SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Shantou Dongfeng Printing (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Shantou Dongfeng Printing is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Shantou Dongfeng Printing
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Shantou Dongfeng Printing can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Shantou Dongfeng Printing, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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 Shantou Dongfeng Printing can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Shantou Dongfeng Printing
2. Improving business portfolio management of Shantou Dongfeng Printing
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Printing Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Shantou Dongfeng Printing
Strengths of Shantou Dongfeng Printing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Shantou Dongfeng Printing are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Shantou Dongfeng Printing is present in almost all the verticals within the Printing Services industry. This has provided Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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.
Analytics focus
– Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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 Printing 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.
Digital Transformation in Printing Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Shantou Dongfeng Printing digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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
– Shantou Dongfeng Printing has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Shantou Dongfeng Printing to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Shantou Dongfeng Printing comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Printing Services 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Shantou Dongfeng Printing is one of the leading players in the Printing 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Shantou Dongfeng Printing has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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 Printing Services industry
– Shantou Dongfeng Printing is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Shantou Dongfeng Printing
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Shantou Dongfeng Printing does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Shantou Dongfeng Printing has one of the best training and development program in Services 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 lead change in Printing Services
– Shantou Dongfeng Printing is one of the leading players in the Printing Services industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Printing Services industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Shantou Dongfeng Printing in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Shantou Dongfeng Printing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Shantou Dongfeng Printing are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Shantou Dongfeng Printing is just above the Printing Services 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Shantou Dongfeng Printing is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Shantou Dongfeng Printing to provide better information regarding Printing Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Shantou Dongfeng Printing has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Printing Services industry over the last five years. Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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 Printing Services industry using digital technology.
Employees’ less understanding of Shantou Dongfeng Printing strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Shantou Dongfeng Printing has some of the most successful models in the Printing Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Shantou Dongfeng Printing should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Shantou Dongfeng Printing has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Printing Services industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Shantou Dongfeng Printing, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Printing Services 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Shantou Dongfeng Printing, in the dynamic environment of Printing Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Shantou Dongfeng Printing has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Printing Services industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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 Printing Services industry.
Shantou Dongfeng Printing Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Shantou Dongfeng Printing are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Printing Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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. Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Shantou Dongfeng Printing in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Printing Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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 Printing Services industry.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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 Shantou Dongfeng Printing to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Shantou Dongfeng Printing can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Printing Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Shantou Dongfeng Printing can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Shantou Dongfeng Printing to increase its market reach. Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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
– Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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 Shantou Dongfeng Printing to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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.
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. Shantou Dongfeng Printing can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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.
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 Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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.
Threats Shantou Dongfeng Printing External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Shantou Dongfeng Printing are -
Environmental challenges
– Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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. Shantou Dongfeng Printing can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Printing Services industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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 Printing Services industry regulations.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Printing Services industry are lowering. It can presents Shantou Dongfeng Printing with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Printing Services sector.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Shantou Dongfeng Printing.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Shantou Dongfeng Printing may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Printing Services 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. Shantou Dongfeng Printing needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Printing Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Printing Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Shantou Dongfeng Printing can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Shantou Dongfeng Printing has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Printing Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Shantou Dongfeng Printing needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Printing 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.
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 Shantou Dongfeng Printing in the Printing Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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 Printing Services industry and other sectors.
Increasing wage structure of Shantou Dongfeng Printing
– 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 Shantou Dongfeng Printing.
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 Shantou Dongfeng Printing business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Shantou Dongfeng Printing Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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 Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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 Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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 Shantou Dongfeng Printing 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 Shantou Dongfeng Printing needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.