China Aluminum Intl Engineering (2068) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Business Services
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for China Aluminum Intl Engineering (Hong Kong)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , China Aluminum Intl Engineering is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of China Aluminum Intl Engineering
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that China Aluminum Intl Engineering can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the China Aluminum Intl Engineering, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 China Aluminum Intl Engineering can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of China Aluminum Intl Engineering
2. Improving business portfolio management of China Aluminum Intl Engineering
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Business Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of China Aluminum Intl Engineering
Strengths of China Aluminum Intl Engineering | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of China Aluminum Intl Engineering are -
Organizational Resilience of China Aluminum Intl Engineering
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing China Aluminum Intl Engineering does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering is one of the most innovative firm in Business Services sector.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of China Aluminum Intl Engineering in the Services sector have low bargaining power. China Aluminum Intl Engineering has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps China Aluminum Intl Engineering to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 China Aluminum Intl Engineering has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Business Services industry
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled China Aluminum Intl Engineering to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Business Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped China Aluminum Intl Engineering to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Business Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of China Aluminum Intl Engineering have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 China Aluminum Intl Engineering is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at China Aluminum Intl Engineering emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 Business Services 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – China Aluminum Intl Engineering staying ahead in the Business Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Business Services
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering is one of the leading players in the Business Services industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Business Services industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled China Aluminum Intl Engineering in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of China Aluminum Intl Engineering in Business Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses of China Aluminum Intl Engineering | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of China Aluminum Intl Engineering are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at China Aluminum Intl Engineering, in the dynamic environment of Business Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. China Aluminum Intl Engineering has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that China Aluminum Intl Engineering needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Business Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at China Aluminum Intl Engineering can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as China Aluminum Intl Engineering is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, China Aluminum Intl Engineering is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help China Aluminum Intl Engineering to provide better information regarding Business Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 Business Services industry using digital technology.
Products dominated business model
– Even though China Aluminum Intl Engineering has some of the most successful models in the Business Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. China Aluminum Intl Engineering should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ less understanding of China Aluminum Intl Engineering strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 Hong Kong, China Aluminum Intl Engineering needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 China Aluminum Intl Engineering supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, China Aluminum Intl Engineering is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left China Aluminum Intl Engineering vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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.
Skills based hiring in Business Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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.
China Aluminum Intl Engineering Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of China Aluminum Intl Engineering are -
Loyalty marketing
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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.
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. China Aluminum Intl Engineering can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Business Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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. China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 China Aluminum Intl Engineering to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, China Aluminum Intl Engineering is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. China Aluminum Intl Engineering can utilize new technology in the field of Business Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, China Aluminum Intl Engineering can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that China Aluminum Intl Engineering operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Business Services sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Business Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled China Aluminum Intl Engineering to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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.
Buying journey improvements
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Business Services industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Developing new processes and practices
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering can develop new processes and procedures in Business Services 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.
Manufacturing automation
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Business Services sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of China Aluminum Intl Engineering has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Business Services industry. This can help China Aluminum Intl Engineering to build a more holistic ecosystem for China Aluminum Intl Engineering products in the Business Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats China Aluminum Intl Engineering External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of China Aluminum Intl Engineering are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that China Aluminum Intl Engineering is facing in Business Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Business Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, China Aluminum Intl Engineering needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Business Services sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Business Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. China Aluminum Intl Engineering can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. China Aluminum Intl Engineering needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Business Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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.
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 China Aluminum Intl Engineering.
Consumer confidence and its impact on China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 Business Services industry and other sectors.
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 China Aluminum Intl Engineering business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Business Services industry are lowering. It can presents China Aluminum Intl Engineering with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Business Services sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 China Aluminum Intl Engineering prominent markets.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 Business Services industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of China Aluminum Intl Engineering Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 China Aluminum Intl Engineering 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 China Aluminum Intl Engineering needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.