Shanghai Hanbell A (2158) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Misc. Capital Goods
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Shanghai Hanbell A (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Shanghai Hanbell A is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Shanghai Hanbell A
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Shanghai Hanbell A can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Shanghai Hanbell A, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Shanghai Hanbell A 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 Shanghai Hanbell A can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Shanghai Hanbell A
2. Improving business portfolio management of Shanghai Hanbell A
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Misc. Capital Goods sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Shanghai Hanbell A
Strengths of Shanghai Hanbell A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Shanghai Hanbell A are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Shanghai Hanbell A has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Shanghai Hanbell A 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Shanghai Hanbell A 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.
Organizational Resilience of Shanghai Hanbell A
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Shanghai Hanbell A does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Shanghai Hanbell A is one of the leading players in the Misc. Capital Goods 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Shanghai Hanbell A digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Shanghai Hanbell A 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.
Ability to lead change in Misc. Capital Goods
– Shanghai Hanbell A is one of the leading players in the Misc. Capital Goods industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Misc. Capital Goods industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Shanghai Hanbell A in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Shanghai Hanbell A 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.
Learning organization
- Shanghai Hanbell A 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 Shanghai Hanbell A is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Shanghai Hanbell A emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Shanghai Hanbell A in the Capital Goods sector have low bargaining power. Shanghai Hanbell A has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Shanghai Hanbell A to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Shanghai Hanbell A has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Shanghai Hanbell A staying ahead in the Misc. Capital Goods industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Shanghai Hanbell A in Misc. Capital Goods industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Shanghai Hanbell A comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Misc. Capital Goods 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.
Weaknesses of Shanghai Hanbell A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Shanghai Hanbell A are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Shanghai Hanbell A has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Misc. Capital Goods industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Shanghai Hanbell A 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 Misc. Capital Goods 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 Shanghai Hanbell A supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Shanghai Hanbell A is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Shanghai Hanbell A vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Shanghai Hanbell A has some of the most successful models in the Misc. Capital Goods industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Shanghai Hanbell A should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Shanghai Hanbell A has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Misc. Capital Goods industry over the last five years. Shanghai Hanbell A 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Shanghai Hanbell A strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Shanghai Hanbell A 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Shanghai Hanbell A is one of the leading players in the Misc. Capital Goods industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Misc. Capital Goods industry in last five years.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Shanghai Hanbell A is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Misc. Capital Goods industry, but Shanghai Hanbell A needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Shanghai Hanbell A to focus more on services in the Misc. Capital Goods industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Shanghai Hanbell A has high operating costs in the Misc. Capital Goods industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Shanghai Hanbell A lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Shanghai Hanbell A 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Shanghai Hanbell A is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Shanghai Hanbell A to provide better information regarding Misc. Capital Goods products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Shanghai Hanbell A Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Shanghai Hanbell A are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Shanghai Hanbell A in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Misc. Capital Goods industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Shanghai Hanbell A 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 Shanghai Hanbell A to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Shanghai Hanbell A 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 Shanghai Hanbell A to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Shanghai Hanbell A has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Misc. Capital Goods sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Shanghai Hanbell A to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Shanghai Hanbell A to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Shanghai Hanbell A has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Misc. Capital Goods industry. This can help Shanghai Hanbell A to build a more holistic ecosystem for Shanghai Hanbell A products in the Misc. Capital Goods industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Shanghai Hanbell A can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Shanghai Hanbell A operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Misc. Capital Goods sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Shanghai Hanbell A 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry.
Buying journey improvements
– Shanghai Hanbell A can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Misc. Capital Goods 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Misc. Capital Goods industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Shanghai Hanbell A 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. Shanghai Hanbell A 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Shanghai Hanbell A is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Shanghai Hanbell A can utilize new technology in the field of Misc. Capital Goods industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, 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 Shanghai Hanbell A 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Shanghai Hanbell A 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Shanghai Hanbell A 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 Shanghai Hanbell A External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Shanghai Hanbell A are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Shanghai Hanbell A may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Misc. Capital Goods sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Shanghai Hanbell A 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry regulations.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Misc. Capital Goods industry are lowering. It can presents Shanghai Hanbell A with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Misc. Capital Goods sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Shanghai Hanbell A 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 Shanghai Hanbell A prominent markets.
Increasing wage structure of Shanghai Hanbell A
– 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 Shanghai Hanbell A.
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 Shanghai Hanbell A business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Shanghai Hanbell A 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. Shanghai Hanbell A can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Misc. Capital Goods industry.
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. Shanghai Hanbell A needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Misc. Capital Goods industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Shanghai Hanbell A is facing in Misc. Capital Goods sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Shanghai Hanbell A in Misc. Capital Goods industry. The Misc. Capital Goods 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Shanghai Hanbell A has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Misc. Capital Goods industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Shanghai Hanbell A needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Misc. Capital Goods 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.
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 Shanghai Hanbell A in the Misc. Capital Goods sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Shanghai Hanbell A Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Shanghai Hanbell A 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 Shanghai Hanbell A 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 Shanghai Hanbell A 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 Shanghai Hanbell A 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 Shanghai Hanbell A needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
