Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical (603299) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Food Processing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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 Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical
2. Improving business portfolio management of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Food Processing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical
Strengths of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical is one of the leading players in the Food Processing 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical staying ahead in the Food Processing industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical is present in almost all the verticals within the Food Processing industry. This has provided Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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.
Training and development
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-Cyclical 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Food Processing industry
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Food Processing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Food Processing industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Food Processing 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.
Ability to lead change in Food Processing
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical is one of the leading players in the Food Processing industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Food Processing industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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.
Weaknesses of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical is one of the leading players in the Food Processing industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Food Processing industry in last five years.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical to provide better information regarding Food Processing products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring in Food Processing industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Food Processing industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical has some of the most successful models in the Food Processing industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Food Processing industry, Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Food Processing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical is just above the Food Processing 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.
Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical are -
Buying journey improvements
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Food Processing 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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 Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Food Processing 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Food Processing industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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 Food Processing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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. Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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.
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. Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Food Processing sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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, Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Food Processing sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical can develop new processes and procedures in Food Processing 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 Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical are -
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. Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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 Food Processing industry are lowering. It can presents Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Food Processing sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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 Food Processing industry and other sectors.
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 wage structure of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical
– 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 Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Food Processing sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Food Processing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Food Processing 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical is facing in Food Processing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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. Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Food Processing industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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 Food Processing industry regulations.
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 Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical.
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 Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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 Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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 Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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 Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical 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 Jiangsu Jingshen Salt & Chemical needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.