SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Suzhou Goldengreen Tech (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Suzhou Goldengreen Tech is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Suzhou Goldengreen Tech can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Suzhou Goldengreen Tech, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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 Goldengreen Tech can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech
2. Improving business portfolio management of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Photography sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech
Strengths of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Photography industry
– Suzhou Goldengreen Tech has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Suzhou Goldengreen Tech to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Photography industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Suzhou Goldengreen Tech to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Photography industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Suzhou Goldengreen Tech digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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.
Analytics focus
– Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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 Photography 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 Suzhou Goldengreen Tech
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Suzhou Goldengreen Tech does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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.
Learning organization
- Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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 Goldengreen Tech is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Suzhou Goldengreen Tech emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Suzhou Goldengreen Tech is present in almost all the verticals within the Photography industry. This has provided Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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 Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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.
Ability to lead change in Photography
– Suzhou Goldengreen Tech is one of the leading players in the Photography industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Photography industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Suzhou Goldengreen Tech in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Suzhou Goldengreen Tech is one of the most innovative firm in Photography sector.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Suzhou Goldengreen Tech has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Suzhou Goldengreen Tech staying ahead in the Photography industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Suzhou Goldengreen Tech needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Photography industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Suzhou Goldengreen Tech can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Suzhou Goldengreen Tech is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Suzhou Goldengreen Tech has some of the most successful models in the Photography industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Suzhou Goldengreen Tech should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Photography industry, but Suzhou Goldengreen Tech needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Suzhou Goldengreen Tech to focus more on services in the Photography industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring in Photography industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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 Photography industry, Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Suzhou Goldengreen Tech, in the dynamic environment of Photography industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Suzhou Goldengreen Tech has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Suzhou Goldengreen Tech needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Suzhou Goldengreen Tech has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Employees’ less understanding of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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 Photography industry using digital technology.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Suzhou Goldengreen Tech is one of the leading players in the Photography industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Photography industry in last five years.
Suzhou Goldengreen Tech Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech are -
Buying journey improvements
– Suzhou Goldengreen Tech can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Photography industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Suzhou Goldengreen Tech to increase its market reach. Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Photography industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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 Goldengreen Tech 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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 Photography industry.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Photography industry. This can help Suzhou Goldengreen Tech to build a more holistic ecosystem for Suzhou Goldengreen Tech products in the Photography industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Photography industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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 Photography industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Suzhou Goldengreen Tech in the Photography industry. Now Suzhou Goldengreen Tech can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Suzhou Goldengreen Tech has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Photography sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Suzhou Goldengreen Tech to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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, Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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 Suzhou Goldengreen Tech to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Suzhou Goldengreen Tech can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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.
Threats Suzhou Goldengreen Tech External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Suzhou Goldengreen Tech in Photography industry. The Photography 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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 Photography industry.
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 Goldengreen Tech business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Photography industry are lowering. It can presents Suzhou Goldengreen Tech with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Photography sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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 Goldengreen Tech prominent markets.
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.
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 Suzhou Goldengreen Tech.
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. Suzhou Goldengreen Tech will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Suzhou Goldengreen Tech is facing in Photography sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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 Photography industry and other sectors.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Suzhou Goldengreen Tech may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Photography sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Suzhou Goldengreen Tech has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Photography industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Suzhou Goldengreen Tech needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Photography 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Suzhou Goldengreen Tech Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Suzhou Goldengreen Tech 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 Goldengreen Tech 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 Goldengreen Tech 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 Goldengreen Tech 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 Goldengreen Tech needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.