SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Shaanxi Heimao Coking (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Shaanxi Heimao Coking is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Shaanxi Heimao Coking
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Shaanxi Heimao Coking can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Shaanxi Heimao Coking, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Shaanxi Heimao Coking can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Shaanxi Heimao Coking
2. Improving business portfolio management of Shaanxi Heimao Coking
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Oil & Gas Operations sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Shaanxi Heimao Coking
Strengths of Shaanxi Heimao Coking | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Shaanxi Heimao Coking are -
Learning organization
- Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Shaanxi Heimao Coking is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Shaanxi Heimao Coking emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Oil & Gas Operations industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Shaanxi Heimao Coking have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Shaanxi Heimao Coking in the Energy sector have low bargaining power. Shaanxi Heimao Coking has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Shaanxi Heimao Coking to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management in the Oil & Gas Operations industry
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Shaanxi Heimao Coking to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Oil & Gas Operations industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Shaanxi Heimao Coking digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Shaanxi Heimao Coking in Oil & Gas Operations industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Oil & Gas Operations
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking is one of the leading players in the Oil & Gas Operations industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Oil & Gas Operations industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Shaanxi Heimao Coking in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Shaanxi Heimao Coking staying ahead in the Oil & Gas Operations industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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.
Weaknesses of Shaanxi Heimao Coking | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Shaanxi Heimao Coking are -
High bargaining power of channel partners in Oil & Gas Operations industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Oil & Gas Operations industry.
Lack of clear differentiation of Shaanxi Heimao Coking products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Shaanxi Heimao Coking needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Shaanxi Heimao Coking is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Oil & Gas Operations industry, but Shaanxi Heimao Coking needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Shaanxi Heimao Coking to focus more on services in the Oil & Gas Operations industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Shaanxi Heimao Coking, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Oil & Gas Operations 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Shaanxi Heimao Coking needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Oil & Gas Operations industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Shaanxi Heimao Coking can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Shaanxi Heimao Coking is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Shaanxi Heimao Coking is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Shaanxi Heimao Coking to provide better information regarding Oil & Gas Operations products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Shaanxi Heimao Coking has high operating costs in the Oil & Gas Operations industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Shaanxi Heimao Coking lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Shaanxi Heimao Coking has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Oil & Gas Operations industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Need for greater diversity
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Oil & Gas Operations industry using digital technology.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Shaanxi Heimao Coking needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Shaanxi Heimao Coking Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Shaanxi Heimao Coking are -
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. Shaanxi Heimao Coking can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Shaanxi Heimao Coking can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Oil & Gas Operations industry.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Oil & Gas Operations sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Shaanxi Heimao Coking to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Shaanxi Heimao Coking to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Oil & Gas Operations 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Oil & Gas Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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. Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Shaanxi Heimao Coking to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Oil & Gas Operations 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Oil & Gas Operations industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Shaanxi Heimao Coking in the Oil & Gas Operations industry. Now Shaanxi Heimao Coking can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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.
Threats Shaanxi Heimao Coking External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Oil & Gas Operations industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Oil & Gas Operations industry and other sectors.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Shaanxi Heimao Coking is facing in Oil & Gas Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Oil & Gas Operations industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Shaanxi Heimao Coking prominent markets.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Shaanxi Heimao Coking may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Oil & Gas Operations sector.
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 Shaanxi Heimao Coking in the Oil & Gas Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Shaanxi Heimao Coking.
Increasing wage structure of Shaanxi Heimao Coking
– 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 Shaanxi Heimao Coking.
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. Shaanxi Heimao Coking needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Oil & Gas Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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. Shaanxi Heimao Coking can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Oil & Gas Operations industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Oil & Gas Operations industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Shaanxi Heimao Coking can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Shaanxi Heimao Coking Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Shaanxi Heimao Coking 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 Shaanxi Heimao Coking needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.