SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for S.A.S. Dragon (Hong Kong)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , S.A.S. Dragon is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that S.A.S. Dragon can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the S.A.S. Dragon, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which S.A.S. Dragon 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 S.A.S. Dragon can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of S.A.S. Dragon
2. Improving business portfolio management of S.A.S. Dragon
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Electronic Instr. & Controls sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of S.A.S. Dragon
Strengths of S.A.S. Dragon | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of S.A.S. Dragon are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– S.A.S. Dragon has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of S.A.S. Dragon have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– S.A.S. Dragon has one of the best training and development program in Technology 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– S.A.S. Dragon is present in almost all the verticals within the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. This has provided S.A.S. Dragon 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– S.A.S. Dragon is one of the leading players in the Electronic Instr. & Controls 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry
– S.A.S. Dragon is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of S.A.S. Dragon in the Technology sector have low bargaining power. S.A.S. Dragon has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps S.A.S. Dragon to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– S.A.S. Dragon is one of the most innovative firm in Electronic Instr. & Controls sector.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of S.A.S. Dragon comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of S.A.S. Dragon in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- S.A.S. Dragon 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 S.A.S. Dragon is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at S.A.S. Dragon emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of S.A.S. Dragon
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing S.A.S. Dragon does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the S.A.S. Dragon are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Weaknesses of S.A.S. Dragon | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of S.A.S. Dragon are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at S.A.S. Dragon, in the dynamic environment of Electronic Instr. & Controls industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. S.A.S. Dragon has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– S.A.S. Dragon 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 S.A.S. Dragon ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of S.A.S. Dragon still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though S.A.S. Dragon has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
S.A.S. Dragon has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of S.A.S. Dragon is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, but S.A.S. Dragon needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help S.A.S. Dragon to focus more on services in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at S.A.S. Dragon 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that S.A.S. Dragon needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at S.A.S. Dragon can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as S.A.S. Dragon is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, S.A.S. Dragon 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry using digital technology.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As S.A.S. Dragon is one of the leading players in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry in last five years.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hong Kong, S.A.S. Dragon needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ less understanding of S.A.S. Dragon strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of S.A.S. Dragon 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.
S.A.S. Dragon Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of S.A.S. Dragon are -
Developing new processes and practices
– S.A.S. Dragon can develop new processes and procedures in Electronic Instr. & Controls 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for S.A.S. Dragon 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 S.A.S. Dragon to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– S.A.S. Dragon 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, S.A.S. Dragon can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that S.A.S. Dragon operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Electronic Instr. & Controls sector.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for S.A.S. Dragon in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. Now S.A.S. Dragon can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of S.A.S. Dragon has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. This can help S.A.S. Dragon to build a more holistic ecosystem for S.A.S. Dragon products in the Electronic Instr. & Controls 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 S.A.S. Dragon in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects S.A.S. Dragon can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, S.A.S. Dragon is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. S.A.S. Dragon can utilize new technology in the field of Electronic Instr. & Controls industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for S.A.S. Dragon 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, S.A.S. Dragon 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help S.A.S. Dragon to increase its market reach. S.A.S. Dragon 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– S.A.S. Dragon has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Electronic Instr. & Controls sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled S.A.S. Dragon to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help S.A.S. Dragon to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats S.A.S. Dragon External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of S.A.S. Dragon 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. S.A.S. Dragon needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– S.A.S. Dragon 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls 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 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. S.A.S. Dragon can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, S.A.S. Dragon 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 S.A.S. Dragon prominent markets.
Environmental challenges
– S.A.S. Dragon 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. S.A.S. Dragon can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on S.A.S. Dragon 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry and other sectors.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, S.A.S. Dragon may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Electronic Instr. & Controls 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 S.A.S. Dragon in the Electronic Instr. & Controls sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that S.A.S. Dragon is facing in Electronic Instr. & Controls sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of S.A.S. Dragon
– 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 S.A.S. Dragon.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Electronic Instr. & Controls industry are lowering. It can presents S.A.S. Dragon with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Electronic Instr. & Controls sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of S.A.S. Dragon Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at S.A.S. Dragon 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 S.A.S. Dragon 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 S.A.S. Dragon 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 S.A.S. Dragon 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 S.A.S. Dragon needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
