Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball (300421) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Misc. Fabricated Products
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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 Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball
2. Improving business portfolio management of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Misc. Fabricated Products sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball
Strengths of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Misc. Fabricated Products 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.
Learning organization
- Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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 Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball is one of the most innovative firm in Misc. Fabricated Products sector.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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 Misc. Fabricated Products 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Misc. Fabricated Products industry
– Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Misc. Fabricated Products industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball in Misc. Fabricated Products industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Misc. Fabricated Products
– Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball is one of the leading players in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball are -
Need for greater diversity
– Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball has some of the most successful models in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry, but Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball to focus more on services in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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 Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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 Misc. Fabricated Products industry using digital technology.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Misc. Fabricated Products 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball, in the dynamic environment of Misc. Fabricated Products industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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 Misc. Fabricated Products industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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 Misc. Fabricated Products industry.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Misc. Fabricated Products industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Misc. Fabricated Products sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Misc. Fabricated Products industry. This can help Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball to build a more holistic ecosystem for Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball products in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball can develop new processes and procedures in Misc. Fabricated 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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 Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Misc. Fabricated Products sector.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Misc. Fabricated Products industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry. Now Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Misc. Fabricated 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball can utilize new technology in the field of Misc. Fabricated Products industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
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. Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Misc. Fabricated Products industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball is facing in Misc. Fabricated Products sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Misc. Fabricated Products sector.
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.
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. Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Misc. Fabricated Products industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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 Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball prominent markets.
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 Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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 Misc. Fabricated Products industry and other sectors.
Increasing wage structure of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball
– 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 Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball.
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 Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball in the Misc. Fabricated Products sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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 Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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 Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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 Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball 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 Jiangsu LiXing General Steel Ball needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.