SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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 Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng
2. Improving business portfolio management of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Major Drugs sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng
Strengths of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng staying ahead in the Major Drugs industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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 Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Major Drugs industry
– Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Major Drugs industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng in the Healthcare sector have low bargaining power. Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng is one of the most innovative firm in Major Drugs sector.
Digital Transformation in Major Drugs industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Major Drugs industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng is one of the leading players in the Major Drugs 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.
High brand equity
– Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Major Drugs 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 Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Major Drugs industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng has high operating costs in the Major Drugs industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Major Drugs industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Lack of clear differentiation of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ less understanding of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Major Drugs 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Major Drugs industry, but Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng to focus more on services in the Major Drugs industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Major Drugs industry over the last five years. Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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 Major Drugs industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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 Major Drugs industry.
High dependence on Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Major Drugs industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Major Drugs industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Major Drugs industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Major Drugs sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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 Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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 Major Drugs industry.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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 Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng to increase its market reach. Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng can utilize new technology in the field of Major Drugs industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Major Drugs sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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.
Threats Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng are -
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. Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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
– Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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 Major Drugs industry.
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 Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng in the Major Drugs sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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 Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng prominent markets.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng is facing in Major Drugs sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Major Drugs industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Major Drugs industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Major Drugs 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Major Drugs industry are lowering. It can presents Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Major Drugs sector.
Increasing wage structure of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng
– 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 Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng.
Environmental challenges
– Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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. Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Major Drugs industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng in Major Drugs industry. The Major Drugs 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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 Major Drugs industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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 Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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 Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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 Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng 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 Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.