Xishui Strong Year (600291) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Construction - Raw Materials
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Xishui Strong Year (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Xishui Strong Year is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Xishui Strong Year
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Xishui Strong Year can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Xishui Strong Year, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Xishui Strong Year 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 Xishui Strong Year can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Xishui Strong Year
2. Improving business portfolio management of Xishui Strong Year
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Construction - Raw Materials sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Xishui Strong Year
Strengths of Xishui Strong Year | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Xishui Strong Year are -
Ability to lead change in Construction - Raw Materials
– Xishui Strong Year is one of the leading players in the Construction - Raw Materials industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Construction - Raw Materials industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Xishui Strong Year in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Xishui Strong Year 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 Xishui Strong Year is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Xishui Strong Year emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Xishui Strong Year in the Capital Goods sector have low bargaining power. Xishui Strong Year has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Xishui Strong Year to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Xishui Strong Year has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Xishui Strong Year 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Construction - Raw Materials industry
– Xishui Strong Year is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Xishui Strong Year 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 Construction - Raw Materials industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Xishui Strong Year digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Xishui Strong Year 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.
High brand equity
– Xishui Strong Year has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Xishui Strong Year to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Construction - Raw Materials industry
– Xishui Strong Year has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Xishui Strong Year to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Construction - Raw Materials industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Xishui Strong Year to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Xishui Strong Year has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Construction - Raw Materials industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Xishui Strong Year have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Xishui Strong Year is one of the leading players in the Construction - Raw Materials 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Xishui Strong Year comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Construction - Raw Materials 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.
Weaknesses of Xishui Strong Year | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Xishui Strong Year are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Xishui Strong Year 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Xishui Strong Year needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Xishui Strong Year, in the dynamic environment of Construction - Raw Materials industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Xishui Strong Year has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on Xishui Strong Year ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Xishui Strong Year still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Construction - Raw Materials industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Xishui Strong Year has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Xishui Strong Year is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Construction - Raw Materials industry, but Xishui Strong Year needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Xishui Strong Year to focus more on services in the Construction - Raw Materials industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Xishui Strong Year has some of the most successful models in the Construction - Raw Materials industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Xishui Strong Year should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Xishui Strong Year is just above the Construction - Raw Materials 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Xishui Strong Year, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Construction - Raw Materials industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Xishui Strong Year is one of the leading players in the Construction - Raw Materials industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Construction - Raw Materials industry in last five years.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Xishui Strong Year has high operating costs in the Construction - Raw Materials industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Xishui Strong Year lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring in Construction - Raw Materials industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Xishui Strong Year has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Xishui Strong Year Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Xishui Strong Year are -
Manufacturing automation
– Xishui Strong Year can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Construction - Raw Materials 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Xishui Strong Year can develop new processes and procedures in Construction - Raw Materials 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Xishui Strong Year can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help Xishui Strong Year to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Xishui Strong Year 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 Xishui Strong Year to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Xishui Strong Year can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Construction - Raw Materials 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Construction - Raw Materials industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Xishui Strong Year 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. Xishui Strong Year can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Xishui Strong Year 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Xishui Strong Year has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Construction - Raw Materials industry. This can help Xishui Strong Year to build a more holistic ecosystem for Xishui Strong Year products in the Construction - Raw Materials industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Xishui Strong Year is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Xishui Strong Year can utilize new technology in the field of Construction - Raw Materials industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, 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, Xishui Strong Year can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Xishui Strong Year operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Construction - Raw Materials sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Xishui Strong Year 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 Xishui Strong Year in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Construction - Raw Materials industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Construction - Raw Materials industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Xishui Strong Year in the Construction - Raw Materials industry. Now Xishui Strong Year can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Xishui Strong Year External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Xishui Strong Year are -
Environmental challenges
– Xishui Strong Year 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. Xishui Strong Year can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Construction - Raw Materials industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Xishui Strong Year may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Construction - Raw Materials sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Xishui Strong Year in Construction - Raw Materials industry. The Construction - Raw Materials 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Xishui Strong Year is facing in Construction - Raw Materials sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Xishui Strong Year
– 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 Xishui Strong Year.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Construction - Raw Materials industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Xishui Strong Year can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Xishui Strong Year 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Xishui Strong Year 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 Construction - Raw Materials industry regulations.
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 Xishui Strong Year business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Xishui Strong Year has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Construction - Raw Materials industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Xishui Strong Year needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Construction - Raw Materials sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Xishui Strong Year 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 Xishui Strong Year prominent markets.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Construction - Raw Materials industry are lowering. It can presents Xishui Strong Year with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Construction - Raw Materials 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. Xishui Strong Year needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Construction - Raw Materials industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Xishui Strong Year Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Xishui Strong Year 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 Xishui Strong Year 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 Xishui Strong Year 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 Xishui Strong Year 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 Xishui Strong Year needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.