Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, 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 -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Iron & Steel industry
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Iron & Steel industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
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.
Strong track record of project management in the Iron & Steel industry
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials is one of the leading players in the Iron & Steel 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Innovation driven organization
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials is one of the most innovative firm in Iron & Steel sector.
Training and development
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has one of the best training and development program in Basic Materials industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
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 -
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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials to provide better information regarding Iron & Steel products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the Iron & Steel industry using digital technology.
Skills based hiring in Iron & Steel industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials, in the dynamic environment of Iron & Steel industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Iron & Steel sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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.
Manufacturing automation
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Iron & Steel 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.
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.
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 Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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 Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
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. Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Iron & Steel sector.
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 Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials in the Iron & Steel sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials 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. Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Iron & Steel industry.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Iron & Steel industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Iron & Steel 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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Iron & Steel industry are lowering. It can presents Silvery Dragon Prestressed Materials with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Iron & Steel sector.
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.
