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Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B)


Supplement to case NA0405. Konica Minolta Business Solutions (KMBS) was a leader in advanced document management technologies. Its business solutions were grouped under office systems, print production, and printers. Its business solutions were grouped under office systems, print production, and printers. Peter Daniel, Branch Manager for northern New Jersey at KMBS, recently assigned Bill Swanson to be the sales rep responsible for Bergen and Passaic counties in New Jersey. Swanson was assigned the responsibility of winning an important account away from competitors, namely, NYCG, a large global accounting and consulting firm in Wayne, New Jersey. Swanson had to draft a plan to gather information from the prospect. The sales process can be classified into three key phases: prospecting, needs identification, and proposing a solution and closing the deal. The KMBS cases (A), (B), and (C) primarily focus on needs identification. In KMBS(A), Swanson had to develop the plan of action for planning, preparing, and approaching NYCG. In KMBS(B), Swanson met with the Global Procurement Director at NYCG, Bob Benedict, to understand NYCG's needs. He also met with Peter Daniel to discuss how they should continue to identify NYCG's needs. Finally, in KMBS(C), Swanson met with the heads of the Distributed Print Services and Central Print Services divisions, as well as other users at NYCG, to understand their needs. These efforts should help KMBS create a custom solution for NYCG. Swanson and Daniel thus must decide which solutions to present to NYCG.

Authors :: Prabakar Kothandaraman, Sudha Mani, William J. Healy

Topics :: Sales & Marketing

Tags :: Manufacturing, Sales, Technology, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B)" written by Prabakar Kothandaraman, Sudha Mani, William J. Healy includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Kmbs Swanson facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Manufacturing, Sales, Technology and Sales & Marketing.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B)


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kmbs Swanson, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kmbs Swanson 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 Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kmbs Swanson
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Kmbs Swanson




Strengths Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Kmbs Swanson in Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -

Strong track record of project management

– Kmbs Swanson 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 Kmbs Swanson 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.

Training and development

– Kmbs Swanson has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Kmbs Swanson has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field

– Kmbs Swanson is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Kmbs Swanson in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Kmbs Swanson in the sector have low bargaining power. Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Kmbs Swanson to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry

– Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Kmbs Swanson to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Kmbs Swanson to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Kmbs Swanson 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Kmbs Swanson is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

High brand equity

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

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Kmbs Swanson has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.






Weaknesses Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) are -

Products dominated business model

– Even though Kmbs Swanson has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Lack of clear differentiation of Kmbs Swanson products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Kmbs Swanson needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B), in the dynamic environment Kmbs Swanson has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Kmbs Swanson has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Kmbs Swanson has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Kmbs Swanson is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Kmbs Swanson needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Kmbs Swanson to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Kmbs Swanson 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 industry using digital technology.

Need for greater diversity

– Kmbs Swanson 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 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 Kmbs Swanson supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Kmbs Swanson vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Kmbs Swanson needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

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

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Kmbs Swanson, firm in the HBR case study Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.




Opportunities Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) are -

Loyalty marketing

– Kmbs Swanson 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Kmbs Swanson 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 Kmbs Swanson to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Developing new processes and practices

– Kmbs Swanson can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Kmbs Swanson 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 Kmbs Swanson in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Kmbs Swanson 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. Kmbs Swanson 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Kmbs Swanson 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, as suggested in case study, Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Finding new ways to collaborate

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

Buying journey improvements

– Kmbs Swanson can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) suggest that firm 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.

Increase in government spending

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

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Kmbs Swanson has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Kmbs Swanson to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Kmbs Swanson in the consumer business. Now Kmbs Swanson can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.




Threats Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) 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.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Kmbs Swanson high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.

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 Kmbs Swanson business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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. Kmbs Swanson 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.

Regulatory challenges

– Kmbs Swanson 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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.

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 Kmbs Swanson.

Barriers of entry lowering

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

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Kmbs Swanson is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Kmbs Swanson 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 field.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Kmbs Swanson has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Kmbs Swanson needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Kmbs Swanson in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing 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.

Increasing wage structure of Kmbs Swanson

– 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 Kmbs Swanson.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) 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 the case study Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) 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 the Harvard case study Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) 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 Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling (B) is 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 Kmbs Swanson needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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