SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Pingdingshan Tianan Coal (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Pingdingshan Tianan Coal is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Pingdingshan Tianan Coal can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pingdingshan Tianan Coal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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 Pingdingshan Tianan Coal can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Coal sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal
Strengths of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Coal 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal in Coal industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal is one of the most innovative firm in Coal sector.
Strong track record of project management in the Coal industry
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal has one of the best training and development program in Energy 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal is one of the leading players in the Coal 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
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Pingdingshan Tianan Coal to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Coal industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Pingdingshan Tianan Coal digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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 Coal industry
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Pingdingshan Tianan Coal to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Coal industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Pingdingshan Tianan Coal to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal is present in almost all the verticals within the Coal industry. This has provided Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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.
Organizational Resilience of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Pingdingshan Tianan Coal does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal are -
Need for greater diversity
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal is just above the Coal 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Coal industry, Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Pingdingshan Tianan Coal is one of the leading players in the Coal industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Coal industry in last five years.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Pingdingshan Tianan Coal has some of the most successful models in the Coal industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Pingdingshan Tianan Coal should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ less understanding of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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.
High dependence on Pingdingshan Tianan Coal ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Coal industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Pingdingshan Tianan Coal has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring in Coal industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Pingdingshan Tianan Coal has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Coal industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Pingdingshan Tianan Coal is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Pingdingshan Tianan Coal to provide better information regarding Coal products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Coal industry, but Pingdingshan Tianan Coal needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Pingdingshan Tianan Coal to focus more on services in the Coal industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Pingdingshan Tianan Coal Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Coal industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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. Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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 Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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 Pingdingshan Tianan Coal to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Coal industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Pingdingshan Tianan Coal in the Coal industry. Now Pingdingshan Tianan Coal can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Pingdingshan Tianan Coal can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Pingdingshan Tianan Coal operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Coal sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Coal sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Pingdingshan Tianan Coal to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Pingdingshan Tianan Coal to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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 Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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 Coal industry.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Pingdingshan Tianan Coal to increase its market reach. Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Coal industry. This can help Pingdingshan Tianan Coal to build a more holistic ecosystem for Pingdingshan Tianan Coal products in the Coal industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Pingdingshan Tianan Coal in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Coal industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Loyalty marketing
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Coal 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.
Threats Pingdingshan Tianan Coal External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal are -
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.
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 Pingdingshan Tianan Coal business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal
– 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 Pingdingshan Tianan Coal.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Coal industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Pingdingshan Tianan Coal needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Coal 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Pingdingshan Tianan Coal is facing in Coal sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Coal industry are lowering. It can presents Pingdingshan Tianan Coal with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Coal sector.
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. Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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 Coal industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Pingdingshan Tianan Coal in Coal industry. The Coal 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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 Pingdingshan Tianan Coal prominent markets.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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 Coal industry.
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. Pingdingshan Tianan Coal needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Coal industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Pingdingshan Tianan Coal Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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 Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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 Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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 Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 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 Pingdingshan Tianan Coal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
