Keck Seng Investments HK (184) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Hotels & Motels
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Keck Seng Investments HK (Hong Kong)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Keck Seng Investments HK is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Keck Seng Investments HK
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Keck Seng Investments HK can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Keck Seng Investments HK, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Keck Seng Investments HK 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 Keck Seng Investments HK can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Keck Seng Investments HK
2. Improving business portfolio management of Keck Seng Investments HK
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Hotels & Motels sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Keck Seng Investments HK
Strengths of Keck Seng Investments HK | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Keck Seng Investments HK are -
Ability to lead change in Hotels & Motels
– Keck Seng Investments HK is one of the leading players in the Hotels & Motels industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Hotels & Motels industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Keck Seng Investments HK in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Hotels & Motels industry
– Keck Seng Investments HK has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Keck Seng Investments HK to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Hotels & Motels industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Keck Seng Investments HK to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Keck Seng Investments HK in Hotels & Motels industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Keck Seng Investments HK has one of the best training and development program in Services 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.
Analytics focus
– Keck Seng Investments HK 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 Hotels & Motels 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Keck Seng Investments HK has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Keck Seng Investments HK 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Keck Seng Investments HK has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Hotels & Motels industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Keck Seng Investments HK have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Keck Seng Investments HK is present in almost all the verticals within the Hotels & Motels industry. This has provided Keck Seng Investments HK 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.
High brand equity
– Keck Seng Investments HK has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Keck Seng Investments HK to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Keck Seng Investments HK
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Keck Seng Investments HK does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Keck Seng Investments HK 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 Keck Seng Investments HK is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Keck Seng Investments HK emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Keck Seng Investments HK 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 Keck Seng Investments HK | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Keck Seng Investments HK are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Keck Seng Investments HK has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Hotels & Motels industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Keck Seng Investments HK has some of the most successful models in the Hotels & Motels industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Keck Seng Investments HK should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Keck Seng Investments HK 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Keck Seng Investments HK needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Hotels & Motels industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Keck Seng Investments HK can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Keck Seng Investments HK is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Keck Seng Investments HK is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Hotels & Motels industry, but Keck Seng Investments HK needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Keck Seng Investments HK to focus more on services in the Hotels & Motels industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring in Hotels & Motels industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Keck Seng Investments HK 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Keck Seng Investments HK, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Hotels & Motels 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Hotels & Motels industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Hong Kong, Keck Seng Investments HK 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 Hotels & Motels industry.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hong Kong, Keck Seng Investments HK needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Keck Seng Investments HK supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Keck Seng Investments HK is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Keck Seng Investments HK vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on Keck Seng Investments HK ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Keck Seng Investments HK still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Hotels & Motels industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Keck Seng Investments HK has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Keck Seng Investments HK Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Keck Seng Investments HK are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Keck Seng Investments HK has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Hotels & Motels industry. This can help Keck Seng Investments HK to build a more holistic ecosystem for Keck Seng Investments HK products in the Hotels & Motels industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Keck Seng Investments HK 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Hotels & Motels industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Keck Seng Investments HK can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Manufacturing automation
– Keck Seng Investments HK can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Hotels & Motels 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Keck Seng Investments HK in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Hotels & Motels industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Buying journey improvements
– Keck Seng Investments HK can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Hotels & Motels 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Keck Seng Investments HK to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Keck Seng Investments HK can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Hotels & Motels industry.
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 Keck Seng Investments HK 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Keck Seng Investments HK 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Keck Seng Investments HK has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Hotels & Motels sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Keck Seng Investments HK to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Keck Seng Investments HK to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Keck Seng Investments HK can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Keck Seng Investments HK can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Keck Seng Investments HK operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Hotels & Motels sector.
Threats Keck Seng Investments HK External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Keck Seng Investments HK are -
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Keck Seng Investments HK 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 Hotels & Motels industry and other sectors.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Keck Seng Investments HK may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Hotels & Motels sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Keck Seng Investments HK is facing in Hotels & Motels sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Hotels & Motels industry are lowering. It can presents Keck Seng Investments HK with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Hotels & Motels sector.
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 Keck Seng Investments HK in the Hotels & Motels sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Keck Seng Investments HK
– 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 Keck Seng Investments HK.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Keck Seng Investments HK 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 Keck Seng Investments HK prominent markets.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Keck Seng Investments HK in Hotels & Motels industry. The Hotels & Motels 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Hotels & Motels industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Keck Seng Investments HK 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
– Keck Seng Investments HK 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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Keck Seng Investments HK 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 Hotels & Motels industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Keck Seng Investments HK Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Keck Seng Investments HK 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 Keck Seng Investments HK 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 Keck Seng Investments HK 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 Keck Seng Investments HK 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 Keck Seng Investments HK needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.