ZhongTongGuoMai Communication (603559) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for ZhongTongGuoMai Communication (China)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , ZhongTongGuoMai Communication is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, etc

---

---

---

---

Introduction to SWOT Analysis of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that ZhongTongGuoMai Communication can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the ZhongTongGuoMai Communication, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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 ZhongTongGuoMai Communication can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication
2. Improving business portfolio management of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Construction Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication

---

Strengths of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication are -

Highly skilled collaborators

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Construction Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Successful track record of launching new products

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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.

Strong track record of project management in the Construction Services industry

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Construction Services 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.

Digital Transformation in Construction Services industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For ZhongTongGuoMai Communication digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. ZhongTongGuoMai Communication has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.

Learning organization

- ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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 ZhongTongGuoMai Communication is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at ZhongTongGuoMai Communication emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Diverse revenue streams

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication is present in almost all the verticals within the Construction Services industry. This has provided ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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.

Analytics focus

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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 Construction Services industry. The technology infrastructure of China is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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.

High brand equity

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled ZhongTongGuoMai Communication to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Organizational Resilience of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing ZhongTongGuoMai Communication does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Innovation driven organization

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication is one of the most innovative firm in Construction Services sector.

---

---

Weaknesses of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication are -

Lack of clear differentiation of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, ZhongTongGuoMai Communication needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, ZhongTongGuoMai Communication has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Construction Services industry over the last five years. ZhongTongGuoMai Communication even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of China, ZhongTongGuoMai Communication needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication is just above the Construction Services 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.

Need for greater diversity

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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 Construction Services industry using digital technology.

Products dominated business model

– Even though ZhongTongGuoMai Communication has some of the most successful models in the Construction Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. ZhongTongGuoMai Communication should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As ZhongTongGuoMai Communication is one of the leading players in the Construction Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Construction Services industry in last five years.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

ZhongTongGuoMai Communication has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Construction Services industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Construction Services industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in China, ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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 Construction Services industry.

Skills based hiring in Construction Services industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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.

---

ZhongTongGuoMai Communication Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication are -

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, ZhongTongGuoMai Communication is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. ZhongTongGuoMai Communication can utilize new technology in the field of Construction Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, 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. ZhongTongGuoMai Communication can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Construction Services industry. This can help ZhongTongGuoMai Communication to build a more holistic ecosystem for ZhongTongGuoMai Communication products in the Construction Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects ZhongTongGuoMai Communication can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Leveraging digital technologies

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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 ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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, ZhongTongGuoMai Communication can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that ZhongTongGuoMai Communication operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Construction Services sector.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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 ZhongTongGuoMai Communication to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Loyalty marketing

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for ZhongTongGuoMai Communication in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Construction Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Construction Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. ZhongTongGuoMai Communication can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

---

Threats ZhongTongGuoMai Communication External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication are -

Environmental challenges

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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. ZhongTongGuoMai Communication can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Construction Services industry.

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. ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that ZhongTongGuoMai Communication is facing in Construction Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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 ZhongTongGuoMai Communication prominent markets.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Construction Services industry are lowering. It can presents ZhongTongGuoMai Communication with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Construction Services sector.

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 ZhongTongGuoMai Communication business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for ZhongTongGuoMai Communication in Construction Services industry. The Construction Services 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.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Construction Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, ZhongTongGuoMai Communication needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Construction Services 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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 Construction Services industry.

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.

Regulatory challenges

– ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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 Construction Services industry regulations.

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 ZhongTongGuoMai Communication in the Construction Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

---

Weighted SWOT Analysis of ZhongTongGuoMai Communication Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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 ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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 ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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 ZhongTongGuoMai Communication 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 ZhongTongGuoMai Communication needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

--- ---