King-Strong New Material (300629) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Metal Mining
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for King-Strong New Material (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , King-Strong New Material is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of King-Strong New Material
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that King-Strong New Material can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the King-Strong New Material, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which King-Strong New Material 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 King-Strong New Material can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of King-Strong New Material
2. Improving business portfolio management of King-Strong New Material
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Metal Mining sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of King-Strong New Material
Strengths of King-Strong New Material | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of King-Strong New Material are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the King-Strong New Material 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– King-Strong New Material has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – King-Strong New Material staying ahead in the Metal Mining industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Metal Mining industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For King-Strong New Material digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. King-Strong New Material 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Metal Mining industry
– King-Strong New Material has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled King-Strong New Material to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Metal Mining industry. The sustainable margins have also helped King-Strong New Material to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of King-Strong New Material comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Metal Mining 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.
Organizational Resilience of King-Strong New Material
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing King-Strong New Material does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Metal Mining
– King-Strong New Material is one of the leading players in the Metal Mining industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Metal Mining industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled King-Strong New Material in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– King-Strong New Material is present in almost all the verticals within the Metal Mining industry. This has provided King-Strong New Material 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.
Innovation driven organization
– King-Strong New Material is one of the most innovative firm in Metal Mining sector.
Ability to recruit top talent
– King-Strong New Material is one of the leading players in the Metal Mining 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– King-Strong New Material has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Metal Mining industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of King-Strong New Material have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management in the Metal Mining industry
– King-Strong New Material is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses of King-Strong New Material | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of King-Strong New Material are -
High dependence on King-Strong New Material ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of King-Strong New Material still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Metal Mining industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though King-Strong New Material has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, King-Strong New Material 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 Metal Mining industry using digital technology.
Lack of clear differentiation of King-Strong New Material products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, King-Strong New Material needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 King-Strong New Material supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, King-Strong New Material is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left King-Strong New Material vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of King-Strong New Material is just above the Metal Mining 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, King-Strong New Material has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As King-Strong New Material is one of the leading players in the Metal Mining industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Metal Mining industry in last five years.
Employees’ less understanding of King-Strong New Material strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of King-Strong New Material 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, King-Strong New Material needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, King-Strong New Material is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help King-Strong New Material to provide better information regarding Metal Mining products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that King-Strong New Material needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Metal Mining industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at King-Strong New Material can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as King-Strong New Material is planning to shift buying processes online.
King-Strong New Material Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of King-Strong New Material are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for King-Strong New Material 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, King-Strong New Material 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Metal Mining industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. King-Strong New Material 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. King-Strong New Material 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, King-Strong New Material is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. King-Strong New Material can utilize new technology in the field of Metal Mining industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– King-Strong New Material can develop new processes and procedures in Metal Mining 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.
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. King-Strong New Material can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Metal Mining industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for King-Strong New Material in the Metal Mining industry. Now King-Strong New Material can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for King-Strong New Material 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 King-Strong New Material to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at King-Strong New Material 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 Metal Mining industry.
Buying journey improvements
– King-Strong New Material can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Metal Mining 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– King-Strong New Material has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Metal Mining sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled King-Strong New Material to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help King-Strong New Material 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 King-Strong New Material 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Metal Mining industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. King-Strong New Material can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats King-Strong New Material External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of King-Strong New Material are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– King-Strong New Material has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Metal Mining industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, King-Strong New Material needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Metal Mining 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– King-Strong New Material can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the Metal Mining industry.
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 King-Strong New Material.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that King-Strong New Material is facing in Metal Mining sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for King-Strong New Material in Metal Mining industry. The Metal Mining 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, King-Strong New Material 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 King-Strong New Material prominent markets.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, King-Strong New Material may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Metal Mining sector.
Environmental challenges
– King-Strong New Material 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. King-Strong New Material can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Metal Mining industry.
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. King-Strong New Material needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Metal Mining industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Metal Mining industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. King-Strong New Material 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
– King-Strong New Material 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 Metal Mining industry regulations.
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 King-Strong New Material in the Metal Mining sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of King-Strong New Material Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at King-Strong New Material 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 King-Strong New Material 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 King-Strong New Material 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 King-Strong New Material 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 King-Strong New Material needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.