Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, 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 -
Strong track record of project management in the Fish/Livestock industry
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
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.
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.
Analytics focus
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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 Fish/Livestock 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.
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.
Innovation driven organization
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is one of the most innovative firm in Fish/Livestock sector.
Learning organization
- Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
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 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.
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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
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 -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Fish/Livestock industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is planning to shift buying processes online.
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.
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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ less understanding of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products to provide better information regarding Fish/Livestock 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 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.
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.
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.
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 -
Loyalty marketing
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products can utilize new technology in the field of Fish/Livestock industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Fish/Livestock industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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. Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
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.
Manufacturing automation
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Fish/Livestock sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
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.
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.
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.
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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
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 -
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. Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
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.
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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products is facing in Fish/Livestock sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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. Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Fish/Livestock industry.
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.
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 Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Fish/Livestock industry regulations.
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.