Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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 Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix
2. Improving business portfolio management of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Water Transportation sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix
Strengths of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix in Water Transportation industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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.
Learning organization
- Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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 Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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 Water Transportation 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.
Ability to lead change in Water Transportation
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix is one of the leading players in the Water Transportation industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Water Transportation industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix is one of the most innovative firm in Water Transportation sector.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Water Transportation industry
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Water Transportation industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix is one of the leading players in the Water Transportation 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)
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix staying ahead in the Water Transportation industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Water Transportation 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix in the Transportation sector have low bargaining power. Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Water Transportation industry, Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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.
Skills based hiring in Water Transportation industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix has high operating costs in the Water Transportation industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Water Transportation 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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 Water Transportation industry using digital technology.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix is just above the Water Transportation 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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.
High dependence on Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Water Transportation industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix to provide better information regarding Water Transportation products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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 Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Water Transportation industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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. Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Water Transportation sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix can develop new processes and procedures in Water Transportation 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.
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. Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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 Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Water Transportation 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Water Transportation industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Water Transportation sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Water Transportation industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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.
Threats Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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 Water Transportation industry and other sectors.
Environmental challenges
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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. Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Water Transportation industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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 Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix prominent markets.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Water Transportation industry are lowering. It can presents Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Water Transportation sector.
Increasing wage structure of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix
– 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 Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Water Transportation industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Water Transportation sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix in Water Transportation industry. The Water Transportation industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix in the Water Transportation sector and impact the bottomline 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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 Water Transportation industry.
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. Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Water Transportation industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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 Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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 Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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 Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix 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 Chang Jiang Shipping Phoenix needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.