Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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 Feiliks Intl Logistics can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics
2. Improving business portfolio management of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Trucking sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics
Strengths of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Trucking 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 Trucking
– Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics is one of the leading players in the Trucking industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Trucking industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics in the Transportation sector have low bargaining power. Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics in Trucking industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics staying ahead in the Trucking industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics is present in almost all the verticals within the Trucking industry. This has provided Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics is one of the leading players in the Trucking 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Trucking industry
– Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Trucking industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Trucking industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics are -
High bargaining power of channel partners in Trucking industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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 Trucking industry.
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 Feiliks Intl Logistics supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics is one of the leading players in the Trucking industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Trucking 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 Feiliks Intl Logistics is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics to provide better information regarding Trucking products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Trucking industry, but Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics to focus more on services in the Trucking industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Trucking 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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 Trucking industry using digital technology.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics, in the dynamic environment of Trucking industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Trucking industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Trucking industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Trucking industry. This can help Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics to build a more holistic ecosystem for Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics products in the Trucking industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Trucking industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Trucking industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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 Feiliks Intl Logistics 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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 Trucking industry.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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 Feiliks Intl Logistics to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics can utilize new technology in the field of Trucking industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Trucking 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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 Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Feiliks Intl Logistics can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Trucking 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 Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Trucking 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.
Threats Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics in Trucking industry. The Trucking 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Trucking industry are lowering. It can presents Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Trucking sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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 Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics prominent markets.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Trucking industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Trucking 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics is facing in Trucking sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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 Trucking industry and other sectors.
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 Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics in the Trucking sector and impact the bottomline 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. Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Trucking industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Feiliks Intl Logistics.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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.
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 Feiliks Intl Logistics 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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 Trucking industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Jiangsu Feiliks Intl Logistics 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 Feiliks Intl Logistics 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 Feiliks Intl Logistics 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 Feiliks Intl Logistics 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 Feiliks Intl Logistics needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.