Valin Steel A (932) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Iron & Steel
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Valin Steel A (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Valin Steel A is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Valin Steel A can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Valin Steel A, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Valin Steel A 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 Valin Steel A can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Valin Steel A
2. Improving business portfolio management of Valin Steel A
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Iron & Steel sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Valin Steel A
Strengths of Valin Steel A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Valin Steel A are -
Digital Transformation in Iron & Steel industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Valin Steel A digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Valin Steel A 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Iron & Steel industry
– Valin Steel A has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Valin Steel A to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Iron & Steel industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Valin Steel A to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Valin Steel A has one of the best training and development program in Basic Materials 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.
Ability to lead change in Iron & Steel
– Valin Steel A is one of the leading players in the Iron & Steel industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Iron & Steel industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Valin Steel A in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Valin Steel A comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Iron & Steel 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Valin Steel A has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Iron & Steel industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Valin Steel A have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Valin Steel A
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Valin Steel A does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Valin Steel A has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Valin Steel A is present in almost all the verticals within the Iron & Steel industry. This has provided Valin Steel A 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 Valin Steel A in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. Valin Steel A has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Valin Steel A to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Valin Steel A is one of the leading players in the Iron & Steel 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
– Valin Steel A has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Valin Steel A to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses of Valin Steel A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Valin Steel A are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Valin Steel A has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Iron & Steel industry over the last five years. Valin Steel A 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 Iron & Steel industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Valin Steel A 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Valin Steel A has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Iron & Steel industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Valin Steel A has some of the most successful models in the Iron & Steel industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Valin Steel A should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Valin Steel A, in the dynamic environment of Iron & Steel industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Valin Steel A has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Valin Steel A is one of the leading players in the Iron & Steel industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Iron & Steel industry in last five years.
Lack of clear differentiation of Valin Steel A products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Valin Steel A needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– Valin Steel A 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Iron & Steel industry, Valin Steel A 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, Valin Steel A has high operating costs in the Iron & Steel industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Valin Steel A lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Valin Steel A, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Iron & Steel 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.
Valin Steel A Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Valin Steel A are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Valin Steel A is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Valin Steel A can utilize new technology in the field of Iron & Steel industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Valin Steel A 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Valin Steel A can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Iron & Steel 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.
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 Valin Steel A 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Valin Steel A 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Valin Steel A 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 Iron & Steel industry.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Valin Steel A 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 Valin Steel A to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Valin Steel A can develop new processes and procedures in Iron & Steel 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Valin Steel A can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Valin Steel A operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Iron & Steel sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Valin Steel A has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Iron & Steel industry. This can help Valin Steel A to build a more holistic ecosystem for Valin Steel A products in the Iron & Steel industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Valin Steel A 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 Valin Steel A in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Iron & Steel industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Valin Steel A has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Iron & Steel sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Valin Steel A to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Valin Steel A to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Valin Steel A External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Valin Steel A are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Valin Steel A is facing in Iron & Steel sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Valin Steel A
– 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 Valin Steel A.
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 Valin Steel A business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Iron & Steel industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Valin Steel A can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Valin Steel A 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 Iron & Steel industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Iron & Steel industry are lowering. It can presents Valin Steel A with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Iron & Steel sector.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Valin Steel A 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Valin Steel A 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.
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 Valin Steel A.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Valin Steel A 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 Valin Steel A prominent markets.
Environmental challenges
– Valin Steel A 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. Valin Steel A can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Iron & Steel industry.
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 Valin Steel A in the Iron & Steel sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Valin Steel A Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Valin Steel A 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 Valin Steel A 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 Valin Steel A 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 Valin Steel A 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 Valin Steel A needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.