Fiyta (200026) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Fiyta (China)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Fiyta is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Fiyta

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Fiyta can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fiyta, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fiyta 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Fiyta can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Fiyta
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fiyta
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Jewelry & Silverware sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Fiyta

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

The strengths of Fiyta are -

Ability to lead change in Jewelry & Silverware

– Fiyta is one of the leading players in the Jewelry & Silverware industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Jewelry & Silverware industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Fiyta in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Jewelry & Silverware industry

– Fiyta has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fiyta to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Jewelry & Silverware industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fiyta to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Diverse revenue streams

– Fiyta is present in almost all the verticals within the Jewelry & Silverware industry. This has provided Fiyta 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Fiyta 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.

Training and development

– Fiyta has one of the best training and development program in Consumer 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.

Strong track record of project management in the Jewelry & Silverware industry

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

Ability to recruit top talent

– Fiyta is one of the leading players in the Jewelry & Silverware 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.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Fiyta 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.

Digital Transformation in Jewelry & Silverware industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Fiyta digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Fiyta 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

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

Highly skilled collaborators

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

High brand equity

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

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

The weaknesses of Fiyta are -

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Fiyta has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Jewelry & Silverware industry over the last five years. Fiyta 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Fiyta is just above the Jewelry & Silverware 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.

Employees’ less understanding of Fiyta strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Fiyta 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.

Skills based hiring in Jewelry & Silverware industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fiyta 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Jewelry & Silverware industry, Fiyta 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.

Need for greater diversity

– Fiyta 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.

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Fiyta, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Jewelry & Silverware 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.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Fiyta has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Jewelry & Silverware industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Fiyta needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Jewelry & Silverware industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Fiyta can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Fiyta is planning to shift buying processes online.

Products dominated business model

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

High dependence on Fiyta ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Fiyta still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Jewelry & Silverware industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Fiyta has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

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

The opportunities of Fiyta are -

Low interest rates

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

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Fiyta 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 Jewelry & Silverware industry.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

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

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Jewelry & Silverware industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Fiyta 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. Fiyta 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

– Fiyta has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Jewelry & Silverware sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Fiyta to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Fiyta to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Loyalty marketing

– Fiyta 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fiyta 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 Fiyta to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Fiyta to increase its market reach. Fiyta will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Jewelry & Silverware industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Fiyta in the Jewelry & Silverware industry. Now Fiyta can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Fiyta is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Fiyta can utilize new technology in the field of Jewelry & Silverware industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fiyta 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.

Creating value in data economy

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

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

The threats of Fiyta are -

Consumer confidence and its impact on Fiyta 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 Jewelry & Silverware industry and other sectors.

Increasing wage structure of Fiyta

– 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 Fiyta.

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. Fiyta needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Jewelry & Silverware industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

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.

Barriers of entry lowering

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

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fiyta in Jewelry & Silverware industry. The Jewelry & Silverware 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

– Fiyta 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.

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 Fiyta in the Jewelry & Silverware sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Fiyta has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Jewelry & Silverware industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fiyta needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Jewelry & Silverware 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.

Environmental challenges

– Fiyta 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. Fiyta can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Jewelry & Silverware industry.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

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

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

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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Fiyta Template, Example

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

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