SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Lanzhou Greatwall (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Lanzhou Greatwall is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Lanzhou Greatwall
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Lanzhou Greatwall can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Lanzhou Greatwall, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Lanzhou Greatwall 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 Lanzhou Greatwall can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Lanzhou Greatwall
2. Improving business portfolio management of Lanzhou Greatwall
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Electronic Instr. & Controls sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Lanzhou Greatwall
Strengths of Lanzhou Greatwall | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Lanzhou Greatwall are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Lanzhou Greatwall has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Lanzhou Greatwall 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Lanzhou Greatwall has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Lanzhou Greatwall staying ahead in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Lanzhou Greatwall 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry
– Lanzhou Greatwall is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Lanzhou Greatwall 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Lanzhou Greatwall comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Lanzhou Greatwall is one of the leading players in the Electronic Instr. & Controls 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Lanzhou Greatwall in the Technology sector have low bargaining power. Lanzhou Greatwall has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Lanzhou Greatwall to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Lanzhou Greatwall
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Lanzhou Greatwall does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Lanzhou Greatwall 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 Lanzhou Greatwall is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Lanzhou Greatwall emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Lanzhou Greatwall in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry
– Lanzhou Greatwall has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Lanzhou Greatwall to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Lanzhou Greatwall to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses of Lanzhou Greatwall | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Lanzhou Greatwall are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, Lanzhou Greatwall 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Lanzhou Greatwall has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry over the last five years. Lanzhou Greatwall 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Lanzhou Greatwall, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Electronic Instr. & Controls 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Lanzhou Greatwall strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Lanzhou Greatwall 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, Lanzhou Greatwall 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry using digital technology.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Lanzhou Greatwall is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, but Lanzhou Greatwall needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Lanzhou Greatwall to focus more on services in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Lanzhou Greatwall 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 Lanzhou Greatwall supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Lanzhou Greatwall is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Lanzhou Greatwall vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Lanzhou Greatwall needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Lanzhou Greatwall has some of the most successful models in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Lanzhou Greatwall should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Lanzhou Greatwall has high operating costs in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Lanzhou Greatwall lucrative customers.
Lanzhou Greatwall Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Lanzhou Greatwall are -
Loyalty marketing
– Lanzhou Greatwall 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Lanzhou Greatwall in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. Now Lanzhou Greatwall can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Lanzhou Greatwall to increase its market reach. Lanzhou Greatwall 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Lanzhou Greatwall can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Lanzhou Greatwall can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Lanzhou Greatwall can develop new processes and procedures in Electronic Instr. & Controls 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Lanzhou Greatwall 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Lanzhou Greatwall can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Lanzhou Greatwall operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Electronic Instr. & Controls sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Lanzhou Greatwall 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Lanzhou Greatwall 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Lanzhou Greatwall can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Lanzhou Greatwall 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. Lanzhou Greatwall 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Lanzhou Greatwall in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Lanzhou Greatwall External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Lanzhou Greatwall are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Lanzhou Greatwall may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Electronic Instr. & Controls sector.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Electronic Instr. & Controls industry are lowering. It can presents Lanzhou Greatwall with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Electronic Instr. & Controls 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 Lanzhou Greatwall in the Electronic Instr. & Controls sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Lanzhou Greatwall has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Lanzhou Greatwall needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Electronic Instr. & Controls 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.
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
– Lanzhou Greatwall 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 Lanzhou Greatwall 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry and other sectors.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Lanzhou Greatwall can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Lanzhou Greatwall 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry regulations.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Lanzhou Greatwall is facing in Electronic Instr. & Controls sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Lanzhou Greatwall needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Lanzhou Greatwall 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. Lanzhou Greatwall can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Lanzhou Greatwall Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Lanzhou Greatwall 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 Lanzhou Greatwall 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 Lanzhou Greatwall 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 Lanzhou Greatwall 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 Lanzhou Greatwall needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.