Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , PowerLeader Science & Tech is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing commodity prices,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of PowerLeader Science & Tech
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that PowerLeader Science & Tech can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the PowerLeader Science & Tech, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 PowerLeader Science & Tech can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of PowerLeader Science & Tech
2. Improving business portfolio management of PowerLeader Science & Tech
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Computer Peripherals sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of PowerLeader Science & Tech
Strengths of PowerLeader Science & Tech | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of PowerLeader Science & Tech are -
Analytics focus
– PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 Computer Peripherals 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 PowerLeader Science & Tech 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Computer Peripherals industry
– PowerLeader Science & Tech has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled PowerLeader Science & Tech to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Computer Peripherals industry. The sustainable margins have also helped PowerLeader Science & Tech to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of PowerLeader Science & Tech
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing PowerLeader Science & Tech does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– PowerLeader Science & Tech has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Computer Peripherals industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of PowerLeader Science & Tech have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 PowerLeader Science & Tech is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at PowerLeader Science & Tech emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– PowerLeader Science & Tech has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – PowerLeader Science & Tech staying ahead in the Computer Peripherals industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– PowerLeader Science & Tech is present in almost all the verticals within the Computer Peripherals industry. This has provided PowerLeader Science & Tech 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of PowerLeader Science & Tech in Computer Peripherals industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of PowerLeader Science & Tech in the Technology sector have low bargaining power. PowerLeader Science & Tech has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps PowerLeader Science & Tech to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– PowerLeader Science & Tech has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. PowerLeader Science & Tech 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– PowerLeader Science & Tech is one of the leading players in the Computer Peripherals 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.
Weaknesses of PowerLeader Science & Tech | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of PowerLeader Science & Tech are -
High bargaining power of channel partners in Computer Peripherals industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Hong Kong, PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 Computer Peripherals industry.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 Computer Peripherals industry using digital technology.
Products dominated business model
– Even though PowerLeader Science & Tech has some of the most successful models in the Computer Peripherals industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 PowerLeader Science & Tech supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, PowerLeader Science & Tech is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left PowerLeader Science & Tech vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
PowerLeader Science & Tech has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Computer Peripherals industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of PowerLeader Science & Tech is just above the Computer Peripherals 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, PowerLeader Science & Tech has high operating costs in the Computer Peripherals industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract PowerLeader Science & Tech lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, PowerLeader Science & Tech has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Computer Peripherals industry over the last five years. PowerLeader Science & Tech 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.
Skills based hiring in Computer Peripherals industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at PowerLeader Science & Tech 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.
Employees’ less understanding of PowerLeader Science & Tech strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of PowerLeader Science & Tech 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of PowerLeader Science & Tech is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Computer Peripherals industry, but PowerLeader Science & Tech needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help PowerLeader Science & Tech to focus more on services in the Computer Peripherals industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
PowerLeader Science & Tech Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of PowerLeader Science & Tech are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– PowerLeader Science & Tech has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Computer Peripherals sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled PowerLeader Science & Tech to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help PowerLeader Science & Tech to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, PowerLeader Science & Tech is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. PowerLeader Science & Tech can utilize new technology in the field of Computer Peripherals industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 Computer Peripherals industry.
Loyalty marketing
– PowerLeader Science & Tech 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
– PowerLeader Science & Tech can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Computer Peripherals 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects PowerLeader Science & Tech can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– PowerLeader Science & Tech can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Computer Peripherals 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 PowerLeader Science & Tech 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, PowerLeader Science & Tech can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that PowerLeader Science & Tech operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Computer Peripherals sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for PowerLeader Science & Tech 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– PowerLeader Science & Tech 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
– PowerLeader Science & Tech can develop new processes and procedures in Computer Peripherals 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of PowerLeader Science & Tech has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Computer Peripherals industry. This can help PowerLeader Science & Tech to build a more holistic ecosystem for PowerLeader Science & Tech products in the Computer Peripherals industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats PowerLeader Science & Tech External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of PowerLeader Science & Tech are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Computer Peripherals industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. PowerLeader Science & Tech can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 PowerLeader Science & Tech business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 PowerLeader Science & Tech prominent markets.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that PowerLeader Science & Tech is facing in Computer Peripherals sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– PowerLeader Science & Tech has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Computer Peripherals industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, PowerLeader Science & Tech needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Computer Peripherals 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.
Increasing wage structure of PowerLeader Science & Tech
– 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 PowerLeader Science & Tech.
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. PowerLeader Science & Tech 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.
Environmental challenges
– PowerLeader Science & Tech 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. PowerLeader Science & Tech can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Computer Peripherals industry.
Regulatory challenges
– PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 Computer Peripherals industry regulations.
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 PowerLeader Science & Tech in the Computer Peripherals sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, PowerLeader Science & Tech may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Computer Peripherals sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 Computer Peripherals industry and other sectors.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of PowerLeader Science & Tech Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 PowerLeader Science & Tech 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 PowerLeader Science & Tech needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
