Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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 Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean
2. Improving business portfolio management of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Textiles - Non Apparel sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean
Strengths of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean staying ahead in the Textiles - Non Apparel industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Textiles - Non Apparel industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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
– Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean in the Consumer Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management in the Textiles - Non Apparel industry
– Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean is present in almost all the verticals within the Textiles - Non Apparel industry. This has provided Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Textiles - Non Apparel industry
– Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Textiles - Non Apparel industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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 Textiles - Non Apparel 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.
High brand equity
– Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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 Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean are -
Need for greater diversity
– Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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.
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 Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean is one of the leading players in the Textiles - Non Apparel industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Textiles - Non Apparel industry in last five years.
Skills based hiring in Textiles - Non Apparel industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean, in the dynamic environment of Textiles - Non Apparel industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean has high operating costs in the Textiles - Non Apparel industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean is just above the Textiles - Non Apparel 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Textiles - Non Apparel industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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 Textiles - Non Apparel industry.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean to provide better information regarding Textiles - Non Apparel products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ less understanding of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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.
Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean are -
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 Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Textiles - Non Apparel industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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 Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Textiles - Non Apparel industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Textiles - Non Apparel industry. This can help Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean to build a more holistic ecosystem for Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean products in the Textiles - Non Apparel industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Textiles - Non Apparel industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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. Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Textiles - Non Apparel 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Textiles - Non Apparel industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean in the Textiles - Non Apparel industry. Now Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean to increase its market reach. Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean can utilize new technology in the field of Textiles - Non Apparel industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Threats Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean are -
Regulatory challenges
– Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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 Textiles - Non Apparel industry regulations.
Environmental challenges
– Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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. Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Textiles - Non Apparel 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Textiles - Non Apparel sector.
Increasing wage structure of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean
– 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 Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean.
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 Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean in the Textiles - Non Apparel sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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 Textiles - Non Apparel industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Textiles - Non Apparel industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Textiles - Non Apparel industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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 Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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 Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean is facing in Textiles - Non Apparel sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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 Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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 Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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 Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean 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 Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.