Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical (300655) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Chemical Manufacturing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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 Crystal Clear Chemical can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical
2. Improving business portfolio management of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical
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 Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical
Strengths of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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 Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical in Chemical Manufacturing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical is one of the leading players in the Chemical Manufacturing 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Training and development
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical has one of the best training and development program in Basic Materials 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.
Digital Transformation in Chemical Manufacturing industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical is one of the most innovative firm in Chemical Manufacturing sector.
Diverse revenue streams
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical is present in almost all the verticals within the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This has provided Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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 Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Chemical Manufacturing industry over the last five years. Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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 Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry using digital technology.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical, in the dynamic environment of Chemical Manufacturing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Chemical Manufacturing industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, but Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical to focus more on services in the Chemical Manufacturing industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Chemical Manufacturing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Chemical Manufacturing sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical can develop new processes and procedures in Chemical Manufacturing 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.
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. Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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 Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical can utilize new technology in the field of Chemical Manufacturing industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Chemical Manufacturing industry. This can help Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical to build a more holistic ecosystem for Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical products in the Chemical Manufacturing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical to increase its market reach. Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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 Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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 Crystal Clear Chemical 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 Crystal Clear Chemical to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Increasing wage structure of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Chemical Manufacturing sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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.
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.
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. Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Crystal Clear Chemical.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Chemical Manufacturing industry are lowering. It can presents Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Chemical Manufacturing sector.
Environmental challenges
– Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Chemical Manufacturing industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical is facing in Chemical Manufacturing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Suzhou Crystal Clear Chemical 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 Crystal Clear Chemical 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 Crystal Clear Chemical 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 Crystal Clear Chemical 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 Crystal Clear Chemical needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.