Huilong Agri Pro A (2556) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Chemical Manufacturing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Huilong Agri Pro A (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Huilong Agri Pro A is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Huilong Agri Pro A
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Huilong Agri Pro A can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Huilong Agri Pro A, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Huilong Agri Pro A can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Huilong Agri Pro A
2. Improving business portfolio management of Huilong Agri Pro A
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 Huilong Agri Pro A
Strengths of Huilong Agri Pro A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Huilong Agri Pro A are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Huilong Agri Pro A comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Huilong Agri Pro A in Chemical Manufacturing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Huilong Agri Pro A
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Huilong Agri Pro A does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Huilong Agri Pro A has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Huilong Agri Pro A 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Huilong Agri Pro A in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. Huilong Agri Pro A has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Huilong Agri Pro A to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Huilong Agri Pro A 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Huilong Agri Pro A has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Huilong Agri Pro A 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Huilong Agri Pro A is present in almost all the verticals within the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This has provided Huilong Agri Pro A 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Huilong Agri Pro A have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Huilong Agri Pro A is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Huilong Agri Pro A emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Chemical Manufacturing industry
– Huilong Agri Pro A has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Huilong Agri Pro A to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Huilong Agri Pro A to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Huilong Agri Pro A 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.
Weaknesses of Huilong Agri Pro A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Huilong Agri Pro A are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Huilong Agri Pro A is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Huilong Agri Pro A to provide better information regarding Chemical Manufacturing products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Huilong Agri Pro A is just above the Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Huilong Agri Pro A is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, but Huilong Agri Pro A needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Huilong Agri Pro A to focus more on services in the Chemical Manufacturing industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Huilong Agri Pro A, in the dynamic environment of Chemical Manufacturing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Huilong Agri Pro A has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on Huilong Agri Pro A ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Huilong Agri Pro A has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Employees’ less understanding of Huilong Agri Pro A strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Huilong Agri Pro A don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Lack of clear differentiation of Huilong Agri Pro A products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Huilong Agri Pro A needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry using digital technology.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Huilong Agri Pro A 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. Huilong Agri Pro A 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Huilong Agri Pro A can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Huilong Agri Pro A is planning to shift buying processes online.
Huilong Agri Pro A Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Huilong Agri Pro A are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Huilong Agri Pro A to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Huilong Agri Pro A in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Huilong Agri Pro A has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Chemical Manufacturing industry. This can help Huilong Agri Pro A to build a more holistic ecosystem for Huilong Agri Pro A products in the Chemical Manufacturing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Huilong Agri Pro A has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Chemical Manufacturing sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Huilong Agri Pro A to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Huilong Agri Pro A to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Huilong Agri Pro A can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Huilong Agri Pro A operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Chemical Manufacturing sector.
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 Huilong Agri Pro A 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.
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. Huilong Agri Pro A 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. Huilong Agri Pro A 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Huilong Agri Pro A 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Huilong Agri Pro A to increase its market reach. Huilong Agri Pro A 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Huilong Agri Pro A 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Chemical Manufacturing industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Huilong Agri Pro A in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. Now Huilong Agri Pro A can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Huilong Agri Pro A can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Huilong Agri Pro A External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Huilong Agri Pro A are -
Regulatory challenges
– Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Huilong Agri Pro A has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Huilong Agri Pro A needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Chemical Manufacturing 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry are lowering. It can presents Huilong Agri Pro A with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Chemical Manufacturing sector.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Huilong Agri Pro A 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.
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 Huilong Agri Pro A.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Huilong Agri Pro A is facing in Chemical Manufacturing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Huilong Agri Pro A in the Chemical Manufacturing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Huilong Agri Pro A 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. Huilong Agri Pro A can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Chemical Manufacturing industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Chemical Manufacturing industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Huilong Agri Pro A 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. Huilong Agri Pro A needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Huilong Agri Pro A Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Huilong Agri Pro A 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 Huilong Agri Pro A needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.