TV industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry, but Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media to focus more on services in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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 Broadcasting & Cable TV industry using digital technology.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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 Broadcasting & Cable TV industry.
Need for greater diversity
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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 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 Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media has high operating costs in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media has some of the most successful models in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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. Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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 Broadcasting & Cable TV industry.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry. This can help Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media to build a more holistic ecosystem for Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media products in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media can utilize new technology in the field of Broadcasting & Cable TV industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Broadcasting & Cable TV sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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 Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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 Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media can develop new processes and procedures in Broadcasting & Cable TV 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 Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media are -
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 Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Regulatory challenges
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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 Broadcasting & Cable TV industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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 Broadcasting & Cable TV industry and other sectors.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Broadcasting & Cable TV sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Broadcasting & Cable TV 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.
Environmental challenges
– Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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. Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media in the Broadcasting & Cable TV sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media is facing in Broadcasting & Cable TV sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Broadcasting & Cable TV industry are lowering. It can presents Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Broadcasting & Cable TV sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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 Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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 Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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 Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media 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 Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.