SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Harbin Hatou Invest (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Harbin Hatou Invest is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Harbin Hatou Invest
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Harbin Hatou Invest can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Harbin Hatou Invest, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Harbin Hatou Invest 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 Harbin Hatou Invest can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Harbin Hatou Invest
2. Improving business portfolio management of Harbin Hatou Invest
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Business Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Harbin Hatou Invest
Strengths of Harbin Hatou Invest | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Harbin Hatou Invest are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Harbin Hatou Invest has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Business Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Harbin Hatou Invest have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Business Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Harbin Hatou Invest digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Harbin Hatou Invest 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Business Services industry
– Harbin Hatou Invest has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Harbin Hatou Invest to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Business Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Harbin Hatou Invest to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Harbin Hatou Invest 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 Business Services 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.
Learning organization
- Harbin Hatou Invest 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 Harbin Hatou Invest is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Harbin Hatou Invest emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Harbin Hatou Invest 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Harbin Hatou Invest is one of the leading players in the Business Services 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Harbin Hatou Invest in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Harbin Hatou Invest has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Harbin Hatou Invest to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Harbin Hatou Invest has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Harbin Hatou Invest to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Harbin Hatou Invest is one of the most innovative firm in Business Services sector.
Diverse revenue streams
– Harbin Hatou Invest is present in almost all the verticals within the Business Services industry. This has provided Harbin Hatou Invest 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Harbin Hatou Invest has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Harbin Hatou Invest 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.
Weaknesses of Harbin Hatou Invest | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Harbin Hatou Invest are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Harbin Hatou Invest has high operating costs in the Business Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Harbin Hatou Invest lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Harbin Hatou Invest 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, Harbin Hatou Invest needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ less understanding of Harbin Hatou Invest strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Harbin Hatou Invest 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Harbin Hatou Invest is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Harbin Hatou Invest to provide better information regarding Business Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Harbin Hatou Invest 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 Business Services industry using digital technology.
Lack of clear differentiation of Harbin Hatou Invest products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Harbin Hatou Invest needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Business Services industry, Harbin Hatou Invest 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Harbin Hatou Invest is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Business Services industry, but Harbin Hatou Invest needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Harbin Hatou Invest to focus more on services in the Business Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Harbin Hatou Invest needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Business Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Harbin Hatou Invest can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Harbin Hatou Invest is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Harbin Hatou Invest, in the dynamic environment of Business Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Harbin Hatou Invest has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Harbin Hatou Invest Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Harbin Hatou Invest are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Harbin Hatou Invest in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Business Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Buying journey improvements
– Harbin Hatou Invest can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Business Services 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Harbin Hatou Invest 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Business Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Harbin Hatou Invest 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. Harbin Hatou Invest 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Harbin Hatou Invest 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 Harbin Hatou Invest to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Harbin Hatou Invest is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Harbin Hatou Invest can utilize new technology in the field of Business Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Harbin Hatou Invest can develop new processes and procedures in Business Services 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.
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 Harbin Hatou Invest 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Business Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Harbin Hatou Invest can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Harbin Hatou Invest can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Harbin Hatou Invest 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Harbin Hatou Invest to increase its market reach. Harbin Hatou Invest 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.
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. Harbin Hatou Invest can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Harbin Hatou Invest External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Harbin Hatou Invest are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Harbin Hatou Invest is facing in Business Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Harbin Hatou Invest 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 Business Services industry and other sectors.
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. Harbin Hatou Invest 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Harbin Hatou Invest may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Business Services 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 Harbin Hatou Invest business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Harbin Hatou Invest
– 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 Harbin Hatou Invest.
Regulatory challenges
– Harbin Hatou Invest 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 Business Services industry regulations.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Harbin Hatou Invest in Business Services industry. The Business Services industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Harbin Hatou Invest 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Harbin Hatou Invest has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Business Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Harbin Hatou Invest needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Business Services 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Business Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Harbin Hatou Invest can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Harbin Hatou Invest in the Business Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Harbin Hatou Invest 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 Harbin Hatou Invest prominent markets.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Harbin Hatou Invest Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Harbin Hatou Invest 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 Harbin Hatou Invest 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 Harbin Hatou Invest 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 Harbin Hatou Invest 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 Harbin Hatou Invest needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
