SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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 Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical
2. Improving business portfolio management of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Electric Utilities sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical
Strengths of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical are -
High brand equity
– Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Electric Utilities industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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.
Analytics focus
– Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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 Electric Utilities 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Electric Utilities industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical in the Utilities sector have low bargaining power. Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Electric Utilities 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
– Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical is one of the leading players in the Electric Utilities 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical is present in almost all the verticals within the Electric Utilities industry. This has provided Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Electric Utilities industry
– Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Electric Utilities industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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 Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Electric Utilities industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring in Electric Utilities industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Electric Utilities industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical is just above the Electric Utilities 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Electric Utilities industry over the last five years. Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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 Electric Utilities industry using digital technology.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical, in the dynamic environment of Electric Utilities industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Electric Utilities 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Electric Utilities industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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 Electric Utilities industry.
Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical can utilize new technology in the field of Electric Utilities industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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 Electric Utilities industry.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Electric Utilities 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Electric Utilities industry. This can help Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical to build a more holistic ecosystem for Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical products in the Electric Utilities industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical can develop new processes and procedures in Electric Utilities 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Electric Utilities sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Electric Utilities 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Electric Utilities industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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. Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Electric Utilities industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical in the Electric Utilities industry. Now Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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 Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical to increase its market reach. Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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.
Threats Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical are -
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. Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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.
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 Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Electric Utilities industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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 Electric Utilities industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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 Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical prominent markets.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Electric Utilities industry are lowering. It can presents Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Electric Utilities sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical in Electric Utilities industry. The Electric Utilities 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.
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 Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical is facing in Electric Utilities 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. Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Electric Utilities industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical in the Electric Utilities sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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 Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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 Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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 Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical 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 Harbin Jiuzhou Electrical needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.