SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Yunnan Jinggu Forestry (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Yunnan Jinggu Forestry is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Yunnan Jinggu Forestry can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Yunnan Jinggu Forestry, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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 Yunnan Jinggu Forestry can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry
2. Improving business portfolio management of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Chemical Manufacturing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry
Strengths of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry are -
Learning organization
- Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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 Yunnan Jinggu Forestry is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Yunnan Jinggu Forestry emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management in the Chemical Manufacturing industry
– Yunnan Jinggu Forestry is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Chemical Manufacturing industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Yunnan Jinggu Forestry digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Yunnan Jinggu Forestry has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Yunnan Jinggu Forestry has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Yunnan Jinggu Forestry staying ahead in the Chemical Manufacturing industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Yunnan Jinggu Forestry is one of the leading players in the Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Yunnan Jinggu Forestry has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Chemical Manufacturing industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Yunnan Jinggu Forestry is present in almost all the verticals within the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This has provided Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Yunnan Jinggu Forestry is one of the most innovative firm in Chemical Manufacturing sector.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. Yunnan Jinggu Forestry has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Yunnan Jinggu Forestry to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry in Chemical Manufacturing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Yunnan Jinggu Forestry has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Yunnan Jinggu Forestry to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Yunnan Jinggu Forestry does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Yunnan Jinggu Forestry is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Yunnan Jinggu Forestry to provide better information regarding Chemical Manufacturing products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Yunnan Jinggu Forestry needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Yunnan Jinggu Forestry has high operating costs in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Yunnan Jinggu Forestry lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Chemical Manufacturing industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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 to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Yunnan Jinggu Forestry is one of the leading players in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Chemical Manufacturing industry in last five years.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Yunnan Jinggu Forestry has some of the most successful models in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Yunnan Jinggu Forestry should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Yunnan Jinggu Forestry needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Chemical Manufacturing industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Yunnan Jinggu Forestry can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Yunnan Jinggu Forestry is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Yunnan Jinggu Forestry, in the dynamic environment of Chemical Manufacturing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Yunnan Jinggu Forestry has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Yunnan Jinggu Forestry has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Chemical Manufacturing industry over the last five years. Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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.
High dependence on Yunnan Jinggu Forestry ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Chemical Manufacturing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Yunnan Jinggu Forestry has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Yunnan Jinggu Forestry Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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 Yunnan Jinggu Forestry to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Yunnan Jinggu Forestry to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Yunnan Jinggu Forestry to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Yunnan Jinggu Forestry can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Yunnan Jinggu Forestry can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Yunnan Jinggu Forestry operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Chemical Manufacturing sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Chemical Manufacturing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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. Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Yunnan Jinggu Forestry can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Chemical Manufacturing 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.
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. Yunnan Jinggu Forestry can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Yunnan Jinggu Forestry can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Yunnan Jinggu Forestry is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Yunnan Jinggu Forestry can utilize new technology in the field of Chemical Manufacturing industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Chemical Manufacturing industry. This can help Yunnan Jinggu Forestry to build a more holistic ecosystem for Yunnan Jinggu Forestry products in the Chemical Manufacturing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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
– Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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.
Threats Yunnan Jinggu Forestry External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Yunnan Jinggu Forestry in Chemical Manufacturing industry. The Chemical Manufacturing 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.
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 Yunnan Jinggu Forestry in the Chemical Manufacturing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Yunnan Jinggu Forestry business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Chemical Manufacturing industry are lowering. It can presents Yunnan Jinggu Forestry with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Chemical Manufacturing sector.
Increasing wage structure of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry
– 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 Yunnan Jinggu Forestry.
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. Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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 Yunnan Jinggu Forestry.
Environmental challenges
– Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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. Yunnan Jinggu Forestry can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Chemical Manufacturing industry.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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 Yunnan Jinggu Forestry prominent markets.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Yunnan Jinggu Forestry may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Chemical Manufacturing sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Yunnan Jinggu Forestry Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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 Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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 Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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 Yunnan Jinggu Forestry 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 Yunnan Jinggu Forestry needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.