Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002
In early 2002, Japan, the world's largest economy, had been mired in a decade-long recession. A range of stimulus packages had failed to work their magic. The "Big Bang" financial deregulation reforms announced in 1998 had not quite produced the economic boom that the government had anticipated. Japan struggled to find its place in the increasingly global 21st century. Japan's commercial banks, once the largest in the world, struggled under the weight of their nonperforming loans. Japan's investment banks--the likes of Nomura--remained powerful behemoths. But they had scaled back their global ambitions and were in danger of being eclipsed in their own backyard by a range of foreign financial intermediaries. Meanwhile, the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, accelerated a U.S. economic recession and raised the level of uncertainty in the global business environment across the board. It also contributed to the global investment banking industry's worst slowdown since the 1970s, with large firms recording worldwide slumps in revenues and profits of between 40% and 50%.
Swot Analysis of "Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002" written by Tarun Khanna, Louis P. Dilorenzo Jr. includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Japan's Struggled facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategic planning and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, 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, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Japan's Struggled, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Japan's Struggled 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 Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Japan's Struggled
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Japan's Struggled
Strengths Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Japan's Struggled in Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Japan's Struggled is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 case study 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.
High brand equity
– Japan's Struggled has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Japan's Struggled to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Japan's Struggled 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 Japan's Struggled is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Japan's Struggled 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.
Analytics focus
– Japan's Struggled 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 industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Tarun Khanna, Louis P. Dilorenzo Jr. can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Japan's Struggled has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Japan's Struggled 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Japan's Struggled in the sector have low bargaining power. Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Japan's Struggled to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Japan's Struggled in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Japan's Struggled is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Japan's Struggled digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Japan's Struggled has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Japan's Struggled 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 Japan's Struggled in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Japan's Struggled
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Japan's Struggled does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002, is just above the industry average. Japan's Struggled 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Japan's Struggled 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Japan's Struggled 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002, it seems that the employees of Japan's Struggled 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Japan's Struggled is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Japan's Struggled has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Japan's Struggled 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
– After analyzing the HBR case study Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution strategy. 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002, in the dynamic environment Japan's Struggled has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Japan's Struggled has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 HBR case study mentions - Japan's Struggled takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Japan's Struggled, firm in the HBR case study Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Japan's Struggled products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Japan's Struggled needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 | 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 Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Japan's Struggled to increase its market reach. Japan's Struggled will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Japan's Struggled 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 Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Japan's Struggled 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 Japan's Struggled in the consumer business. Now Japan's Struggled can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Japan's Struggled in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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. Japan's Struggled can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Japan's Struggled can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Japan's Struggled 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Japan's Struggled 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. Japan's Struggled 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Japan's Struggled 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Japan's Struggled can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Japan's Struggled operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Japan's Struggled 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Japan's Struggled 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
– Japan's Struggled can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution segment. 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.
Threats Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Japan's Struggled 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 prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Japan's Struggled 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 the industry and other sectors.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Japan's Struggled is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Japan's Struggled.
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. Japan's Struggled needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Japan's Struggled 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Japan's Struggled 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.
Increasing wage structure of Japan's Struggled
– 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 Japan's Struggled.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002, Japan's Struggled may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Japan's Struggled in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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.
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.
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 Japan's Struggled in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Japan's Struggled 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 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 Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 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 Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 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 Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 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 Competition in Japanese Financial Markets--2002 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 Japan's Struggled needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.