Chengdu B-ray Media (600880) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Printing Services
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Chengdu B-ray Media (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Chengdu B-ray Media is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization,
increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Chengdu B-ray Media
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Chengdu B-ray Media can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Chengdu B-ray Media, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Chengdu B-ray Media 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 Chengdu B-ray Media can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Chengdu B-ray Media
2. Improving business portfolio management of Chengdu B-ray Media
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Printing Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Chengdu B-ray Media
Strengths of Chengdu B-ray Media | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Chengdu B-ray Media are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Chengdu B-ray Media has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Printing Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Chengdu B-ray Media have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Chengdu B-ray Media 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 Chengdu B-ray Media is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Chengdu B-ray Media emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Chengdu B-ray Media is one of the most innovative firm in Printing Services sector.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Printing Services industry
– Chengdu B-ray Media has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Chengdu B-ray Media to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Printing Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Chengdu B-ray Media to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Chengdu B-ray Media
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Chengdu B-ray Media does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Printing Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Chengdu B-ray Media digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Chengdu B-ray Media 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Chengdu B-ray Media is present in almost all the verticals within the Printing Services industry. This has provided Chengdu B-ray Media 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.
Analytics focus
– Chengdu B-ray Media 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 Printing 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Chengdu B-ray Media has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Chengdu B-ray Media staying ahead in the Printing Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Chengdu B-ray Media has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Chengdu B-ray Media 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Chengdu B-ray Media is one of the leading players in the Printing Services industry in China. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in China. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Chengdu B-ray Media in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Chengdu B-ray Media has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Chengdu B-ray Media to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses of Chengdu B-ray Media | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Chengdu B-ray Media are -
Need for greater diversity
– Chengdu B-ray Media 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Chengdu B-ray Media 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 Printing Services industry using digital technology.
High dependence on Chengdu B-ray Media ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Chengdu B-ray Media still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Printing Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Chengdu B-ray Media has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Chengdu B-ray Media is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Chengdu B-ray Media to provide better information regarding Printing Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Chengdu B-ray Media, in the dynamic environment of Printing Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Chengdu B-ray Media has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Chengdu B-ray Media has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Printing Services industry over the last five years. Chengdu B-ray Media 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.
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 Chengdu B-ray Media supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Chengdu B-ray Media is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Chengdu B-ray Media vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Chengdu B-ray Media is just above the Printing 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Chengdu B-ray Media has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Printing Services industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Lack of clear differentiation of Chengdu B-ray Media products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Chengdu B-ray Media needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ less understanding of Chengdu B-ray Media strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Chengdu B-ray Media 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.
Chengdu B-ray Media Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Chengdu B-ray Media 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. Chengdu B-ray Media 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, Chengdu B-ray Media 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Chengdu B-ray Media in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Printing Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Chengdu B-ray Media is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Chengdu B-ray Media can utilize new technology in the field of Printing Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Chengdu B-ray Media 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Chengdu B-ray Media 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 Printing Services industry.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Chengdu B-ray Media has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Printing Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Chengdu B-ray Media to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Chengdu B-ray Media to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Chengdu B-ray Media can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Printing 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Chengdu B-ray Media 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 Chengdu B-ray Media to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Chengdu B-ray Media 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Printing Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Chengdu B-ray Media 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. Chengdu B-ray Media 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Chengdu B-ray Media 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Printing Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Chengdu B-ray Media in the Printing Services industry. Now Chengdu B-ray Media can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Chengdu B-ray Media External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Chengdu B-ray Media are -
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. Chengdu B-ray Media needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Printing Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Chengdu B-ray Media 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 Chengdu B-ray Media prominent markets.
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. Chengdu B-ray Media 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 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.
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 Chengdu B-ray Media in the Printing Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Chengdu B-ray Media is facing in Printing Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Chengdu B-ray Media 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. Chengdu B-ray Media can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Printing Services industry.
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 Chengdu B-ray Media.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Printing Services industry are lowering. It can presents Chengdu B-ray Media with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Printing Services sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Chengdu B-ray Media may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Printing Services sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Printing Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Chengdu B-ray Media can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Chengdu B-ray Media 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 Printing 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 Chengdu B-ray Media business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Chengdu B-ray Media Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Chengdu B-ray Media 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 Chengdu B-ray Media 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 Chengdu B-ray Media 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 Chengdu B-ray Media 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 Chengdu B-ray Media needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.