Beijing Digital Telecom (6188) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Retail (Technology)
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Beijing Digital Telecom (Hong Kong)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Beijing Digital Telecom is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Beijing Digital Telecom
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Beijing Digital Telecom can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Beijing Digital Telecom, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Beijing Digital Telecom can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Beijing Digital Telecom
2. Improving business portfolio management of Beijing Digital Telecom
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Retail (Technology) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Beijing Digital Telecom
Strengths of Beijing Digital Telecom | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Beijing Digital Telecom are -
Ability to lead change in Retail (Technology)
– Beijing Digital Telecom is one of the leading players in the Retail (Technology) industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Retail (Technology) industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Beijing Digital Telecom in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Beijing Digital Telecom has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Beijing Digital Telecom staying ahead in the Retail (Technology) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Beijing Digital Telecom 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Beijing Digital Telecom is one of the leading players in the Retail (Technology) 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Beijing Digital Telecom is present in almost all the verticals within the Retail (Technology) industry. This has provided Beijing Digital Telecom 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Beijing Digital Telecom 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.
Training and development
– Beijing Digital Telecom 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.
Learning organization
- Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Beijing Digital Telecom is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Beijing Digital Telecom emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Beijing Digital Telecom
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Retail (Technology) industry
– Beijing Digital Telecom is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Beijing Digital Telecom in Retail (Technology) industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Retail (Technology) 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.
Weaknesses of Beijing Digital Telecom | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Beijing Digital Telecom are -
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 Beijing Digital Telecom supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Beijing Digital Telecom is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Beijing Digital Telecom vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Beijing Digital Telecom has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Retail (Technology) industry over the last five years. Beijing Digital Telecom 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Beijing Digital Telecom needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Retail (Technology) industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Beijing Digital Telecom can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Beijing Digital Telecom is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Beijing Digital Telecom, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Retail (Technology) 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Retail (Technology) industry using digital technology.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Beijing Digital Telecom is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Beijing Digital Telecom to provide better information regarding Retail (Technology) products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ less understanding of Beijing Digital Telecom strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Beijing Digital Telecom don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Beijing Digital Telecom is one of the leading players in the Retail (Technology) industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Retail (Technology) industry in last five years.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Retail (Technology) industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Hong Kong, Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Retail (Technology) industry.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Beijing Digital Telecom 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Beijing Digital Telecom has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Retail (Technology) industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Beijing Digital Telecom Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Beijing Digital Telecom are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Beijing Digital Telecom to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Beijing Digital Telecom can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Beijing Digital Telecom operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Retail (Technology) sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Beijing Digital Telecom is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Beijing Digital Telecom can utilize new technology in the field of Retail (Technology) industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Beijing Digital Telecom has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Retail (Technology) sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Beijing Digital Telecom to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Beijing Digital Telecom can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Retail (Technology) industry.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Beijing Digital Telecom has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Retail (Technology) industry. This can help Beijing Digital Telecom to build a more holistic ecosystem for Beijing Digital Telecom products in the Retail (Technology) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Beijing Digital Telecom in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Retail (Technology) industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 Beijing Digital Telecom 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Retail (Technology) industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Beijing Digital Telecom can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Retail (Technology) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Beijing Digital Telecom 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. Beijing Digital Telecom 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Beijing Digital Telecom 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Beijing Digital Telecom has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Threats Beijing Digital Telecom External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Beijing Digital Telecom 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. Beijing Digital Telecom needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Retail (Technology) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Beijing Digital Telecom 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Retail (Technology) industry are lowering. It can presents Beijing Digital Telecom with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Retail (Technology) sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Beijing Digital Telecom prominent markets.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Retail (Technology) industry and other sectors.
Environmental challenges
– Beijing Digital Telecom 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. Beijing Digital Telecom can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Retail (Technology) industry.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Beijing Digital Telecom has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Retail (Technology) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Beijing Digital Telecom needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Retail (Technology) 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Retail (Technology) industry regulations.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Retail (Technology) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Beijing Digital Telecom can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Beijing Digital Telecom may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Retail (Technology) 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 Beijing Digital Telecom in the Retail (Technology) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Beijing Digital Telecom Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Beijing Digital Telecom 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 Beijing Digital Telecom needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.