Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Bright Smart Securities & Commodities is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Bright Smart Securities & Commodities can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bright Smart Securities & Commodities, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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 Bright Smart Securities & Commodities can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Conglomerates sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities
Strengths of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities are -
Training and development
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities has one of the best training and development program in Conglomerates 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.
Organizational Resilience of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Bright Smart Securities & Commodities does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management in the Conglomerates industry
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Bright Smart Securities & Commodities to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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.
Digital Transformation in Conglomerates industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bright Smart Securities & Commodities digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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.
Ability to lead change in Conglomerates
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities is one of the leading players in the Conglomerates industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Conglomerates industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Bright Smart Securities & Commodities in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Conglomerates industry
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Bright Smart Securities & Commodities to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Conglomerates industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Bright Smart Securities & Commodities to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Bright Smart Securities & Commodities staying ahead in the Conglomerates industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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 Conglomerates 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
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities is one of the leading players in the Conglomerates 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.
Weaknesses of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Bright Smart Securities & Commodities is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Bright Smart Securities & Commodities to provide better information regarding Conglomerates 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, Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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 Conglomerates industry using digital technology.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hong Kong, Bright Smart Securities & Commodities needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on Bright Smart Securities & Commodities ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Conglomerates industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Bright Smart Securities & Commodities has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Bright Smart Securities & Commodities needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Conglomerates industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Hong Kong, Bright Smart Securities & Commodities is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the Conglomerates industry.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Bright Smart Securities & Commodities has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Conglomerates industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities is just above the Conglomerates industry average. It needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Bright Smart Securities & Commodities, in the dynamic environment of Conglomerates industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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 Bright Smart Securities & Commodities supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Bright Smart Securities & Commodities is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Bright Smart Securities & Commodities vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Bright Smart Securities & Commodities Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Bright Smart Securities & Commodities can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Conglomerates 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
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities can develop new processes and procedures in Conglomerates 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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.
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 Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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 Bright Smart Securities & Commodities to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Bright Smart Securities & Commodities in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Conglomerates industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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. Bright Smart Securities & Commodities can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Conglomerates 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 Bright Smart Securities & Commodities to increase its market reach. Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Bright Smart Securities & Commodities can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Bright Smart Securities & Commodities operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Conglomerates sector.
Threats Bright Smart Securities & Commodities External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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.
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. Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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 Bright Smart Securities & Commodities in Conglomerates industry. The Conglomerates 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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Bright Smart Securities & Commodities may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Conglomerates sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Conglomerates industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Bright Smart Securities & Commodities needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Conglomerates 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Conglomerates industry are lowering. It can presents Bright Smart Securities & Commodities with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Conglomerates sector.
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.
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 Bright Smart Securities & Commodities business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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. Bright Smart Securities & Commodities can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Conglomerates industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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 Conglomerates industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Conglomerates industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Bright Smart Securities & Commodities can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bright Smart Securities & Commodities is facing in Conglomerates sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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 Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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 Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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 Bright Smart Securities & Commodities 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 Bright Smart Securities & Commodities needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.