Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas (603393) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Natural Gas Utilities
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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 Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas
2. Improving business portfolio management of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Natural Gas Utilities sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas
Strengths of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas are -
Learning organization
- Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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 Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Natural Gas Utilities industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Natural Gas Utilities
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas is one of the leading players in the Natural Gas Utilities industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Natural Gas Utilities industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas is present in almost all the verticals within the Natural Gas Utilities industry. This has provided Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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.
Digital Transformation in Natural Gas Utilities industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas in the Utilities sector have low bargaining power. Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas is one of the most innovative firm in Natural Gas Utilities sector.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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.
Analytics focus
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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 Natural Gas Utilities 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.
Weaknesses of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Natural Gas Utilities industry over the last five years. Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas to provide better information regarding Natural Gas Utilities products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry using digital technology.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas has high operating costs in the Natural Gas Utilities industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring in Natural Gas Utilities industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Natural Gas Utilities 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.
High dependence on Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Natural Gas Utilities industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas has some of the most successful models in the Natural Gas Utilities industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas is one of the leading players in the Natural Gas Utilities industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Natural Gas Utilities industry in last five years.
Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Natural Gas Utilities industry. This can help Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas to build a more holistic ecosystem for Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas products in the Natural Gas Utilities industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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 Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Natural Gas Utilities 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Natural Gas Utilities industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Natural Gas Utilities 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas can develop new processes and procedures in Natural Gas Utilities 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.
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. Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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.
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 Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Natural Gas Utilities industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas in the Natural Gas Utilities industry. Now Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry.
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 Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas in the Natural Gas Utilities sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Natural Gas Utilities industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Natural Gas Utilities industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Natural Gas Utilities 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.
Environmental challenges
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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. Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Natural Gas Utilities industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Natural Gas Utilities industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas
– 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 Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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 Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas prominent markets.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas is facing in Natural Gas Utilities 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry are lowering. It can presents Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Natural Gas Utilities sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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 Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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 Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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 Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas 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 Xinjiang Xintai Natural Gas needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.