SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Vision Values (Hong Kong)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Vision Values is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Vision Values can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Vision Values, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Vision Values 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 Vision Values can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Vision Values
2. Improving business portfolio management of Vision Values
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Computer Networks sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Vision Values
Strengths of Vision Values | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Vision Values are -
Training and development
– Vision Values 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Vision Values has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Computer Networks industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Vision Values have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Vision Values
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Vision Values does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Computer Networks
– Vision Values is one of the leading players in the Computer Networks industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Computer Networks industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Vision Values 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 Computer Networks industry
– Vision Values has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Vision Values to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Computer Networks industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Vision Values to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Vision Values 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 Vision Values is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Vision Values emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Vision Values is present in almost all the verticals within the Computer Networks industry. This has provided Vision Values 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 Vision Values 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Vision Values is one of the leading players in the Computer Networks 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Vision Values has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Vision Values staying ahead in the Computer Networks industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Vision Values comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Computer Networks 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Vision Values has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Vision Values 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.
Weaknesses of Vision Values | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Vision Values are -
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Vision Values, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Computer Networks 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Vision Values has some of the most successful models in the Computer Networks industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Vision Values should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Vision Values has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Computer Networks industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Need for greater diversity
– Vision Values 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hong Kong, Vision Values needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Vision Values needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Computer Networks industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Vision Values can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Vision Values is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Vision Values has high operating costs in the Computer Networks industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Vision Values lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Computer Networks industry, Vision Values needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Vision Values 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Vision Values, in the dynamic environment of Computer Networks industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Vision Values has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Vision Values is one of the leading players in the Computer Networks industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Computer Networks industry in last five years.
Vision Values Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Vision Values are -
Manufacturing automation
– Vision Values can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Computer Networks 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Vision Values 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 Computer Networks industry.
Loyalty marketing
– Vision Values 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Vision Values 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 Vision Values to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Vision Values 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Computer Networks industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Vision Values in the Computer Networks industry. Now Vision Values can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Vision Values 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Vision Values in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Computer Networks industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Vision Values has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Computer Networks sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Vision Values to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Vision Values to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Vision Values 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Computer Networks industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Vision Values can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Vision Values 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, Vision Values is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Vision Values can utilize new technology in the field of Computer Networks industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Threats Vision Values External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Vision Values are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Vision Values in Computer Networks industry. The Computer Networks 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 Computer Networks industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Vision Values can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Vision Values in the Computer Networks sector and impact the bottomline 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 Vision Values business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Vision Values 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 Computer Networks industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Vision Values 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 Computer Networks industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Vision Values 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 Computer Networks industry and other sectors.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Vision Values may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Computer Networks sector.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Computer Networks industry are lowering. It can presents Vision Values with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Computer Networks sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Vision Values is facing in Computer Networks sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Vision Values
– 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 Vision Values.
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.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Vision Values.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Vision Values Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Vision Values 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 Vision Values 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 Vision Values 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 Vision Values 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 Vision Values needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
