SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Guangdong Dazhi Environmental (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Guangdong Dazhi Environmental is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization,
wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Guangdong Dazhi Environmental can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Guangdong Dazhi Environmental, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Guangdong Dazhi Environmental can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental
2. Improving business portfolio management of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Chemical Manufacturing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental
Strengths of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental are -
Digital Transformation in Chemical Manufacturing industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Guangdong Dazhi Environmental digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Guangdong Dazhi Environmental has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Chemical Manufacturing industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental in Chemical Manufacturing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Guangdong Dazhi Environmental has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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.
Organizational Resilience of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Guangdong Dazhi Environmental does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. Guangdong Dazhi Environmental has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Guangdong Dazhi Environmental to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management in the Chemical Manufacturing industry
– Guangdong Dazhi Environmental is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Guangdong Dazhi Environmental has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Guangdong Dazhi Environmental staying ahead in the Chemical Manufacturing industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Chemical Manufacturing industry
– Guangdong Dazhi Environmental has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Guangdong Dazhi Environmental to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Guangdong Dazhi Environmental to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Learning organization
- Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Guangdong Dazhi Environmental is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Guangdong Dazhi Environmental emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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.
Weaknesses of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, but Guangdong Dazhi Environmental needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Guangdong Dazhi Environmental to focus more on services in the Chemical Manufacturing industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ less understanding of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Guangdong Dazhi Environmental is one of the leading players in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Chemical Manufacturing industry in last five years.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Guangdong Dazhi Environmental is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Guangdong Dazhi Environmental to provide better information regarding Chemical Manufacturing products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Chemical Manufacturing industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Guangdong Dazhi Environmental, in the dynamic environment of Chemical Manufacturing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Guangdong Dazhi Environmental has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Guangdong Dazhi Environmental needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Guangdong Dazhi Environmental, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Guangdong Dazhi Environmental has high operating costs in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Guangdong Dazhi Environmental lucrative customers.
Guangdong Dazhi Environmental Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental are -
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. Guangdong Dazhi Environmental can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Guangdong Dazhi Environmental can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Guangdong Dazhi Environmental operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Chemical Manufacturing sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Guangdong Dazhi Environmental has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Chemical Manufacturing sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Guangdong Dazhi Environmental to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Guangdong Dazhi Environmental to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Guangdong Dazhi Environmental to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Chemical Manufacturing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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. Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Chemical Manufacturing industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Guangdong Dazhi Environmental in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. Now Guangdong Dazhi Environmental can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Guangdong Dazhi Environmental to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Guangdong Dazhi Environmental to increase its market reach. Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Guangdong Dazhi Environmental can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Chemical Manufacturing industry. This can help Guangdong Dazhi Environmental to build a more holistic ecosystem for Guangdong Dazhi Environmental products in the Chemical Manufacturing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Guangdong Dazhi Environmental in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Guangdong Dazhi Environmental External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental are -
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 Guangdong Dazhi Environmental business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Chemical Manufacturing industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Guangdong Dazhi Environmental can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Chemical Manufacturing 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry regulations.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Guangdong Dazhi Environmental in Chemical Manufacturing industry. The Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Increasing wage structure of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental
– 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 Guangdong Dazhi Environmental.
Environmental challenges
– Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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. Guangdong Dazhi Environmental can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Chemical Manufacturing industry.
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 Guangdong Dazhi Environmental.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Guangdong Dazhi Environmental prominent markets.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry and other sectors.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Guangdong Dazhi Environmental Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Guangdong Dazhi Environmental 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 Guangdong Dazhi Environmental needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.