SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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 Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge
2. Improving business portfolio management of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Construction Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge
Strengths of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge staying ahead in the Construction Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge in Construction Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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 Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Construction Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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.
Analytics focus
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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 Construction 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.
Ability to lead change in Construction Services
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge is one of the leading players in the Construction Services industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Construction Services industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge is one of the most innovative firm in Construction Services sector.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge is one of the leading players in the Construction 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Construction 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Construction Services industry
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge has some of the most successful models in the Construction Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Construction Services industry over the last five years. Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge, in the dynamic environment of Construction Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Construction Services industry, but Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge to focus more on services in the Construction Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Construction Services industry, Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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 Construction Services industry using digital technology.
High dependence on Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Construction Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Construction Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge are -
Manufacturing automation
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Construction Services 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Construction Services sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Construction Services industry. This can help Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge to build a more holistic ecosystem for Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge products in the Construction Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Construction Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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. Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge can develop new processes and procedures in Construction Services industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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 Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Construction Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge to increase its market reach. Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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.
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. Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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 Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge can utilize new technology in the field of Construction Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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 Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge are -
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 Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge in the Construction Services sector and impact the bottomline 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 Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Construction Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Construction 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.
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. Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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.
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. Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Construction Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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 Construction Services industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Construction Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Increasing wage structure of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge
– 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 Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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 Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge prominent markets.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Technology 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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 Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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 Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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 Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge 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 Shandong Hi-Speed Road&Bridge needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.