Guangbo Group A (2103) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Office Supplies
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Guangbo Group A (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Guangbo Group A is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions,
wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Guangbo Group A can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Guangbo Group A, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Guangbo Group A 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 Guangbo Group A can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Guangbo Group A
2. Improving business portfolio management of Guangbo Group A
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Office Supplies sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Guangbo Group A
Strengths of Guangbo Group A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Guangbo Group A are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Guangbo Group A is one of the leading players in the Office Supplies 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Guangbo Group A has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Office Supplies industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Guangbo Group A have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Guangbo Group A has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Guangbo Group A staying ahead in the Office Supplies industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Office Supplies
– Guangbo Group A is one of the leading players in the Office Supplies industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Office Supplies industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Guangbo Group A in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Office Supplies industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Guangbo Group A digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Guangbo Group A 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Guangbo Group A is present in almost all the verticals within the Office Supplies industry. This has provided Guangbo Group A 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Guangbo Group A 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Guangbo Group A 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.
Analytics focus
– Guangbo Group A 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 Office Supplies 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.
Organizational Resilience of Guangbo Group A
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Guangbo Group A does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Office Supplies industry
– Guangbo Group A has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Guangbo Group A to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Office Supplies industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Guangbo Group A to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Guangbo Group A has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Guangbo Group A to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses of Guangbo Group A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Guangbo Group A are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Guangbo Group A is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Office Supplies industry, but Guangbo Group A needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Guangbo Group A to focus more on services in the Office Supplies industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Guangbo Group A 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Guangbo Group A strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Guangbo Group A 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Guangbo Group A is one of the leading players in the Office Supplies industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Office Supplies industry in last five years.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Guangbo Group A has some of the most successful models in the Office Supplies industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Guangbo Group A should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Guangbo Group A products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Guangbo Group A needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Office Supplies industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Guangbo Group A 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 Office Supplies industry.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Office Supplies industry, Guangbo Group A 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Guangbo Group A 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 Office Supplies industry using digital technology.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Guangbo Group A is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Guangbo Group A to provide better information regarding Office Supplies products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring in Office Supplies industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Guangbo Group A 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.
Guangbo Group A Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Guangbo Group A are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Guangbo Group A 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 Guangbo Group A to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Guangbo Group A 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Guangbo Group A has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Office Supplies industry. This can help Guangbo Group A to build a more holistic ecosystem for Guangbo Group A products in the Office Supplies industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Guangbo Group A 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Office Supplies industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Guangbo Group A can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Office Supplies industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Guangbo Group A in the Office Supplies industry. Now Guangbo Group A can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Guangbo Group A 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Office Supplies industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Guangbo Group A 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. Guangbo Group A 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Guangbo Group A 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 Guangbo Group A to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Guangbo Group A 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Guangbo Group A can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Guangbo Group A operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Office Supplies sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Guangbo Group A can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Office Supplies 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Guangbo Group A to increase its market reach. Guangbo Group A 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.
Threats Guangbo Group A External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Guangbo Group A are -
Regulatory challenges
– Guangbo Group A 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 Office Supplies industry regulations.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Guangbo Group A.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Guangbo Group A 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 Office Supplies industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Guangbo Group A 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 Office Supplies industry and other sectors.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Guangbo Group A high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Guangbo Group A 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Guangbo Group A in Office Supplies industry. The Office Supplies 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.
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 Guangbo Group A is facing in Office Supplies 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, Guangbo Group A 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 Guangbo Group A prominent markets.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Office Supplies industry are lowering. It can presents Guangbo Group A with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Office Supplies sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Office Supplies industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Guangbo Group A can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Guangbo Group A Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Guangbo Group A 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 Guangbo Group A 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 Guangbo Group A 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 Guangbo Group A 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 Guangbo Group A needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
