Yangzhou Asiastar Bus (600213) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Auto & Truck Manufacturers
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Yangzhou Asiastar Bus (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Yangzhou Asiastar Bus is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Yangzhou Asiastar Bus can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Yangzhou Asiastar Bus, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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 Yangzhou Asiastar Bus can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus
2. Improving business portfolio management of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus
Strengths of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus are -
Learning organization
- Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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 Yangzhou Asiastar Bus is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Yangzhou Asiastar Bus emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus has one of the best training and development program in Consumer Cyclical 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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.
Digital Transformation in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Yangzhou Asiastar Bus digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Yangzhou Asiastar Bus staying ahead in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Auto & Truck Manufacturers
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus is one of the leading players in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Yangzhou Asiastar Bus in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus is one of the leading players in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus is one of the most innovative firm in Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus in the Consumer Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Yangzhou Asiastar Bus to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Yangzhou Asiastar Bus needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry, Yangzhou Asiastar Bus needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Yangzhou Asiastar Bus has some of the most successful models in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry using digital technology.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Yangzhou Asiastar Bus needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Yangzhou Asiastar Bus, in the dynamic environment of Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Yangzhou Asiastar Bus has high operating costs in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Yangzhou Asiastar Bus lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Yangzhou Asiastar Bus has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry over the last five years. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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.
Yangzhou Asiastar Bus Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus are -
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 Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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.
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. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Yangzhou Asiastar Bus to increase its market reach. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Yangzhou Asiastar Bus to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Yangzhou Asiastar Bus to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Yangzhou Asiastar Bus can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Yangzhou Asiastar Bus operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Yangzhou Asiastar Bus is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus can utilize new technology in the field of Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
Threats Yangzhou Asiastar Bus External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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 Yangzhou Asiastar Bus prominent markets.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Yangzhou Asiastar Bus needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Yangzhou Asiastar Bus may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus
– 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 Yangzhou Asiastar Bus.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Yangzhou Asiastar Bus is facing in Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry.
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. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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.
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. Yangzhou Asiastar Bus needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
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 Yangzhou Asiastar Bus business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Yangzhou Asiastar Bus.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Yangzhou Asiastar Bus Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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 Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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 Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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 Yangzhou Asiastar Bus 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 Yangzhou Asiastar Bus needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.