Sz Ch Bicycle A (17) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Recreational Products
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Sz Ch Bicycle A (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Sz Ch Bicycle A is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Sz Ch Bicycle A can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sz Ch Bicycle A, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sz Ch Bicycle A operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Sz Ch Bicycle A can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Sz Ch Bicycle A
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sz Ch Bicycle A
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Recreational Products sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Sz Ch Bicycle A
Strengths of Sz Ch Bicycle A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sz Ch Bicycle A are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Sz Ch Bicycle A is one of the leading players in the Recreational Products 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Sz Ch Bicycle A is one of the most innovative firm in Recreational Products sector.
Strong track record of project management in the Recreational Products industry
– Sz Ch Bicycle A is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Sz Ch Bicycle A
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Sz Ch Bicycle A 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 Sz Ch Bicycle A has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sz Ch Bicycle A in the Consumer Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Sz Ch Bicycle A has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sz Ch Bicycle A to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Sz Ch Bicycle A in Recreational Products industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sz Ch Bicycle A are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Sz Ch Bicycle A 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 Sz Ch Bicycle A is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Sz Ch Bicycle A emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Sz Ch Bicycle A is present in almost all the verticals within the Recreational Products industry. This has provided Sz Ch Bicycle A a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Digital Transformation in Recreational Products industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Sz Ch Bicycle A digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Sz Ch Bicycle A has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Ability to lead change in Recreational Products
– Sz Ch Bicycle A is one of the leading players in the Recreational Products industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Recreational Products industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Sz Ch Bicycle A in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Sz Ch Bicycle A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sz Ch Bicycle A are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Sz Ch Bicycle A has some of the most successful models in the Recreational Products industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Sz Ch Bicycle A should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Sz Ch Bicycle A has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Sz Ch Bicycle A supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Sz Ch Bicycle A is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sz Ch Bicycle A vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sz Ch Bicycle A products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sz Ch Bicycle A needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Sz Ch Bicycle A has high operating costs in the Recreational Products industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Sz Ch Bicycle A lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Sz Ch Bicycle A is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Recreational Products industry, but Sz Ch Bicycle A needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Sz Ch Bicycle A to focus more on services in the Recreational Products industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Sz Ch Bicycle A has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the Recreational Products industry using digital technology.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Sz Ch Bicycle A is one of the leading players in the Recreational Products industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Recreational Products 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, Sz Ch Bicycle A is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Sz Ch Bicycle A to provide better information regarding Recreational Products products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on Sz Ch Bicycle A ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Sz Ch Bicycle A still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Recreational Products industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Sz Ch Bicycle A has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Sz Ch Bicycle A is just above the Recreational Products industry average. It needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Sz Ch Bicycle A Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Sz Ch Bicycle A are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sz Ch Bicycle A can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Sz Ch Bicycle A can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sz Ch Bicycle A has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Recreational Products industry. This can help Sz Ch Bicycle A to build a more holistic ecosystem for Sz Ch Bicycle A products in the Recreational Products industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Sz Ch Bicycle A can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Sz Ch Bicycle A operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Recreational Products sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sz Ch Bicycle A 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Sz Ch Bicycle A has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Sz Ch Bicycle A to increase its market reach. Sz Ch Bicycle A will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Developing new processes and practices
– Sz Ch Bicycle A can develop new processes and procedures in Recreational Products 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Recreational Products industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Sz Ch Bicycle A in the Recreational Products industry. Now Sz Ch Bicycle A can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Sz Ch Bicycle A can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help Sz Ch Bicycle A to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sz Ch Bicycle A is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sz Ch Bicycle A can utilize new technology in the field of Recreational Products industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Sz Ch Bicycle A can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Recreational Products 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Sz Ch Bicycle A can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Threats Sz Ch Bicycle A External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Sz Ch Bicycle A are -
Regulatory challenges
– Sz Ch Bicycle A needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Recreational Products industry regulations.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sz Ch Bicycle A is facing in Recreational Products sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Sz Ch Bicycle A.
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 Sz Ch Bicycle A business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Sz Ch Bicycle A
– 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 Sz Ch Bicycle A.
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. Sz Ch Bicycle A will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sz Ch Bicycle A can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the Recreational Products industry.
Environmental challenges
– Sz Ch Bicycle A 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. Sz Ch Bicycle A can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Recreational Products industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sz Ch Bicycle A can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate Sz Ch Bicycle A prominent markets.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Recreational Products industry are lowering. It can presents Sz Ch Bicycle A with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Recreational Products sector.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Sz Ch Bicycle A in the Recreational Products sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sz Ch Bicycle A in Recreational Products industry. The Recreational Products 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sz Ch Bicycle A Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Sz Ch Bicycle A needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of Sz Ch Bicycle A is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of Sz Ch Bicycle A is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Sz Ch Bicycle A to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Sz Ch Bicycle A needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.