Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , C&D Intl Investment is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing energy prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of C&D Intl Investment
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that C&D Intl Investment can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the C&D Intl Investment, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which C&D Intl Investment 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 C&D Intl Investment can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of C&D Intl Investment
2. Improving business portfolio management of C&D Intl Investment
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Construction Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of C&D Intl Investment
Strengths of C&D Intl Investment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of C&D Intl Investment are -
Ability to lead change in Construction Services
– C&D Intl Investment is one of the leading players in the Construction Services industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Construction Services industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled C&D Intl Investment in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– C&D Intl Investment has one of the best training and development program in Capital Goods 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Construction Services industry
– C&D Intl Investment is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– C&D Intl Investment is one of the most innovative firm in Construction Services sector.
Learning organization
- C&D Intl Investment 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 C&D Intl Investment is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at C&D Intl Investment emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of C&D Intl Investment in the Capital Goods sector have low bargaining power. C&D Intl Investment has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps C&D Intl Investment to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– C&D Intl Investment is present in almost all the verticals within the Construction Services industry. This has provided C&D Intl Investment 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– C&D Intl Investment has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. C&D Intl Investment has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Digital Transformation in Construction Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For C&D Intl Investment digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. C&D Intl Investment 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Construction Services industry
– C&D Intl Investment has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled C&D Intl Investment to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Construction Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped C&D Intl Investment to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– C&D Intl Investment is one of the leading players in the Construction 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– C&D Intl Investment has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Construction Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of C&D Intl Investment have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses of C&D Intl Investment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of C&D Intl Investment are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that C&D Intl Investment needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Construction Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at C&D Intl Investment can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as C&D Intl Investment is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though C&D Intl Investment has some of the most successful models in the Construction Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. C&D Intl Investment should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of C&D Intl Investment is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Construction Services industry, but C&D Intl Investment needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help C&D Intl Investment to focus more on services in the Construction Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hong Kong, C&D Intl Investment needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring in Construction Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at C&D Intl Investment 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, C&D Intl Investment has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Construction Services industry over the last five years. C&D Intl Investment 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.
Need for greater diversity
– C&D Intl Investment 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 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 C&D Intl Investment supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, C&D Intl Investment is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left C&D Intl Investment vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on C&D Intl Investment ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of C&D Intl Investment still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Construction Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though C&D Intl Investment has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, C&D Intl Investment 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, C&D Intl Investment is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help C&D Intl Investment to provide better information regarding Construction Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
C&D Intl Investment Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of C&D Intl Investment are -
Buying journey improvements
– C&D Intl Investment can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Construction 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects C&D Intl Investment can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– C&D Intl Investment has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Construction Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled C&D Intl Investment to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help C&D Intl Investment to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– C&D Intl Investment can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Construction 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for C&D Intl Investment 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 C&D Intl Investment to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– C&D Intl Investment 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.
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. C&D Intl Investment can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, C&D Intl Investment is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. C&D Intl Investment can utilize new technology in the field of Construction Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
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 C&D Intl Investment 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– C&D Intl Investment can develop new processes and procedures in Construction 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help C&D Intl Investment to increase its market reach. C&D Intl Investment 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.
Loyalty marketing
– C&D Intl Investment 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Construction Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for C&D Intl Investment in the Construction Services industry. Now C&D Intl Investment can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats C&D Intl Investment External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of C&D Intl Investment are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– C&D Intl Investment 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for C&D Intl Investment in Construction Services industry. The Construction Services 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.
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 C&D Intl Investment business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– C&D Intl Investment 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. C&D Intl Investment can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Construction Services 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 C&D Intl Investment in the Construction Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– C&D Intl Investment 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 Construction Services industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, C&D Intl Investment may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Construction Services sector.
Increasing wage structure of C&D Intl Investment
– 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 C&D Intl Investment.
Regulatory challenges
– C&D Intl Investment 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 Construction Services industry regulations.
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 Construction Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. C&D Intl Investment can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Construction Services industry are lowering. It can presents C&D Intl Investment with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Construction Services sector.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of C&D Intl Investment Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at C&D Intl Investment 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 C&D Intl Investment 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 C&D Intl Investment 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 C&D Intl Investment 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 C&D Intl Investment needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.