Beijing Watertek Information Tech (300324) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Communications Equipment
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Beijing Watertek Information Tech (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Beijing Watertek Information Tech is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Beijing Watertek Information Tech
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Beijing Watertek Information Tech can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Beijing Watertek Information Tech, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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 Beijing Watertek Information Tech can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Beijing Watertek Information Tech
2. Improving business portfolio management of Beijing Watertek Information Tech
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Communications Equipment sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Beijing Watertek Information Tech
Strengths of Beijing Watertek Information Tech | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Beijing Watertek Information Tech are -
Strong track record of project management in the Communications Equipment industry
– Beijing Watertek Information Tech is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Communications Equipment industry
– Beijing Watertek Information Tech has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Beijing Watertek Information Tech to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Communications Equipment industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Beijing Watertek Information Tech to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Beijing Watertek Information Tech is one of the most innovative firm in Communications Equipment sector.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Beijing Watertek Information Tech comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Communications Equipment industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Beijing Watertek Information Tech has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Communications Equipment industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Beijing Watertek Information Tech have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Beijing Watertek Information Tech has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Beijing Watertek Information Tech staying ahead in the Communications Equipment industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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 Beijing Watertek Information Tech is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Beijing Watertek Information Tech emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Beijing Watertek Information Tech in the Technology sector have low bargaining power. Beijing Watertek Information Tech has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Beijing Watertek Information Tech to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Beijing Watertek Information Tech has one of the best training and development program in Technology 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.
Digital Transformation in Communications Equipment industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Beijing Watertek Information Tech digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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 Beijing Watertek Information Tech | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Beijing Watertek Information Tech are -
Employees’ less understanding of Beijing Watertek Information Tech strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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, Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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 Communications Equipment industry using digital technology.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Communications Equipment industry, Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Beijing Watertek Information Tech needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Communications Equipment industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Beijing Watertek Information Tech can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Beijing Watertek Information Tech is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Beijing Watertek Information Tech has high operating costs in the Communications Equipment industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Beijing Watertek Information Tech lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Beijing Watertek Information Tech needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Beijing Watertek Information Tech supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Beijing Watertek Information Tech is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Beijing Watertek Information Tech vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Beijing Watertek Information Tech has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Communications Equipment industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Need for greater diversity
– Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Beijing Watertek Information Tech is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Communications Equipment industry, but Beijing Watertek Information Tech needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Beijing Watertek Information Tech to focus more on services in the Communications Equipment industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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.
Beijing Watertek Information Tech Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Beijing Watertek Information Tech are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Beijing Watertek Information Tech can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Beijing Watertek Information Tech operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Communications Equipment sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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 Beijing Watertek Information Tech to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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
– Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Beijing Watertek Information Tech in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Communications Equipment industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Communications Equipment industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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. Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Beijing Watertek Information Tech has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Communications Equipment sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Beijing Watertek Information Tech to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Beijing Watertek Information Tech to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Beijing Watertek Information Tech to increase its market reach. Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Beijing Watertek Information Tech can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Communications Equipment sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Communications Equipment industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Beijing Watertek Information Tech in the Communications Equipment industry. Now Beijing Watertek Information Tech can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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 Communications Equipment industry.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Beijing Watertek Information Tech has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Communications Equipment industry. This can help Beijing Watertek Information Tech to build a more holistic ecosystem for Beijing Watertek Information Tech products in the Communications Equipment industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Beijing Watertek Information Tech External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Beijing Watertek Information Tech are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Beijing Watertek Information Tech has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Communications Equipment industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Beijing Watertek Information Tech needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Communications Equipment 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Beijing Watertek Information Tech is facing in Communications Equipment sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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 Beijing Watertek Information Tech.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Communications Equipment industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Beijing Watertek Information Tech can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Communications Equipment industry are lowering. It can presents Beijing Watertek Information Tech with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Communications Equipment sector.
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 Beijing Watertek Information Tech business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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. Beijing Watertek Information Tech can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Communications Equipment 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.
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. Beijing Watertek Information Tech needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Communications Equipment industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Beijing Watertek Information Tech may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Communications Equipment sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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 Beijing Watertek Information Tech prominent markets.
Increasing wage structure of Beijing Watertek Information Tech
– 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 Beijing Watertek Information Tech.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Beijing Watertek Information Tech Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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 Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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 Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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 Beijing Watertek Information Tech 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 Beijing Watertek Information Tech needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.