Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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 Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd
2. Improving business portfolio management of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Waste Management Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd
Strengths of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Waste Management Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Waste Management Services
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd is one of the leading players in the Waste Management Services industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Waste Management Services industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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 Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd is present in almost all the verticals within the Waste Management Services industry. This has provided Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Waste Management 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd staying ahead in the Waste Management Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd is one of the most innovative firm in Waste Management Services sector.
Analytics focus
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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 Waste Management 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.
High brand equity
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management in the Waste Management Services industry
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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 Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd are -
High dependence on Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Waste Management Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd has some of the most successful models in the Waste Management Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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, Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Waste Management Services industry over the last five years. Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Waste Management Services industry, Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd is one of the leading players in the Waste Management Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Waste Management Services industry in last five years.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Waste Management Services industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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 Waste Management Services industry.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd is just above the Waste Management Services industry average. It needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd, in the dynamic environment of Waste Management Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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. Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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.
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 Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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, Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Waste Management Services sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd to increase its market reach. Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Waste Management Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Waste Management Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd can develop new processes and procedures in Waste Management 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Waste Management Services 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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 Waste Management Services industry.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Waste Management Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Waste Management Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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. Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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.
Threats Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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 Waste Management Services industry and other sectors.
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 Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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 Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd in the Waste Management Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd is facing in Waste Management Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd in Waste Management Services industry. The Waste Management Services industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
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 Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd.
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. Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Waste Management Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Waste Management 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Waste Management Services sector.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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 Waste Management Services industry.
Increasing wage structure of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd
– 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 Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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 Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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 Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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 Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd 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 Zhongyuan Environment Prot Ltd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
