SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for BOCO Inter-Telecom (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , BOCO Inter-Telecom is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of BOCO Inter-Telecom
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that BOCO Inter-Telecom can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the BOCO Inter-Telecom, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which BOCO Inter-Telecom 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 BOCO Inter-Telecom can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of BOCO Inter-Telecom
2. Improving business portfolio management of BOCO Inter-Telecom
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Computer Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of BOCO Inter-Telecom
Strengths of BOCO Inter-Telecom | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of BOCO Inter-Telecom are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of BOCO Inter-Telecom in Computer Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– BOCO Inter-Telecom has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – BOCO Inter-Telecom staying ahead in the Computer Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– BOCO Inter-Telecom has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled BOCO Inter-Telecom to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– BOCO Inter-Telecom has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. BOCO Inter-Telecom 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.
Organizational Resilience of BOCO Inter-Telecom
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing BOCO Inter-Telecom does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– BOCO Inter-Telecom has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Computer Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of BOCO Inter-Telecom have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that BOCO Inter-Telecom 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Computer Services industry
– BOCO Inter-Telecom has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled BOCO Inter-Telecom to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Computer Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped BOCO Inter-Telecom to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- BOCO Inter-Telecom 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 BOCO Inter-Telecom is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at BOCO Inter-Telecom emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– BOCO Inter-Telecom is one of the most innovative firm in Computer Services sector.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the BOCO Inter-Telecom 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.
Analytics focus
– BOCO Inter-Telecom 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 Computer Services 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.
Weaknesses of BOCO Inter-Telecom | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of BOCO Inter-Telecom are -
Need for greater diversity
– BOCO Inter-Telecom 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of BOCO Inter-Telecom products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, BOCO Inter-Telecom needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of BOCO Inter-Telecom is just above the Computer Services 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 to strategic competitive environment developments
– As BOCO Inter-Telecom is one of the leading players in the Computer Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Computer Services industry in last five years.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at BOCO Inter-Telecom, in the dynamic environment of Computer Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. BOCO Inter-Telecom has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, BOCO Inter-Telecom 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 Computer Services industry using digital technology.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, BOCO Inter-Telecom has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Computer Services industry over the last five years. BOCO Inter-Telecom 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of BOCO Inter-Telecom is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Computer Services industry, but BOCO Inter-Telecom needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help BOCO Inter-Telecom to focus more on services in the Computer Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, BOCO Inter-Telecom has high operating costs in the Computer Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract BOCO Inter-Telecom lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
BOCO Inter-Telecom has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Computer Services 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 dependence on BOCO Inter-Telecom ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of BOCO Inter-Telecom still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Computer Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though BOCO Inter-Telecom has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
BOCO Inter-Telecom Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of BOCO Inter-Telecom are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at BOCO Inter-Telecom 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 Computer Services industry.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, BOCO Inter-Telecom can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that BOCO Inter-Telecom operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Computer Services sector.
Loyalty marketing
– BOCO Inter-Telecom 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– BOCO Inter-Telecom 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for BOCO Inter-Telecom to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for BOCO Inter-Telecom to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– BOCO Inter-Telecom has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Computer Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled BOCO Inter-Telecom to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help BOCO Inter-Telecom to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– BOCO Inter-Telecom can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Computer Services 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for BOCO Inter-Telecom 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.
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 BOCO Inter-Telecom 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.
Buying journey improvements
– BOCO Inter-Telecom can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Computer Services 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, BOCO Inter-Telecom is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. BOCO Inter-Telecom can utilize new technology in the field of Computer Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help BOCO Inter-Telecom to increase its market reach. BOCO Inter-Telecom 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of BOCO Inter-Telecom has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Computer Services industry. This can help BOCO Inter-Telecom to build a more holistic ecosystem for BOCO Inter-Telecom products in the Computer Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats BOCO Inter-Telecom External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of BOCO Inter-Telecom are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, BOCO Inter-Telecom may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Computer Services sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that BOCO Inter-Telecom is facing in Computer Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. BOCO Inter-Telecom 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.
Environmental challenges
– BOCO Inter-Telecom 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. BOCO Inter-Telecom can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Computer Services industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– BOCO Inter-Telecom 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.
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.
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 BOCO Inter-Telecom in the Computer Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 BOCO Inter-Telecom.
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. BOCO Inter-Telecom needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Computer Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for BOCO Inter-Telecom in Computer Services industry. The Computer Services 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on BOCO Inter-Telecom 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 Computer Services industry and other sectors.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– BOCO Inter-Telecom has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Computer Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, BOCO Inter-Telecom needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Computer Services 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of BOCO Inter-Telecom Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at BOCO Inter-Telecom 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 BOCO Inter-Telecom 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 BOCO Inter-Telecom 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 BOCO Inter-Telecom 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 BOCO Inter-Telecom needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.