SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Dongjiang Environmental (Hong Kong)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Dongjiang Environmental is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Dongjiang Environmental
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Dongjiang Environmental can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dongjiang Environmental, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dongjiang Environmental 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 Dongjiang Environmental can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Dongjiang Environmental
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dongjiang Environmental
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Waste Management Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Dongjiang Environmental
Strengths of Dongjiang Environmental | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dongjiang Environmental are -
Digital Transformation in Waste Management Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Dongjiang Environmental digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Dongjiang Environmental 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Dongjiang Environmental is present in almost all the verticals within the Waste Management Services industry. This has provided Dongjiang Environmental 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Waste Management Services industry
– Dongjiang Environmental is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Dongjiang Environmental has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Waste Management Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Dongjiang Environmental have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Dongjiang Environmental is one of the leading players in the Waste Management Services 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.
Organizational Resilience of Dongjiang Environmental
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Dongjiang Environmental does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Dongjiang Environmental has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Dongjiang Environmental staying ahead in the Waste Management Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Dongjiang Environmental in Waste Management Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Waste Management Services industry
– Dongjiang Environmental has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Dongjiang Environmental to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Waste Management Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Dongjiang Environmental to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Waste Management Services
– Dongjiang Environmental is one of the leading players in the Waste Management Services industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Waste Management Services industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Dongjiang Environmental in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Dongjiang Environmental has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Dongjiang Environmental to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Dongjiang Environmental 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.
Weaknesses of Dongjiang Environmental | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Dongjiang Environmental are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Dongjiang Environmental needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Waste Management Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Dongjiang Environmental can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Dongjiang Environmental is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Dongjiang Environmental is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Dongjiang Environmental to provide better information regarding Waste Management Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hong Kong, Dongjiang Environmental needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Dongjiang Environmental products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Dongjiang Environmental needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Dongjiang Environmental has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Waste Management Services industry over the last five years. Dongjiang Environmental 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Dongjiang Environmental, in the dynamic environment of Waste Management Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Dongjiang Environmental has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 Dongjiang Environmental supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Dongjiang Environmental is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Dongjiang Environmental vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Dongjiang Environmental, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Waste Management Services 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Dongjiang Environmental is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Waste Management Services industry, but Dongjiang Environmental needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Dongjiang Environmental to focus more on services in the Waste Management Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Dongjiang Environmental 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 dependence on Dongjiang Environmental ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Dongjiang Environmental still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Waste Management Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Dongjiang Environmental has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Dongjiang Environmental Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Dongjiang Environmental are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Dongjiang Environmental in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Waste Management Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Dongjiang Environmental can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Waste Management Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Dongjiang Environmental 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. Dongjiang Environmental can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Dongjiang Environmental is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Dongjiang Environmental can utilize new technology in the field of Waste Management Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Dongjiang Environmental has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Waste Management Services industry. This can help Dongjiang Environmental to build a more holistic ecosystem for Dongjiang Environmental products in the Waste Management Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Dongjiang Environmental can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Dongjiang Environmental can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Dongjiang Environmental operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Waste Management Services sector.
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 Dongjiang Environmental 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Dongjiang Environmental can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Waste Management 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Dongjiang Environmental to increase its market reach. Dongjiang Environmental 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Dongjiang Environmental can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Waste Management Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Dongjiang Environmental in the Waste Management Services industry. Now Dongjiang Environmental can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Waste Management Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Dongjiang Environmental can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Dongjiang Environmental External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Dongjiang Environmental are -
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. Dongjiang Environmental needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Waste Management Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Waste Management Services industry are lowering. It can presents Dongjiang Environmental with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Waste Management Services sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Dongjiang Environmental has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Waste Management Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Dongjiang Environmental needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Waste Management 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Dongjiang Environmental is facing in Waste Management Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Dongjiang Environmental business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Dongjiang Environmental
– 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 Dongjiang Environmental.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Dongjiang Environmental 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 Dongjiang Environmental prominent markets.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Dongjiang Environmental 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 Waste Management Services industry and other sectors.
Regulatory challenges
– Dongjiang Environmental 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 Waste Management Services industry regulations.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Dongjiang Environmental in the Waste Management Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Dongjiang Environmental 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Dongjiang Environmental may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Waste Management Services sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dongjiang Environmental Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Dongjiang Environmental 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 Dongjiang Environmental 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 Dongjiang Environmental 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 Dongjiang Environmental 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 Dongjiang Environmental needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.