SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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 Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Medical Equipment & Supplies sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared
Strengths of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared staying ahead in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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 Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared in Medical Equipment & Supplies industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared has one of the best training and development program in Healthcare 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.
Analytics focus
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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 Medical Equipment & Supplies 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.
High brand equity
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared is one of the most innovative firm in Medical Equipment & Supplies sector.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Medical Equipment & Supplies 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Medical Equipment & Supplies industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Medical Equipment & Supplies industry
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry, Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry, but Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared to focus more on services in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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 Medical Equipment & Supplies industry using digital technology.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared is one of the leading players in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry in last five years.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared, in the dynamic environment of Medical Equipment & Supplies industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared has some of the most successful models in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring in Medical Equipment & Supplies industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared is just above the Medical Equipment & Supplies 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 bargaining power of channel partners in Medical Equipment & Supplies industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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 Medical Equipment & Supplies industry.
Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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 Medical Equipment & Supplies industry.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Medical Equipment & Supplies sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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 Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Medical Equipment & Supplies 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.
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. Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Medical Equipment & Supplies industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared to increase its market reach. Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Medical Equipment & Supplies sector.
Threats Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Medical Equipment & Supplies industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared in the Medical Equipment & Supplies sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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.
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
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Medical Equipment & Supplies 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Medical Equipment & Supplies industry are lowering. It can presents Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Medical Equipment & Supplies sector.
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. Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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 Medical Equipment & Supplies industry and other sectors.
Environmental challenges
– Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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. Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Medical Equipment & Supplies industry.
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 Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Medical Equipment & Supplies sector.
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 Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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 Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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 Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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 Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared 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 Hubei Jiuzhiyang Infrared needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.