SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Dashenlin Pharma (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Dashenlin Pharma is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Dashenlin Pharma can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dashenlin Pharma, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dashenlin Pharma 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 Dashenlin Pharma can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Dashenlin Pharma
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dashenlin Pharma
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Retail (Drugs) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Dashenlin Pharma
Strengths of Dashenlin Pharma | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dashenlin Pharma are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Dashenlin Pharma is one of the leading players in the Retail (Drugs) 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Retail (Drugs) industry
– Dashenlin Pharma is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Dashenlin Pharma 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Dashenlin Pharma has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Retail (Drugs) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Dashenlin Pharma have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Dashenlin Pharma has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Dashenlin Pharma staying ahead in the Retail (Drugs) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Dashenlin Pharma has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Dashenlin Pharma 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Dashenlin Pharma is present in almost all the verticals within the Retail (Drugs) industry. This has provided Dashenlin Pharma 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Dashenlin Pharma 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Dashenlin Pharma in Retail (Drugs) industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Dashenlin Pharma 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 (Drugs) 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.
Digital Transformation in Retail (Drugs) industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Dashenlin Pharma digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Dashenlin Pharma 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Dashenlin Pharma is one of the most innovative firm in Retail (Drugs) sector.
Weaknesses of Dashenlin Pharma | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Dashenlin Pharma are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Dashenlin Pharma has high operating costs in the Retail (Drugs) industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Dashenlin Pharma lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Dashenlin Pharma 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Dashenlin Pharma is one of the leading players in the Retail (Drugs) industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Retail (Drugs) industry in last five years.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Dashenlin Pharma is just above the Retail (Drugs) 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Retail (Drugs) industry, Dashenlin Pharma 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Dashenlin Pharma 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 Retail (Drugs) industry using digital technology.
Employees’ less understanding of Dashenlin Pharma strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Dashenlin Pharma don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High dependence on Dashenlin Pharma ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Dashenlin Pharma still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Retail (Drugs) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Dashenlin Pharma has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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 Dashenlin Pharma supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Dashenlin Pharma is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Dashenlin Pharma vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Dashenlin Pharma needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Dashenlin Pharma is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Retail (Drugs) industry, but Dashenlin Pharma needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Dashenlin Pharma to focus more on services in the Retail (Drugs) industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Dashenlin Pharma Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Dashenlin Pharma are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Retail (Drugs) industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Dashenlin Pharma can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Dashenlin Pharma 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.
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 Dashenlin Pharma 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Dashenlin Pharma to increase its market reach. Dashenlin Pharma 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 (Drugs) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Dashenlin Pharma 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. Dashenlin Pharma 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Dashenlin Pharma 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Dashenlin Pharma 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 Dashenlin Pharma to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Dashenlin Pharma can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Dashenlin Pharma 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.
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. Dashenlin Pharma can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Dashenlin Pharma 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 Dashenlin Pharma to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Dashenlin Pharma is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Dashenlin Pharma can utilize new technology in the field of Retail (Drugs) industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Dashenlin Pharma in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Retail (Drugs) industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Dashenlin Pharma External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Dashenlin Pharma are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Dashenlin Pharma has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Retail (Drugs) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Dashenlin Pharma needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Retail (Drugs) 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Dashenlin Pharma 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 Dashenlin Pharma prominent markets.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Dashenlin Pharma in Retail (Drugs) industry. The Retail (Drugs) 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.
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 Dashenlin Pharma business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Dashenlin Pharma 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 (Drugs) industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Dashenlin Pharma 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.
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.
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. Dashenlin Pharma 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. Dashenlin Pharma needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Retail (Drugs) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Dashenlin Pharma.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Dashenlin Pharma 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 (Drugs) sector.
Increasing wage structure of Dashenlin Pharma
– 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 Dashenlin Pharma.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dashenlin Pharma Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Dashenlin Pharma 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 Dashenlin Pharma 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 Dashenlin Pharma 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 Dashenlin Pharma 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 Dashenlin Pharma needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
