Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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 Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials
2. Improving business portfolio management of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Iron & Steel sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials
Strengths of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials is present in almost all the verticals within the Iron & Steel industry. This has provided Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Iron & Steel 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials in Iron & Steel industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Iron & Steel
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials is one of the leading players in the Iron & Steel industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Iron & Steel industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
Organizational Resilience of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
Analytics focus
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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 Iron & Steel 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.
Learning organization
- Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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 Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials staying ahead in the Iron & Steel industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials are -
High bargaining power of channel partners in Iron & Steel industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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 Iron & Steel industry.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Iron & Steel industry over the last five years. Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials is one of the leading players in the Iron & Steel industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Iron & Steel industry in last five years.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has some of the most successful models in the Iron & Steel industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Iron & Steel industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Iron & Steel industry, but Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials to focus more on services in the Iron & Steel industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has high operating costs in the Iron & Steel industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials is just above the Iron & Steel 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Iron & Steel industry, Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Iron & Steel industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials is planning to shift buying processes online.
Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Iron & Steel industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials in the Iron & Steel industry. Now Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Iron & Steel sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Iron & Steel industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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. Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials can develop new processes and procedures in Iron & Steel 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Iron & Steel industry. This can help Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials to build a more holistic ecosystem for Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials products in the Iron & Steel industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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 Iron & Steel industry.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
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. Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Iron & Steel 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Iron & Steel industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials to increase its market reach. Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
Threats Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials are -
Increasing wage structure of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials
– 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 Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials in Iron & Steel industry. The Iron & Steel 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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 Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials prominent markets.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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 Iron & Steel industry and other sectors.
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.
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.
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 Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials.
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 Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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 Iron & Steel 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. Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Iron & Steel industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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 Iron & Steel industry regulations.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials is facing in Iron & Steel sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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 Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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 Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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 Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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 Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.