Yifan Xinfu A (2019) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Yifan Xinfu A (China)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Yifan Xinfu A is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc

---

---

---

---

Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Yifan Xinfu A

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Yifan Xinfu A can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Yifan Xinfu A, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Yifan Xinfu 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 Yifan Xinfu A can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Yifan Xinfu A
2. Improving business portfolio management of Yifan Xinfu A
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Biotechnology & Drugs sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Yifan Xinfu A

---

Strengths of Yifan Xinfu A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Yifan Xinfu A are -

Learning organization

- Yifan Xinfu A 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 Yifan Xinfu A is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Yifan Xinfu A emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

High brand equity

– Yifan Xinfu A has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Yifan Xinfu A to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Yifan Xinfu A is one of the leading players in the Biotechnology & 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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Yifan Xinfu A in Biotechnology & Drugs industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Yifan Xinfu A 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.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Yifan Xinfu A has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Yifan Xinfu A 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.

Ability to lead change in Biotechnology & Drugs

– Yifan Xinfu A is one of the leading players in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Yifan Xinfu A in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Biotechnology & Drugs industry

– Yifan Xinfu A has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Yifan Xinfu A to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Yifan Xinfu A to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Strong track record of project management in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry

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

Diverse revenue streams

– Yifan Xinfu A is present in almost all the verticals within the Biotechnology & Drugs industry. This has provided Yifan Xinfu 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.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Yifan Xinfu 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.

Digital Transformation in Biotechnology & Drugs industry

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

---

---

Weaknesses of Yifan Xinfu A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Yifan Xinfu A are -

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Yifan Xinfu A needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Yifan Xinfu A can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Yifan Xinfu A is planning to shift buying processes online.

High dependence on Yifan Xinfu A ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Yifan Xinfu A still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Biotechnology & Drugs industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Yifan Xinfu A has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Need for greater diversity

– Yifan Xinfu 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Yifan Xinfu A 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

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

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Yifan Xinfu A has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Biotechnology & Drugs industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Yifan Xinfu A 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 Biotechnology & Drugs industry.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Yifan Xinfu A is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Yifan Xinfu A to provide better information regarding Biotechnology & Drugs products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Yifan Xinfu 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 Biotechnology & Drugs industry over the last five years. Yifan Xinfu 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.

Employees’ less understanding of Yifan Xinfu A strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Yifan Xinfu A 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Yifan Xinfu A is just above the Biotechnology & 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.

---

Yifan Xinfu A Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Yifan Xinfu A are -

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Yifan Xinfu A has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Biotechnology & Drugs industry. This can help Yifan Xinfu A to build a more holistic ecosystem for Yifan Xinfu A products in the Biotechnology & Drugs 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 Yifan Xinfu 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Yifan Xinfu A can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Yifan Xinfu A operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Biotechnology & Drugs sector.

Finding new ways to collaborate

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

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Biotechnology & Drugs industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Yifan Xinfu A in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry. Now Yifan Xinfu A can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Yifan Xinfu A has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Biotechnology & Drugs sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Yifan Xinfu A to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Yifan Xinfu A to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

Leveraging digital technologies

– Yifan Xinfu 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Yifan Xinfu 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 Biotechnology & Drugs industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Yifan Xinfu A 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Yifan Xinfu 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.

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. Yifan Xinfu A can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Yifan Xinfu 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 Yifan Xinfu A to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

---

Threats Yifan Xinfu A External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Yifan Xinfu A are -

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Yifan Xinfu A is facing in Biotechnology & Drugs sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Yifan Xinfu A has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Yifan Xinfu A needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Biotechnology & 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.

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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Yifan Xinfu 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 Biotechnology & Drugs 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 Yifan Xinfu A in the Biotechnology & Drugs sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Yifan Xinfu A in Biotechnology & Drugs industry. The Biotechnology & 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.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Yifan Xinfu 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.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Yifan Xinfu A may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Biotechnology & Drugs sector.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Biotechnology & Drugs industry are lowering. It can presents Yifan Xinfu A with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Biotechnology & Drugs sector.

Environmental challenges

– Yifan Xinfu 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. Yifan Xinfu A can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Biotechnology & Drugs industry.

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.

Increasing wage structure of Yifan Xinfu 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 Yifan Xinfu A.

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. Yifan Xinfu A needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Biotechnology & Drugs industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

---

Weighted SWOT Analysis of Yifan Xinfu A Template, Example

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

--- ---