Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable (6869) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Misc. Fabricated Products
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable (Hong Kong)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable
2. Improving business portfolio management of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Misc. Fabricated Products sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable
Strengths of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable are -
Organizational Resilience of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable is one of the leading players in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry in Hong Kong. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Hong Kong. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable is present in almost all the verticals within the Misc. Fabricated Products industry. This has provided Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Analytics focus
– Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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 Hong Kong 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.
Learning organization
- Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry
– Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable in Misc. Fabricated Products industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable is just above the Misc. Fabricated Products 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable to provide better information regarding Misc. Fabricated Products products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Misc. Fabricated Products industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Hong Kong, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hong Kong, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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. Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring in Misc. Fabricated Products industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable is one of the leading players in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry in last five years.
High dependence on Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry, but Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable to focus more on services in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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. Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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 Misc. Fabricated Products industry.
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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry. Now Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Misc. Fabricated Products industry. This can help Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable to build a more holistic ecosystem for Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable products in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Misc. Fabricated Products sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Misc. Fabricated Products industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Threats Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable in Misc. Fabricated Products industry. The Misc. Fabricated Products 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.
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.
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.
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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable.
Regulatory challenges
– Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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 Misc. Fabricated Products industry regulations.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Misc. Fabricated Products industry are lowering. It can presents Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Misc. Fabricated Products sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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 Misc. Fabricated Products industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable is facing in Misc. Fabricated Products sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable
– 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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable.
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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable prominent markets.
Environmental challenges
– Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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. Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable 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 Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.