SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Tus-Sound Environmental (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Tus-Sound Environmental is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, 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, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Tus-Sound Environmental
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Tus-Sound Environmental can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tus-Sound Environmental, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Tus-Sound Environmental can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Tus-Sound Environmental
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tus-Sound Environmental
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Water Utilities sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Tus-Sound Environmental
Strengths of Tus-Sound Environmental | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tus-Sound Environmental are -
Training and development
– Tus-Sound Environmental 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.
Learning organization
- Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Tus-Sound Environmental is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Tus-Sound Environmental emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Tus-Sound Environmental has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Tus-Sound Environmental staying ahead in the Water Utilities industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management in the Water Utilities industry
– Tus-Sound Environmental is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Water 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.
Organizational Resilience of Tus-Sound Environmental
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Tus-Sound Environmental in Water Utilities industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Tus-Sound Environmental has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Water Utilities
– Tus-Sound Environmental is one of the leading players in the Water Utilities industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Water Utilities industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Tus-Sound Environmental in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Tus-Sound Environmental is present in almost all the verticals within the Water Utilities industry. This has provided Tus-Sound Environmental 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Tus-Sound Environmental has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Water Utilities industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Tus-Sound Environmental have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Tus-Sound Environmental is one of the leading players in the Water 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.
Weaknesses of Tus-Sound Environmental | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Tus-Sound Environmental are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Tus-Sound Environmental is one of the leading players in the Water Utilities industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Water Utilities industry in last five years.
Employees’ less understanding of Tus-Sound Environmental strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Tus-Sound Environmental 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Water Utilities industry using digital technology.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Tus-Sound Environmental 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Tus-Sound Environmental has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Water Utilities industry over the last five years. Tus-Sound Environmental 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Tus-Sound Environmental is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Tus-Sound Environmental to provide better information regarding Water Utilities products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Tus-Sound Environmental needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Water Utilities industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Tus-Sound Environmental can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Tus-Sound Environmental is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Tus-Sound Environmental ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Tus-Sound Environmental still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Water Utilities industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Tus-Sound Environmental has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Tus-Sound Environmental, in the dynamic environment of Water Utilities industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Tus-Sound Environmental has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Tus-Sound Environmental has some of the most successful models in the Water Utilities industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Tus-Sound Environmental should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Tus-Sound Environmental Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Tus-Sound Environmental are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Tus-Sound Environmental in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Water Utilities industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Water Utilities industry.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Water Utilities industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Tus-Sound Environmental can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Water Utilities industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Tus-Sound Environmental 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. Tus-Sound Environmental 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Tus-Sound Environmental can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Water Utilities 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Tus-Sound Environmental 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Tus-Sound Environmental 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Tus-Sound Environmental 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. Tus-Sound Environmental can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Tus-Sound Environmental can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Tus-Sound Environmental to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Tus-Sound Environmental can develop new processes and procedures in Water 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Tus-Sound Environmental has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Water Utilities industry. This can help Tus-Sound Environmental to build a more holistic ecosystem for Tus-Sound Environmental products in the Water Utilities industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Tus-Sound Environmental External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Tus-Sound Environmental are -
Environmental challenges
– Tus-Sound Environmental 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. Tus-Sound Environmental can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Water Utilities industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Tus-Sound Environmental is facing in Water Utilities sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Tus-Sound Environmental has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Water Utilities industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Tus-Sound Environmental needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Water 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.
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 Tus-Sound Environmental business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Tus-Sound Environmental may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Water Utilities sector.
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. Tus-Sound Environmental needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Water Utilities industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Water Utilities industry are lowering. It can presents Tus-Sound Environmental with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Water Utilities sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Water Utilities industry regulations.
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 Tus-Sound Environmental in the Water Utilities sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Water Utilities industry and other sectors.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Water Utilities industry.
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. Tus-Sound Environmental 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Tus-Sound Environmental Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Tus-Sound Environmental 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 Tus-Sound Environmental needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.