SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Gansu Dunhuang Seed (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Gansu Dunhuang Seed is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Gansu Dunhuang Seed
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Gansu Dunhuang Seed can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Gansu Dunhuang Seed, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Gansu Dunhuang Seed
2. Improving business portfolio management of Gansu Dunhuang Seed
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Crops sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Gansu Dunhuang Seed
Strengths of Gansu Dunhuang Seed | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Gansu Dunhuang Seed are -
Strong track record of project management in the Crops industry
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Crops
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed is one of the leading players in the Crops industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Crops industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Gansu Dunhuang Seed in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Gansu Dunhuang Seed
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Crops industry
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Gansu Dunhuang Seed to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Crops industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Gansu Dunhuang Seed to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed is one of the most innovative firm in Crops sector.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Gansu Dunhuang Seed staying ahead in the Crops industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Gansu Dunhuang Seed has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Gansu Dunhuang Seed to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Gansu Dunhuang Seed emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Crops 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed is present in almost all the verticals within the Crops industry. This has provided Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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.
Weaknesses of Gansu Dunhuang Seed | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Gansu Dunhuang Seed are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Gansu Dunhuang Seed has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Crops industry over the last five years. Gansu Dunhuang Seed even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Gansu Dunhuang Seed, in the dynamic environment of Crops industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Gansu Dunhuang Seed has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Gansu Dunhuang Seed is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Gansu Dunhuang Seed to provide better information regarding Crops products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Gansu Dunhuang Seed needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Gansu Dunhuang Seed needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Crops industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Gansu Dunhuang Seed can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Gansu Dunhuang Seed is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Gansu Dunhuang Seed has high operating costs in the Crops industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Gansu Dunhuang Seed lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring in Crops industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Gansu Dunhuang Seed strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed is one of the leading players in the Crops industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Crops industry in last five years.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Gansu Dunhuang Seed has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Crops industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Gansu Dunhuang Seed is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Crops industry, but Gansu Dunhuang Seed needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Gansu Dunhuang Seed to focus more on services in the Crops industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Gansu Dunhuang Seed Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Gansu Dunhuang Seed are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Gansu Dunhuang Seed in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Crops industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Crops 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.
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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Crops industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Gansu Dunhuang Seed in the Crops industry. Now Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Gansu Dunhuang Seed can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Gansu Dunhuang Seed operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Crops sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed can develop new processes and procedures in Crops industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Crops 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Crops industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Gansu Dunhuang Seed can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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.
Threats Gansu Dunhuang Seed External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Crops industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Gansu Dunhuang Seed needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Crops 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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.
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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Crops industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Crops industry.
Environmental challenges
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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. Gansu Dunhuang Seed can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Crops industry.
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.
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. Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Crops industry regulations.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Crops industry are lowering. It can presents Gansu Dunhuang Seed with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Crops sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed prominent markets.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Gansu Dunhuang Seed Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed 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 Gansu Dunhuang Seed needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.