SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Dalian Zhiyun Automation (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Dalian Zhiyun Automation is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Dalian Zhiyun Automation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Dalian Zhiyun Automation can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dalian Zhiyun Automation, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Dalian Zhiyun Automation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Dalian Zhiyun Automation
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dalian Zhiyun Automation
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Misc. Capital Goods sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Dalian Zhiyun Automation
Strengths of Dalian Zhiyun Automation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dalian Zhiyun Automation are -
Training and development
– Dalian Zhiyun Automation has one of the best training and development program in Capital Goods 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Dalian Zhiyun Automation comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Misc. Capital Goods 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Misc. Capital Goods industry
– Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Dalian Zhiyun Automation digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Dalian Zhiyun Automation in the Capital Goods sector have low bargaining power. Dalian Zhiyun Automation has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Dalian Zhiyun Automation to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Misc. Capital Goods industry
– Dalian Zhiyun Automation has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Dalian Zhiyun Automation to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Misc. Capital Goods industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Dalian Zhiyun Automation to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Dalian Zhiyun Automation has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Dalian Zhiyun Automation to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Dalian Zhiyun Automation is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Dalian Zhiyun Automation emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Dalian Zhiyun Automation has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Dalian Zhiyun Automation staying ahead in the Misc. Capital Goods industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Misc. Capital Goods 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Dalian Zhiyun Automation has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Misc. Capital Goods industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Dalian Zhiyun Automation have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses of Dalian Zhiyun Automation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Dalian Zhiyun Automation are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Misc. Capital Goods industry, Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Dalian Zhiyun Automation products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Dalian Zhiyun Automation needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– Dalian Zhiyun Automation has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Dalian Zhiyun Automation has some of the most successful models in the Misc. Capital Goods industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Dalian Zhiyun Automation should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Misc. Capital Goods industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Dalian Zhiyun Automation, in the dynamic environment of Misc. Capital Goods industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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, Dalian Zhiyun Automation has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Misc. Capital Goods industry over the last five years. Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Dalian Zhiyun Automation needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Dalian Zhiyun Automation has high operating costs in the Misc. Capital Goods industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Dalian Zhiyun Automation lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Dalian Zhiyun Automation, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Misc. Capital Goods industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Employees’ less understanding of Dalian Zhiyun Automation strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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.
Dalian Zhiyun Automation Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Dalian Zhiyun Automation are -
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 Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Dalian Zhiyun Automation can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Misc. Capital Goods 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Dalian Zhiyun Automation can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Dalian Zhiyun Automation operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Misc. Capital Goods sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Dalian Zhiyun Automation to increase its market reach. Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Dalian Zhiyun Automation to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Dalian Zhiyun Automation has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Misc. Capital Goods sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Dalian Zhiyun Automation to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Dalian Zhiyun Automation to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry.
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. Dalian Zhiyun Automation can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Misc. Capital Goods industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Dalian Zhiyun Automation in the Misc. Capital Goods industry. Now Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Dalian Zhiyun Automation can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Dalian Zhiyun Automation can develop new processes and procedures in Misc. Capital Goods industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Threats Dalian Zhiyun Automation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Dalian Zhiyun Automation are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Misc. Capital Goods industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Dalian Zhiyun Automation can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry and other sectors.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Dalian Zhiyun Automation prominent markets.
Increasing wage structure of Dalian Zhiyun Automation
– 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 Dalian Zhiyun Automation.
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. Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Misc. Capital Goods industry are lowering. It can presents Dalian Zhiyun Automation with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Misc. Capital Goods sector.
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. Dalian Zhiyun Automation needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Misc. Capital Goods industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Dalian Zhiyun Automation has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Misc. Capital Goods industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Dalian Zhiyun Automation needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Misc. Capital Goods 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.
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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Dalian Zhiyun Automation in Misc. Capital Goods industry. The Misc. Capital Goods 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.
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 Dalian Zhiyun Automation business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dalian Zhiyun Automation Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Dalian Zhiyun Automation 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 Dalian Zhiyun Automation needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.