SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Guangxi Guiguan (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Guangxi Guiguan is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Guangxi Guiguan can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Guangxi Guiguan, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Guangxi Guiguan 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 Guangxi Guiguan can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Guangxi Guiguan
2. Improving business portfolio management of Guangxi Guiguan
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 Guangxi Guiguan
Strengths of Guangxi Guiguan | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Guangxi Guiguan are -
Training and development
– Guangxi Guiguan has one of the best training and development program in Utilities 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.
Organizational Resilience of Guangxi Guiguan
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Guangxi Guiguan does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Guangxi Guiguan 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 Electric Utilities industry. The technology infrastructure of China 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Guangxi Guiguan is one of the leading players in the Electric Utilities 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Guangxi Guiguan is present in almost all the verticals within the Electric Utilities industry. This has provided Guangxi Guiguan a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Learning organization
- Guangxi Guiguan 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 Guangxi Guiguan is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Guangxi Guiguan emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Electric Utilities industry
– Guangxi Guiguan has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Guangxi Guiguan to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Electric Utilities industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Guangxi Guiguan to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Guangxi Guiguan is one of the most innovative firm in Electric Utilities sector.
Strong track record of project management in the Electric Utilities industry
– Guangxi Guiguan is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Guangxi Guiguan 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 Guangxi Guiguan have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Guangxi Guiguan has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Guangxi Guiguan 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Guangxi Guiguan 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.
Weaknesses of Guangxi Guiguan | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Guangxi Guiguan are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Guangxi Guiguan is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Electric Utilities industry, but Guangxi Guiguan needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Guangxi Guiguan to focus more on services in the Electric Utilities industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Guangxi Guiguan 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. Guangxi Guiguan should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Electric Utilities industry, Guangxi Guiguan 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Guangxi Guiguan 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Guangxi Guiguan is just above the Electric Utilities industry average. It needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Guangxi Guiguan has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Electric Utilities industry over the last five years. Guangxi Guiguan 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.
Skills based hiring in Electric Utilities industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Guangxi Guiguan 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 Guangxi Guiguan supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Guangxi Guiguan is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Guangxi Guiguan vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Guangxi Guiguan is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Guangxi Guiguan to provide better information regarding Electric Utilities products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Guangxi Guiguan needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Guangxi Guiguan, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Electric Utilities 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.
Guangxi Guiguan Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Guangxi Guiguan are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Guangxi Guiguan 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 Guangxi Guiguan to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Guangxi Guiguan 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 Electric Utilities industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Guangxi Guiguan can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– Guangxi Guiguan 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Guangxi Guiguan 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Guangxi Guiguan 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 Guangxi Guiguan to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Guangxi Guiguan to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Guangxi Guiguan 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Guangxi Guiguan 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Guangxi Guiguan in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Electric Utilities industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Guangxi Guiguan can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Guangxi Guiguan operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Electric Utilities sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Guangxi Guiguan is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Guangxi Guiguan can utilize new technology in the field of Electric Utilities industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Guangxi Guiguan 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 Guangxi Guiguan 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.
Threats Guangxi Guiguan External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Guangxi Guiguan are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Guangxi Guiguan 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 Guangxi Guiguan prominent markets.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Guangxi Guiguan has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Electric Utilities industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Guangxi Guiguan 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.
Increasing wage structure of Guangxi Guiguan
– 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 Guangxi Guiguan.
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.
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. Guangxi Guiguan needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Electric Utilities industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Guangxi Guiguan 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 Guangxi Guiguan 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 Guangxi Guiguan 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.
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 Guangxi Guiguan business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Guangxi Guiguan 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. Guangxi Guiguan can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Electric Utilities industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Guangxi Guiguan 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Guangxi Guiguan is facing in Electric Utilities sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Guangxi Guiguan in the Electric Utilities sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Guangxi Guiguan Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Guangxi Guiguan 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 Guangxi Guiguan 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 Guangxi Guiguan 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 Guangxi Guiguan 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 Guangxi Guiguan needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
