Cybernaut Int (1020) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Cybernaut Int (Hong Kong)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Cybernaut Int is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cybernaut Int

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Cybernaut Int can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cybernaut Int, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cybernaut Int 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 Cybernaut Int can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Cybernaut Int
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cybernaut Int
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Iron & Steel sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Cybernaut Int

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Strengths of Cybernaut Int | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Cybernaut Int are -

Highly skilled collaborators

– Cybernaut Int has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Iron & Steel industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Cybernaut Int have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Ability to lead change in Iron & Steel

– Cybernaut Int is one of the leading players in the Iron & Steel industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Iron & Steel industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Cybernaut Int in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Cybernaut Int 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.

Learning organization

- Cybernaut Int 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 Cybernaut Int is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Cybernaut Int emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Cybernaut Int in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. Cybernaut Int has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cybernaut Int to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Organizational Resilience of Cybernaut Int

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Cybernaut Int does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Cybernaut Int comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Iron & Steel 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.

Training and development

– Cybernaut Int has one of the best training and development program in Basic Materials 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.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Cybernaut Int is one of the leading players in the Iron & Steel 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.

High brand equity

– Cybernaut Int has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cybernaut Int to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Cybernaut Int 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Cybernaut Int has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Cybernaut Int staying ahead in the Iron & Steel industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

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Weaknesses of Cybernaut Int | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Cybernaut Int are -

Increasing silos among functional specialists

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

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at Cybernaut Int, in the dynamic environment of Iron & Steel industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Cybernaut Int has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Need for greater diversity

– Cybernaut Int 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 operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, Cybernaut Int has high operating costs in the Iron & Steel industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Cybernaut Int lucrative customers.

Skills based hiring in Iron & Steel industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cybernaut Int 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.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Iron & Steel industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in Hong Kong, Cybernaut Int 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 Iron & Steel industry.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Cybernaut Int 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 Iron & Steel industry using digital technology.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Cybernaut Int needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Iron & Steel industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Cybernaut Int can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cybernaut Int is planning to shift buying processes online.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Iron & Steel industry, Cybernaut Int 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.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Cybernaut Int has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Iron & Steel industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Cybernaut Int 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.

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Cybernaut Int Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Cybernaut Int are -

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Cybernaut Int to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Cybernaut Int to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Iron & Steel industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Cybernaut Int can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

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

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cybernaut Int 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Cybernaut Int can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cybernaut Int operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Iron & Steel sector.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Cybernaut Int can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Cybernaut Int 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cybernaut Int 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Cybernaut Int 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 Iron & Steel industry.

Loyalty marketing

– Cybernaut Int 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Cybernaut Int can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Iron & Steel 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cybernaut Int to increase its market reach. Cybernaut Int 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.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Iron & Steel industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Cybernaut Int in the Iron & Steel industry. Now Cybernaut Int can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

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Threats Cybernaut Int External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Cybernaut Int are -

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Iron & Steel industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Cybernaut Int can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Increasing wage structure of Cybernaut Int

– 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 Cybernaut Int.

Environmental challenges

– Cybernaut Int 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. Cybernaut Int can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Iron & Steel industry.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Cybernaut Int has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Iron & Steel industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cybernaut Int needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Iron & Steel 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.

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 Cybernaut Int.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Iron & Steel industry are lowering. It can presents Cybernaut Int with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Iron & Steel sector.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cybernaut Int can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate Cybernaut Int prominent markets.

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. Cybernaut Int needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Iron & Steel industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Cybernaut Int 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.

Regulatory challenges

– Cybernaut Int 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 Iron & Steel industry regulations.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Cybernaut Int 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 Iron & Steel industry and other sectors.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Cybernaut Int is facing in Iron & Steel sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cybernaut Int in Iron & Steel industry. The Iron & Steel 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 Cybernaut Int Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Cybernaut Int 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 Cybernaut Int 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 Cybernaut Int 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 Cybernaut Int 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 Cybernaut Int needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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