Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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 Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Electronic Instr. & Controls sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass
Strengths of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass are -
Ability to lead change in Electronic Instr. & Controls
– Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass is one of the leading players in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass is present in almost all the verticals within the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. This has provided Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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 Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Electronic Instr. & Controls 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 Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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.
Training and development
– Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass has one of the best training and development program in Technology 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass is one of the leading players in the Electronic Instr. & Controls 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass in the Technology sector have low bargaining power. Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry
– Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, but Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass to focus more on services in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry.
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 Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass has some of the most successful models in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ less understanding of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Skills based hiring in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass, in the dynamic environment of Electronic Instr. & Controls industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry using digital technology.
Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass can utilize new technology in the field of Electronic Instr. & Controls industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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 Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Electronic Instr. & Controls 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Electronic Instr. & Controls sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass can develop new processes and procedures in Electronic Instr. & Controls 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 Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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 Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. Now Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Electronic Instr. & Controls sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. The Electronic Instr. & Controls 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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Electronic Instr. & Controls industry are lowering. It can presents Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Electronic Instr. & Controls sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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. Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Electronic Instr. & Controls 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 Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass is facing in Electronic Instr. & Controls sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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 Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass prominent markets.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Electronic Instr. & Controls sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry and other sectors.
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 Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass in the Electronic Instr. & Controls sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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 Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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 Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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 Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass 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 Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
