Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products
2. Improving business portfolio management of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Fish/Livestock sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products
Strengths of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products are -
Digital Transformation in Fish/Livestock industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Fish/Livestock 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.
Ability to lead change in Fish/Livestock
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is one of the leading players in the Fish/Livestock industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Fish/Livestock industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is one of the most innovative firm in Fish/Livestock sector.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products staying ahead in the Fish/Livestock industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is one of the leading players in the Fish/Livestock 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.
Organizational Resilience of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is present in almost all the verticals within the Fish/Livestock industry. This has provided Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products in Fish/Livestock industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products, in the dynamic environment of Fish/Livestock industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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 Fish/Livestock industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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 Fish/Livestock industry.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products has some of the most successful models in the Fish/Livestock industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring in Fish/Livestock industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products has high operating costs in the Fish/Livestock industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Fish/Livestock industry, Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is just above the Fish/Livestock 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Fish/Livestock 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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is one of the leading players in the Fish/Livestock industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Fish/Livestock industry in last five years.
Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Fish/Livestock sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Fish/Livestock industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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. Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Fish/Livestock industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Developing new processes and practices
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products can develop new processes and procedures in Fish/Livestock 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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 Fish/Livestock industry.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products to increase its market reach. Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Fish/Livestock sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Fish/Livestock industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Fish/Livestock industry. This can help Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products to build a more holistic ecosystem for Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products products in the Fish/Livestock industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
Threats Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Fish/Livestock industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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 Fish/Livestock industry.
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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products in the Fish/Livestock sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Fish/Livestock industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Fish/Livestock 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, Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Fish/Livestock sector.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Fish/Livestock industry are lowering. It can presents Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Fish/Livestock sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products prominent markets.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products in Fish/Livestock industry. The Fish/Livestock 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.
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.
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. Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Fish/Livestock industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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 Fish/Livestock industry and other sectors.
Increasing wage structure of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products
– 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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.