Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities (1265) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Natural Gas Utilities
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities (Hong Kong)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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 Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Natural Gas Utilities sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities
Strengths of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Natural Gas Utilities industry
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Natural Gas Utilities industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities in Natural Gas Utilities industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities has one of the best training and development program in Utilities 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities in the Utilities sector have low bargaining power. Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Natural Gas Utilities 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.
High brand equity
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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 Natural Gas Utilities 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Natural Gas Utilities industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Natural Gas Utilities
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities is one of the leading players in the Natural Gas Utilities industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Natural Gas Utilities industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management in the Natural Gas Utilities industry
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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.
Digital Transformation in Natural Gas Utilities industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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.
Weaknesses of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities are -
Need for greater diversity
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Natural Gas Utilities industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities is one of the leading players in the Natural Gas Utilities industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Natural Gas Utilities industry in last five years.
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 Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry using digital technology.
Skills based hiring in Natural Gas Utilities industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities has high operating costs in the Natural Gas Utilities industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities to provide better information regarding Natural Gas Utilities products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hong Kong, Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Natural Gas Utilities industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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, Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities can utilize new technology in the field of Natural Gas Utilities industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities can develop new processes and procedures in Natural Gas Utilities 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.
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 Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Natural Gas Utilities 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Natural Gas Utilities 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Natural Gas Utilities industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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. Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Natural Gas Utilities sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities in Natural Gas Utilities industry. The Natural Gas Utilities 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.
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 Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities in the Natural Gas Utilities sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities is facing in Natural Gas Utilities sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Natural Gas Utilities industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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 Natural Gas Utilities industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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.
Environmental challenges
– Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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. Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Natural Gas Utilities industry.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
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 Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Natural Gas Utilities industry are lowering. It can presents Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Natural Gas Utilities sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Natural Gas Utilities sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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 Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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 Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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 Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities 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 Tianjin Jinran Public Utilities needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.