China 21st Century Education Gr (1598) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for China 21st Century Education Gr (Hong Kong)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , China 21st Century Education Gr is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of China 21st Century Education Gr

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that China 21st Century Education Gr can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the China 21st Century Education Gr, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which China 21st Century Education Gr 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of China 21st Century Education Gr can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of China 21st Century Education Gr
2. Improving business portfolio management of China 21st Century Education Gr
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Schools sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of China 21st Century Education Gr

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Strengths of China 21st Century Education Gr | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of China 21st Century Education Gr are -

Highly skilled collaborators

– China 21st Century Education Gr has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Schools industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of China 21st Century Education Gr have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Schools industry

– China 21st Century Education Gr has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled China 21st Century Education Gr to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Schools industry. The sustainable margins have also helped China 21st Century Education Gr to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Training and development

– China 21st Century Education Gr has one of the best training and development program in Services industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.

Digital Transformation in Schools industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For China 21st Century Education Gr digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. China 21st Century Education Gr 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.

Analytics focus

– China 21st Century Education Gr 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 Schools 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.

Successful track record of launching new products

– China 21st Century Education Gr has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. China 21st Century Education Gr 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the China 21st Century Education Gr 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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of China 21st Century Education Gr in Schools industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

High brand equity

– China 21st Century Education Gr has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled China 21st Century Education Gr to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Learning organization

- China 21st Century Education Gr 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 China 21st Century Education Gr is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at China 21st Century Education Gr emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Ability to lead change in Schools

– China 21st Century Education Gr is one of the leading players in the Schools industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Schools industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled China 21st Century Education Gr in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Ability to recruit top talent

– China 21st Century Education Gr is one of the leading players in the Schools 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.

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Weaknesses of China 21st Century Education Gr | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of China 21st Century Education Gr are -

Skills based hiring in Schools industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at China 21st Century Education Gr 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, China 21st Century Education Gr 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 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 China 21st Century Education Gr supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, China 21st Century Education Gr is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left China 21st Century Education Gr vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at China 21st Century Education Gr, in the dynamic environment of Schools industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. China 21st Century Education Gr has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Schools industry, China 21st Century Education Gr 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.

Employees’ less understanding of China 21st Century Education Gr strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of China 21st Century Education Gr 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.

Need for greater diversity

– China 21st Century Education Gr 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, China 21st Century Education Gr 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 Schools industry using digital technology.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of China 21st Century Education Gr is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Schools industry, but China 21st Century Education Gr needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help China 21st Century Education Gr to focus more on services in the Schools industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, China 21st Century Education Gr has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Schools industry over the last five years. China 21st Century Education Gr 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.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, China 21st Century Education Gr is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help China 21st Century Education Gr to provide better information regarding Schools products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

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China 21st Century Education Gr Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of China 21st Century Education Gr are -

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, China 21st Century Education Gr 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 China 21st Century Education Gr to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Leveraging digital technologies

– China 21st Century Education Gr 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.

Loyalty marketing

– China 21st Century Education Gr 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help China 21st Century Education Gr to increase its market reach. China 21st Century Education Gr 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

– China 21st Century Education Gr has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Schools sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled China 21st Century Education Gr to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help China 21st Century Education Gr 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 China 21st Century Education Gr 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, China 21st Century Education Gr is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. China 21st Century Education Gr can utilize new technology in the field of Schools industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at China 21st Century Education Gr 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 Schools industry.

Developing new processes and practices

– China 21st Century Education Gr can develop new processes and procedures in Schools 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, China 21st Century Education Gr can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that China 21st Century Education Gr operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Schools sector.

Manufacturing automation

– China 21st Century Education Gr can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Schools 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for China 21st Century Education Gr in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Schools industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

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. China 21st Century Education Gr can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

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Threats China 21st Century Education Gr External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of China 21st Century Education Gr are -

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, China 21st Century Education Gr may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Schools sector.

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 China 21st Century Education Gr business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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 China 21st Century Education Gr.

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.

Regulatory challenges

– China 21st Century Education Gr 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 Schools industry regulations.

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. China 21st Century Education Gr needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Schools industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– China 21st Century Education Gr 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 Schools industry.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Schools industry are lowering. It can presents China 21st Century Education Gr with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Schools sector.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– China 21st Century Education Gr 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.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– China 21st Century Education Gr has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Schools industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, China 21st Century Education Gr needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Schools 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on China 21st Century Education Gr 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 Schools industry and other sectors.

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. China 21st Century Education Gr 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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for China 21st Century Education Gr in Schools industry. The Schools 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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of China 21st Century Education Gr Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at China 21st Century Education Gr 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 China 21st Century Education Gr 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 China 21st Century Education Gr 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 China 21st Century Education Gr 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 China 21st Century Education Gr needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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