Hong Kong Economic Times (423) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Printing & Publishing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Hong Kong Economic Times (Hong Kong)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Hong Kong Economic Times is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hong Kong Economic Times
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Hong Kong Economic Times can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hong Kong Economic Times, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hong Kong Economic Times 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 Hong Kong Economic Times can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Hong Kong Economic Times
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hong Kong Economic Times
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Printing & Publishing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Hong Kong Economic Times
Strengths of Hong Kong Economic Times | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hong Kong Economic Times are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Hong Kong Economic Times has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hong Kong Economic Times 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.
High brand equity
– Hong Kong Economic Times has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Hong Kong Economic Times to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Hong Kong Economic Times is present in almost all the verticals within the Printing & Publishing industry. This has provided Hong Kong Economic Times a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Printing & Publishing industry
– Hong Kong Economic Times has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hong Kong Economic Times to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Printing & Publishing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hong Kong Economic Times to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Hong Kong Economic Times 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 Printing & Publishing 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Hong Kong Economic Times 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Hong Kong Economic Times comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Printing & Publishing 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Hong Kong Economic Times has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Printing & Publishing industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Hong Kong Economic Times have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Hong Kong Economic Times is one of the leading players in the Printing & Publishing 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.
Ability to lead change in Printing & Publishing
– Hong Kong Economic Times is one of the leading players in the Printing & Publishing industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Printing & Publishing industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Hong Kong Economic Times in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Hong Kong Economic Times 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Hong Kong Economic Times has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Hong Kong Economic Times staying ahead in the Printing & Publishing industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses of Hong Kong Economic Times | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Hong Kong Economic Times are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Hong Kong Economic Times has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Printing & Publishing industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Hong Kong Economic Times, in the dynamic environment of Printing & Publishing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Hong Kong Economic Times has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Hong Kong Economic Times 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Hong Kong Economic Times is one of the leading players in the Printing & Publishing industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Printing & Publishing industry in last five years.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Printing & Publishing industry, Hong Kong Economic Times 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Hong Kong Economic Times 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 dependence on Hong Kong Economic Times ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Hong Kong Economic Times still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Printing & Publishing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Hong Kong Economic Times has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring in Printing & Publishing industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hong Kong Economic Times 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 Printing & Publishing industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Economic Times 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 Printing & Publishing industry.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hong Kong Economic Times products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hong Kong Economic Times needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Hong Kong Economic Times needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Printing & Publishing industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Hong Kong Economic Times can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Hong Kong Economic Times is planning to shift buying processes online.
Hong Kong Economic Times Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Hong Kong Economic Times are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Hong Kong Economic Times in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Printing & Publishing industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Hong Kong Economic Times 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Hong Kong Economic Times 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 Hong Kong Economic Times to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Printing & Publishing industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Hong Kong Economic Times in the Printing & Publishing industry. Now Hong Kong Economic Times can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Hong Kong Economic Times 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
– Hong Kong Economic Times 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hong Kong Economic Times is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Hong Kong Economic Times can utilize new technology in the field of Printing & Publishing industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Hong Kong Economic Times has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Printing & Publishing sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Hong Kong Economic Times to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hong Kong Economic Times to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Hong Kong Economic Times 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 Hong Kong Economic Times to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Hong Kong Economic Times can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Hong Kong Economic Times operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Printing & Publishing sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Hong Kong Economic Times has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Printing & Publishing industry. This can help Hong Kong Economic Times to build a more holistic ecosystem for Hong Kong Economic Times products in the Printing & Publishing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Hong Kong Economic Times can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Printing & Publishing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Hong Kong Economic Times can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Hong Kong Economic Times External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Hong Kong Economic Times are -
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.
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 Hong Kong Economic Times.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Hong Kong Economic Times may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Printing & Publishing 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.
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. Hong Kong Economic Times needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Printing & Publishing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Hong Kong Economic Times 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 Printing & Publishing industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Hong Kong Economic Times 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 Hong Kong Economic Times prominent markets.
Regulatory challenges
– Hong Kong Economic Times 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 Printing & Publishing industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Hong Kong Economic Times
– 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 Hong Kong Economic Times.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Hong Kong Economic Times 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 Printing & Publishing 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 Hong Kong Economic Times business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Printing & Publishing industry are lowering. It can presents Hong Kong Economic Times with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Printing & Publishing sector.
Environmental challenges
– Hong Kong Economic Times 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. Hong Kong Economic Times can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Printing & Publishing industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hong Kong Economic Times Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Hong Kong Economic Times 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 Hong Kong Economic Times 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 Hong Kong Economic Times 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 Hong Kong Economic Times 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 Hong Kong Economic Times needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.