World-Link Logistics Asia (6083) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Trucking
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for World-Link Logistics Asia (Hong Kong)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , World-Link Logistics Asia is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, wage bills are increasing,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of World-Link Logistics Asia
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that World-Link Logistics Asia can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the World-Link Logistics Asia, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which World-Link Logistics Asia 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 World-Link Logistics Asia can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of World-Link Logistics Asia
2. Improving business portfolio management of World-Link Logistics Asia
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Trucking sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of World-Link Logistics Asia
Strengths of World-Link Logistics Asia | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of World-Link Logistics Asia are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– World-Link Logistics Asia has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Trucking industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of World-Link Logistics Asia have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of World-Link Logistics Asia in the Transportation sector have low bargaining power. World-Link Logistics Asia has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps World-Link Logistics Asia to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– World-Link Logistics Asia 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 Trucking 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of World-Link Logistics Asia comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Trucking 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.
Ability to lead change in Trucking
– World-Link Logistics Asia is one of the leading players in the Trucking industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Trucking industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled World-Link Logistics Asia in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of World-Link Logistics Asia
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing World-Link Logistics Asia does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– World-Link Logistics Asia has one of the best training and development program in Transportation 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– World-Link Logistics Asia is present in almost all the verticals within the Trucking industry. This has provided World-Link Logistics Asia 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Trucking industry
– World-Link Logistics Asia is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the World-Link Logistics Asia 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– World-Link Logistics Asia has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. World-Link Logistics Asia 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.
Learning organization
- World-Link Logistics Asia 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 World-Link Logistics Asia is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at World-Link Logistics Asia emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of World-Link Logistics Asia | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of World-Link Logistics Asia are -
Skills based hiring in Trucking industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at World-Link Logistics Asia has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, World-Link Logistics Asia has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Trucking industry over the last five years. World-Link Logistics Asia 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of World-Link Logistics Asia, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Trucking industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Need for greater diversity
– World-Link Logistics Asia 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of World-Link Logistics Asia is just above the Trucking industry average. It needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of World-Link Logistics Asia is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Trucking industry, but World-Link Logistics Asia needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help World-Link Logistics Asia to focus more on services in the Trucking industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Trucking industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Hong Kong, World-Link Logistics Asia 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 Trucking industry.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, World-Link Logistics Asia is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help World-Link Logistics Asia to provide better information regarding Trucking products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that World-Link Logistics Asia needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Trucking industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at World-Link Logistics Asia can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as World-Link Logistics Asia is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Trucking industry, World-Link Logistics Asia 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 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 World-Link Logistics Asia supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, World-Link Logistics Asia is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left World-Link Logistics Asia vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
World-Link Logistics Asia Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of World-Link Logistics Asia are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, World-Link Logistics Asia 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 World-Link Logistics Asia to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects World-Link Logistics Asia can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– World-Link Logistics Asia 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at World-Link Logistics Asia 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 Trucking industry.
Leveraging digital technologies
– World-Link Logistics Asia 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– World-Link Logistics Asia can develop new processes and procedures in Trucking 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 World-Link Logistics Asia 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, World-Link Logistics Asia can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that World-Link Logistics Asia operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Trucking sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, World-Link Logistics Asia is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. World-Link Logistics Asia can utilize new technology in the field of Trucking industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for World-Link Logistics Asia 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.
Manufacturing automation
– World-Link Logistics Asia can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Trucking 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– World-Link Logistics Asia has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Trucking sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled World-Link Logistics Asia to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help World-Link Logistics Asia to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of World-Link Logistics Asia has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Trucking industry. This can help World-Link Logistics Asia to build a more holistic ecosystem for World-Link Logistics Asia products in the Trucking industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats World-Link Logistics Asia External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of World-Link Logistics Asia are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– World-Link Logistics Asia 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 Trucking 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. World-Link Logistics Asia 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– World-Link Logistics Asia has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Trucking industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, World-Link Logistics Asia needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Trucking 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.
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.
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 World-Link Logistics Asia.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for World-Link Logistics Asia in Trucking industry. The Trucking 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that World-Link Logistics Asia is facing in Trucking sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 World-Link Logistics Asia business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of World-Link Logistics Asia
– 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 World-Link Logistics Asia.
Consumer confidence and its impact on World-Link Logistics Asia 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 Trucking industry and other sectors.
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. World-Link Logistics Asia needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Trucking industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, World-Link Logistics Asia 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 World-Link Logistics Asia prominent markets.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Trucking industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. World-Link Logistics Asia can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of World-Link Logistics Asia Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at World-Link Logistics Asia 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 World-Link Logistics Asia 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 World-Link Logistics Asia 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 World-Link Logistics Asia 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 World-Link Logistics Asia needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
