Shaanxi JR Fire Protection (300116) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Construction Services
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Shaanxi JR Fire Protection (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Shaanxi JR Fire Protection is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Shaanxi JR Fire Protection can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Shaanxi JR Fire Protection, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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 Shaanxi JR Fire Protection can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection
2. Improving business portfolio management of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Construction Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection
Strengths of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection are -
High brand equity
– Shaanxi JR Fire Protection has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Shaanxi JR Fire Protection to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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 Shaanxi JR Fire Protection is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Shaanxi JR Fire Protection emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Construction Services 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Construction Services industry
– Shaanxi JR Fire Protection has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Shaanxi JR Fire Protection to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Construction Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Shaanxi JR Fire Protection to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Shaanxi JR Fire Protection is one of the most innovative firm in Construction Services sector.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Shaanxi JR Fire Protection is one of the leading players in the Construction Services 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection in Construction Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Shaanxi JR Fire Protection has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Shaanxi JR Fire Protection staying ahead in the Construction Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection in the Capital Goods sector have low bargaining power. Shaanxi JR Fire Protection has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Shaanxi JR Fire Protection to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Shaanxi JR Fire Protection has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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.
Weaknesses of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Shaanxi JR Fire Protection, in the dynamic environment of Construction Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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 Shaanxi JR Fire Protection needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Construction Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Shaanxi JR Fire Protection can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Shaanxi JR Fire Protection is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Shaanxi JR Fire Protection needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Shaanxi JR Fire Protection has high operating costs in the Construction Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Shaanxi JR Fire Protection lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Shaanxi JR Fire Protection has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Construction Services industry over the last five years. Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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 Construction Services industry using digital technology.
Skills based hiring in Construction Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Construction Services industry, Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection is just above the Construction Services 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.
High dependence on Shaanxi JR Fire Protection ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Construction Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Shaanxi JR Fire Protection has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Shaanxi JR Fire Protection Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection are -
Loyalty marketing
– Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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 Shaanxi JR Fire Protection to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Shaanxi JR Fire Protection can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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 Construction Services industry.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Construction Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Shaanxi JR Fire Protection in the Construction Services industry. Now Shaanxi JR Fire Protection can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Shaanxi JR Fire Protection is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Shaanxi JR Fire Protection can utilize new technology in the field of Construction Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Shaanxi JR Fire Protection can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Shaanxi JR Fire Protection has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Construction Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Shaanxi JR Fire Protection to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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 Shaanxi JR Fire Protection has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Construction Services industry. This can help Shaanxi JR Fire Protection to build a more holistic ecosystem for Shaanxi JR Fire Protection products in the Construction Services 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, Shaanxi JR Fire Protection can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Shaanxi JR Fire Protection operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Construction Services sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Shaanxi JR Fire Protection in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Construction Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Shaanxi JR Fire Protection External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection are -
Environmental challenges
– Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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. Shaanxi JR Fire Protection can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Construction Services industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Shaanxi JR Fire Protection has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Construction Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Shaanxi JR Fire Protection needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Construction Services 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Construction Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Shaanxi JR Fire Protection can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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.
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 Shaanxi JR Fire Protection.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Construction Services industry are lowering. It can presents Shaanxi JR Fire Protection with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Construction Services sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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 Construction Services industry and other sectors.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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 Construction Services industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Shaanxi JR Fire Protection may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Construction Services sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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 Shaanxi JR Fire Protection in Construction Services industry. The Construction Services industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Shaanxi JR Fire Protection is facing in Construction Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Shaanxi JR Fire Protection Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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 Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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 Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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 Shaanxi JR Fire Protection 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 Shaanxi JR Fire Protection needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
