Zhejiang Weixing A (2003) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Zhejiang Weixing A (China)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Zhejiang Weixing A is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Zhejiang Weixing A

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Zhejiang Weixing A can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Zhejiang Weixing A, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Zhejiang Weixing A 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Zhejiang Weixing A can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Zhejiang Weixing A
2. Improving business portfolio management of Zhejiang Weixing A
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Apparel/Accessories sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Zhejiang Weixing A

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Strengths of Zhejiang Weixing A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Zhejiang Weixing A are -

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Zhejiang Weixing A has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Zhejiang Weixing A staying ahead in the Apparel/Accessories industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Training and development

– Zhejiang Weixing A has one of the best training and development program in Consumer Cyclical 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.

Organizational Resilience of Zhejiang Weixing A

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Zhejiang Weixing A does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Zhejiang Weixing A in the Consumer Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Zhejiang Weixing A has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Zhejiang Weixing A to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Zhejiang Weixing A has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Zhejiang Weixing A 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 Apparel/Accessories industry

– Zhejiang Weixing A is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Digital Transformation in Apparel/Accessories industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Zhejiang Weixing A digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Zhejiang Weixing A 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.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Zhejiang Weixing A is one of the leading players in the Apparel/Accessories 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.

Learning organization

- Zhejiang Weixing A 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 Zhejiang Weixing A is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Zhejiang Weixing A emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Ability to lead change in Apparel/Accessories

– Zhejiang Weixing A is one of the leading players in the Apparel/Accessories industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Apparel/Accessories industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Zhejiang Weixing A in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Zhejiang Weixing A 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.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Zhejiang Weixing A 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.

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Weaknesses of Zhejiang Weixing A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Zhejiang Weixing A are -

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Zhejiang Weixing A, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Apparel/Accessories 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Zhejiang Weixing A is one of the leading players in the Apparel/Accessories industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Apparel/Accessories industry in last five years.

Need for greater diversity

– Zhejiang Weixing A 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.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Apparel/Accessories industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Zhejiang Weixing A 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 Apparel/Accessories industry.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Zhejiang Weixing A needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Apparel/Accessories industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Zhejiang Weixing A can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Zhejiang Weixing A 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, Zhejiang Weixing A is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Zhejiang Weixing A to provide better information regarding Apparel/Accessories products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of China, Zhejiang Weixing A needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

High dependence on Zhejiang Weixing A ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Zhejiang Weixing A still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Apparel/Accessories industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Zhejiang Weixing A has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Zhejiang Weixing A has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Apparel/Accessories 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, Zhejiang Weixing A 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Zhejiang Weixing A is just above the Apparel/Accessories 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.

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Zhejiang Weixing A Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Zhejiang Weixing A are -

Loyalty marketing

– Zhejiang Weixing A 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Zhejiang Weixing A 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Zhejiang Weixing A has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Apparel/Accessories industry. This can help Zhejiang Weixing A to build a more holistic ecosystem for Zhejiang Weixing A products in the Apparel/Accessories industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Manufacturing automation

– Zhejiang Weixing A can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Apparel/Accessories 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Zhejiang Weixing A can develop new processes and procedures in Apparel/Accessories 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.

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 Zhejiang Weixing A 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Zhejiang Weixing A can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Zhejiang Weixing A operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Apparel/Accessories sector.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Zhejiang Weixing A 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, Zhejiang Weixing A 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 Zhejiang Weixing A to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Zhejiang Weixing A is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Zhejiang Weixing A can utilize new technology in the field of Apparel/Accessories industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Apparel/Accessories industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Zhejiang Weixing A can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Zhejiang Weixing A has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Apparel/Accessories sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Zhejiang Weixing A to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Zhejiang Weixing A to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Buying journey improvements

– Zhejiang Weixing A can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Apparel/Accessories 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.

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Threats Zhejiang Weixing A External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Zhejiang Weixing A are -

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Zhejiang Weixing A may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Apparel/Accessories sector.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Zhejiang Weixing A has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Apparel/Accessories industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Zhejiang Weixing A needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Apparel/Accessories 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 Zhejiang Weixing A in the Apparel/Accessories 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 Zhejiang Weixing A.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Zhejiang Weixing A 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.

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 Zhejiang Weixing A business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Apparel/Accessories industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Zhejiang Weixing A can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Regulatory challenges

– Zhejiang Weixing A 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 Apparel/Accessories industry regulations.

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 international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Zhejiang Weixing A 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 Zhejiang Weixing A prominent markets.

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. Zhejiang Weixing A needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Apparel/Accessories industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Increasing wage structure of Zhejiang Weixing A

– 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 Zhejiang Weixing A.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Apparel/Accessories industry are lowering. It can presents Zhejiang Weixing A with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Apparel/Accessories sector.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Zhejiang Weixing A Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Zhejiang Weixing A 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 Zhejiang Weixing A 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 Zhejiang Weixing A 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 Zhejiang Weixing A 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 Zhejiang Weixing A needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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