SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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 Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection
2. Improving business portfolio management of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Furniture & Fixtures sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection
Strengths of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Furniture & Fixtures industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection is present in almost all the verticals within the Furniture & Fixtures industry. This has provided Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection is one of the most innovative firm in Furniture & Fixtures sector.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection is one of the leading players in the Furniture & Fixtures 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.
Training and development
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection has one of the best training and development program in Consumer Cyclical 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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.
Ability to lead change in Furniture & Fixtures
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection is one of the leading players in the Furniture & Fixtures industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Furniture & Fixtures industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection staying ahead in the Furniture & Fixtures industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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 Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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 Furniture & Fixtures 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Furniture & Fixtures industry
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection are -
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 Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Furniture & Fixtures industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection to provide better information regarding Furniture & Fixtures products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Furniture & Fixtures industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection is one of the leading players in the Furniture & Fixtures industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Furniture & Fixtures industry in last five years.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection has high operating costs in the Furniture & Fixtures industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Furniture & Fixtures industry over the last five years. Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Furniture & Fixtures industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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 Furniture & Fixtures industry.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Furniture & Fixtures industry, Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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.
Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Furniture & Fixtures industry. This can help Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection to build a more holistic ecosystem for Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection products in the Furniture & Fixtures industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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, Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Furniture & Fixtures sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Furniture & Fixtures industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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. Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Furniture & Fixtures industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection in the Furniture & Fixtures industry. Now Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Furniture & Fixtures sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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 Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection can utilize new technology in the field of Furniture & Fixtures industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Furniture & Fixtures 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection can develop new processes and procedures in Furniture & Fixtures 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.
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. Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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.
Threats Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection are -
Environmental challenges
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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. Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Furniture & Fixtures industry.
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 Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection.
Regulatory challenges
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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 Furniture & Fixtures industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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 Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection prominent markets.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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 Furniture & Fixtures industry and other sectors.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection in Furniture & Fixtures industry. The Furniture & Fixtures 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.
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. Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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 Furniture & Fixtures industry.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Furniture & Fixtures industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection
– 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 Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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 Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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 Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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 Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection 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 Guangzhou Shangpin Homellection needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
