SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Hebei Huijin Electromechanical (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Hebei Huijin Electromechanical is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Hebei Huijin Electromechanical can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hebei Huijin Electromechanical, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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 Hebei Huijin Electromechanical can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Office Equipment sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical
Strengths of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Office Equipment 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.
Training and development
– Hebei Huijin Electromechanical has one of the best training and development program in Technology 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.
Learning organization
- Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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 Hebei Huijin Electromechanical is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Hebei Huijin Electromechanical emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management in the Office Equipment industry
– Hebei Huijin Electromechanical is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical in the Technology sector have low bargaining power. Hebei Huijin Electromechanical has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Hebei Huijin Electromechanical to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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 Office Equipment 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical in Office Equipment industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Office Equipment
– Hebei Huijin Electromechanical is one of the leading players in the Office Equipment industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Office Equipment industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Hebei Huijin Electromechanical in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Hebei Huijin Electromechanical does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Hebei Huijin Electromechanical has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Office Equipment industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Hebei Huijin Electromechanical has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Hebei Huijin Electromechanical staying ahead in the Office Equipment industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical are -
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Office Equipment 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Hebei Huijin Electromechanical needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Office Equipment industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Hebei Huijin Electromechanical can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Hebei Huijin Electromechanical is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Office Equipment industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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 Office Equipment industry.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Hebei Huijin Electromechanical is one of the leading players in the Office Equipment industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Office Equipment industry in last five years.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Hebei Huijin Electromechanical has high operating costs in the Office Equipment industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Hebei Huijin Electromechanical lucrative customers.
High dependence on Hebei Huijin Electromechanical ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Office Equipment industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Hebei Huijin Electromechanical has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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 Office Equipment industry using digital technology.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hebei Huijin Electromechanical needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Hebei Huijin Electromechanical has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Office Equipment industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Office Equipment industry, Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Hebei Huijin Electromechanical has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Office Equipment industry over the last five years. Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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.
Hebei Huijin Electromechanical Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical are -
Buying journey improvements
– Hebei Huijin Electromechanical can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Office Equipment 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hebei Huijin Electromechanical is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Hebei Huijin Electromechanical can utilize new technology in the field of Office Equipment industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Hebei Huijin Electromechanical in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Office Equipment industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Office Equipment industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Hebei Huijin Electromechanical in the Office Equipment industry. Now Hebei Huijin Electromechanical can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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 Hebei Huijin Electromechanical to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Hebei Huijin Electromechanical can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Hebei Huijin Electromechanical to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Hebei Huijin Electromechanical can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Hebei Huijin Electromechanical operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Office Equipment sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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 Hebei Huijin Electromechanical to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Hebei Huijin Electromechanical has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Office Equipment sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Hebei Huijin Electromechanical to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hebei Huijin Electromechanical to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Office Equipment industry. This can help Hebei Huijin Electromechanical to build a more holistic ecosystem for Hebei Huijin Electromechanical products in the Office Equipment 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 Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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.
Threats Hebei Huijin Electromechanical External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Office Equipment industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Hebei Huijin Electromechanical can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Hebei Huijin Electromechanical in Office Equipment industry. The Office Equipment 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.
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. Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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 Office Equipment industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical
– 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 Hebei Huijin Electromechanical.
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.
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. Hebei Huijin Electromechanical needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Office Equipment industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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 Office Equipment industry are lowering. It can presents Hebei Huijin Electromechanical with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Office Equipment sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Hebei Huijin Electromechanical is facing in Office Equipment sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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 Office Equipment industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Hebei Huijin Electromechanical may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Office Equipment sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hebei Huijin Electromechanical Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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 Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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 Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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 Hebei Huijin Electromechanical 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 Hebei Huijin Electromechanical needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.