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 government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, 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 -
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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that World-Link Logistics Asia 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Trucking industry
– World-Link Logistics Asia has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled World-Link Logistics Asia to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Trucking industry. The sustainable margins have also helped World-Link Logistics Asia to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
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.
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.
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.
High brand equity
– World-Link Logistics Asia has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled World-Link Logistics Asia to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
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 -
Employees’ less understanding of World-Link Logistics Asia strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of World-Link Logistics Asia 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.
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.
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.
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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though World-Link Logistics Asia has some of the most successful models in the Trucking industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. World-Link Logistics Asia should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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.
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.
High dependence on World-Link Logistics Asia ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of World-Link Logistics Asia still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Trucking industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though World-Link Logistics Asia has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
World-Link Logistics Asia has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Trucking 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, World-Link Logistics Asia 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.
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 -
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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Trucking industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. World-Link Logistics Asia can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. World-Link Logistics Asia can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for World-Link Logistics Asia 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 World-Link Logistics Asia to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Trucking industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for World-Link Logistics Asia in the Trucking industry. Now World-Link Logistics Asia can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. World-Link Logistics Asia can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Trucking industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. World-Link Logistics Asia can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for World-Link Logistics Asia in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Trucking industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 -
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.
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.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for World-Link Logistics Asia in the Trucking sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– World-Link Logistics Asia 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 Trucking industry regulations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Trucking industry are lowering. It can presents World-Link Logistics Asia with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Trucking sector.
Environmental challenges
– World-Link Logistics Asia 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. World-Link Logistics Asia can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Trucking industry.
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.