Glorious Sun Enterprises (393) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Retail (Apparel)
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Glorious Sun Enterprises (Hong Kong)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Glorious Sun Enterprises is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Glorious Sun Enterprises
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Glorious Sun Enterprises can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Glorious Sun Enterprises, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 Glorious Sun Enterprises can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Glorious Sun Enterprises
2. Improving business portfolio management of Glorious Sun Enterprises
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Retail (Apparel) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Glorious Sun Enterprises
Strengths of Glorious Sun Enterprises | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Glorious Sun Enterprises are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 Retail (Apparel) industry
– Glorious Sun Enterprises has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Glorious Sun Enterprises to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Retail (Apparel) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Glorious Sun Enterprises to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 (Apparel) 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.
Digital Transformation in Retail (Apparel) industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Glorious Sun Enterprises digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Glorious Sun Enterprises 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.
High brand equity
– Glorious Sun Enterprises has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Glorious Sun Enterprises to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Glorious Sun Enterprises 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Glorious Sun Enterprises in Retail (Apparel) industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Glorious Sun Enterprises has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Glorious Sun Enterprises staying ahead in the Retail (Apparel) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management in the Retail (Apparel) industry
– Glorious Sun Enterprises is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Retail (Apparel)
– Glorious Sun Enterprises is one of the leading players in the Retail (Apparel) industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Retail (Apparel) industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Glorious Sun Enterprises in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Glorious Sun Enterprises in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Glorious Sun Enterprises has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Glorious Sun Enterprises to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 Glorious Sun Enterprises is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Glorious Sun Enterprises emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of Glorious Sun Enterprises | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Glorious Sun Enterprises are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Glorious Sun Enterprises, in the dynamic environment of Retail (Apparel) industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Glorious Sun Enterprises has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hong Kong, Glorious Sun Enterprises needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Glorious Sun Enterprises is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Glorious Sun Enterprises to provide better information regarding Retail (Apparel) products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Retail (Apparel) industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Hong Kong, Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 (Apparel) industry.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Glorious Sun Enterprises, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Retail (Apparel) 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Glorious Sun Enterprises needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Retail (Apparel) industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Glorious Sun Enterprises can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Glorious Sun Enterprises is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 (Apparel) industry using digital technology.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Glorious Sun Enterprises is just above the Retail (Apparel) 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.
Skills based hiring in Retail (Apparel) industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Glorious Sun Enterprises 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 (Apparel) industry over the last five years. Glorious Sun Enterprises 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Glorious Sun Enterprises has some of the most successful models in the Retail (Apparel) industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Glorious Sun Enterprises should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Glorious Sun Enterprises Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Glorious Sun Enterprises are -
Manufacturing automation
– Glorious Sun Enterprises can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Retail (Apparel) 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.
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 Glorious Sun Enterprises 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Glorious Sun Enterprises 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Glorious Sun Enterprises 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Glorious Sun Enterprises can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Glorious Sun Enterprises operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Retail (Apparel) sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Glorious Sun Enterprises has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Retail (Apparel) industry. This can help Glorious Sun Enterprises to build a more holistic ecosystem for Glorious Sun Enterprises products in the Retail (Apparel) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 Glorious Sun Enterprises to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Glorious Sun Enterprises can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Glorious Sun Enterprises to increase its market reach. Glorious Sun Enterprises 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.
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. Glorious Sun Enterprises can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Glorious Sun Enterprises has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Retail (Apparel) sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Glorious Sun Enterprises to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Glorious Sun Enterprises to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Glorious Sun Enterprises 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Retail (Apparel) industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Glorious Sun Enterprises can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Glorious Sun Enterprises External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Glorious Sun Enterprises are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Retail (Apparel) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Glorious Sun Enterprises can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Glorious Sun Enterprises needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Retail (Apparel) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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
– Glorious Sun Enterprises has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Retail (Apparel) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Glorious Sun Enterprises needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Retail (Apparel) 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 Retail (Apparel) industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Retail (Apparel) industry are lowering. It can presents Glorious Sun Enterprises with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Retail (Apparel) 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.
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 Glorious Sun Enterprises in the Retail (Apparel) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 (Apparel) industry and other sectors.
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 Glorious Sun Enterprises business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 (Apparel) industry regulations.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Glorious Sun Enterprises in Retail (Apparel) industry. The Retail (Apparel) 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.
Environmental challenges
– Glorious Sun Enterprises 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. Glorious Sun Enterprises can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Retail (Apparel) industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Glorious Sun Enterprises Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 Glorious Sun Enterprises 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 Glorious Sun Enterprises needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.