SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Zhaobangji Properties (Hong Kong)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Zhaobangji Properties is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices,
geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Zhaobangji Properties
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Zhaobangji Properties can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Zhaobangji Properties, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Zhaobangji Properties 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 Zhaobangji Properties can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Zhaobangji Properties
2. Improving business portfolio management of Zhaobangji Properties
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Rental & Leasing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Zhaobangji Properties
Strengths of Zhaobangji Properties | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Zhaobangji Properties are -
Analytics focus
– Zhaobangji Properties 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 Rental & Leasing 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Zhaobangji Properties is one of the leading players in the Rental & Leasing 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Rental & Leasing industry
– Zhaobangji Properties has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Zhaobangji Properties to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Rental & Leasing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Zhaobangji Properties to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Zhaobangji Properties in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Zhaobangji Properties has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Zhaobangji Properties to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Zhaobangji Properties is present in almost all the verticals within the Rental & Leasing industry. This has provided Zhaobangji Properties 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Zhaobangji Properties in Rental & Leasing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Rental & Leasing industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Zhaobangji Properties digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Zhaobangji Properties 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.
High brand equity
– Zhaobangji Properties has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Zhaobangji Properties to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Rental & Leasing
– Zhaobangji Properties is one of the leading players in the Rental & Leasing industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Rental & Leasing industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Zhaobangji Properties in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Zhaobangji Properties 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 Zhaobangji Properties is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Zhaobangji Properties emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Zhaobangji Properties has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Zhaobangji Properties staying ahead in the Rental & Leasing industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Zhaobangji Properties 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.
Weaknesses of Zhaobangji Properties | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Zhaobangji Properties are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Zhaobangji Properties needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Rental & Leasing industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Zhaobangji Properties can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Zhaobangji Properties is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Zhaobangji Properties is one of the leading players in the Rental & Leasing industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Rental & Leasing industry in last five years.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Zhaobangji Properties 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 Rental & Leasing industry using digital technology.
Need for greater diversity
– Zhaobangji Properties 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Zhaobangji Properties has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Rental & Leasing industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Zhaobangji Properties, in the dynamic environment of Rental & Leasing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Zhaobangji Properties has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Zhaobangji Properties is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Rental & Leasing industry, but Zhaobangji Properties needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Zhaobangji Properties to focus more on services in the Rental & Leasing industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Zhaobangji Properties has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Rental & Leasing industry over the last five years. Zhaobangji Properties 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Zhaobangji Properties is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Zhaobangji Properties to provide better information regarding Rental & Leasing products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Zhaobangji Properties has some of the most successful models in the Rental & Leasing industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Zhaobangji Properties should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on Zhaobangji Properties ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Zhaobangji Properties still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Rental & Leasing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Zhaobangji Properties has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Zhaobangji Properties Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Zhaobangji Properties are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Zhaobangji Properties to increase its market reach. Zhaobangji Properties 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 Rental & Leasing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Zhaobangji Properties can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Zhaobangji Properties 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 Zhaobangji Properties to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Zhaobangji Properties 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Zhaobangji Properties can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Zhaobangji Properties operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Rental & Leasing sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– Zhaobangji Properties can develop new processes and procedures in Rental & Leasing 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Zhaobangji Properties can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Rental & Leasing industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Zhaobangji Properties is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Zhaobangji Properties can utilize new technology in the field of Rental & Leasing industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Zhaobangji Properties can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Zhaobangji Properties 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 Zhaobangji Properties to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Zhaobangji Properties has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Rental & Leasing sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Zhaobangji Properties to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Zhaobangji Properties to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Zhaobangji Properties can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Zhaobangji Properties 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.
Threats Zhaobangji Properties External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Zhaobangji Properties are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Rental & Leasing industry are lowering. It can presents Zhaobangji Properties with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Rental & Leasing sector.
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 Zhaobangji Properties business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Rental & Leasing industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Zhaobangji Properties can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Zhaobangji Properties 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.
Environmental challenges
– Zhaobangji Properties 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. Zhaobangji Properties can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Rental & Leasing industry.
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 Zhaobangji Properties in the Rental & Leasing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Zhaobangji Properties 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 Rental & Leasing industry.
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 Zhaobangji Properties is facing in Rental & Leasing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Zhaobangji Properties may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Rental & Leasing sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Zhaobangji Properties 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 Rental & Leasing industry regulations.
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. Zhaobangji Properties 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Zhaobangji Properties in Rental & Leasing industry. The Rental & Leasing 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Zhaobangji Properties Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Zhaobangji Properties 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 Zhaobangji Properties 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 Zhaobangji Properties 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 Zhaobangji Properties 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 Zhaobangji Properties needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.