Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work
Tamago-ya is a family-owned business located in Tokyo, Japan. The company has captured a unique position in the market of selling pre-packaged lunch boxes to business professionals by maintaining high quality and reliable delivery. In order for Tamago-ya to guarantee such a high level of customer service, it has created an operational culture wherein those who deliver orders also engage in judging customer demand and feedback, those who supply food materials must be able to respond to variation in demand on a daily basis, and those who plan the production and distribution schedule must forecast and adjust on a real-time basis. Tamago-ya competes with convenience stores, which offer less variety in their menu options throughout the month, can stock-out on popular choices, and tend to have long lines during the lunchtime rush. However, Tamago-ya is faced with many challenges--including demand forecasting, supply planning, and long-term strategic planning.
Authors :: Jin Whang, Shinya Fushimi, Jason Kaminsky, Veronica Rocha
Swot Analysis of "Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work" written by Jin Whang, Shinya Fushimi, Jason Kaminsky, Veronica Rocha includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Tamago Ya facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customer service, Manufacturing, Supply chain and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tamago Ya, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tamago Ya 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 Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tamago Ya
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Tamago Ya
Strengths Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tamago Ya in Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Tamago Ya in the sector have low bargaining power. Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Tamago Ya to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Tamago Ya has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Tamago Ya 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Tamago Ya to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Tamago Ya to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Tamago Ya is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Tamago Ya 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 Jin Whang, Shinya Fushimi, Jason Kaminsky, Veronica Rocha 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Tamago Ya in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Tamago Ya has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Tamago Ya 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Tamago Ya is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Tamago Ya 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Tamago Ya 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 Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Tamago Ya 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Tamago Ya 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 - Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Tamago Ya is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Tamago Ya needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Tamago Ya to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work 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 Tamago Ya has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work, it seems that the employees of Tamago Ya 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work, in the dynamic environment Tamago Ya has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Tamago Ya has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jin Whang, Shinya Fushimi, Jason Kaminsky, Veronica Rocha suggests that, Tamago Ya 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 industry.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Tamago Ya 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Tamago Ya 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Tamago Ya 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.
Opportunities Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work | 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 Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Tamago Ya 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 Technology & Operations segment.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Tamago Ya 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 Tamago Ya to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Tamago Ya in the consumer business. Now Tamago Ya can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Tamago Ya has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Tamago Ya to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work case study. Tamago Ya can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Tamago Ya can develop new processes and procedures in Technology & Operations 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Technology & Operations industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Tamago Ya can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Tamago Ya can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Tamago Ya operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Tamago Ya 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 Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Tamago Ya to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Technology & Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Tamago Ya 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. Tamago Ya 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Tamago Ya 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Tamago Ya can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Tamago Ya 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.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Tamago Ya to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Threats Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Tamago Ya with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Tamago Ya 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 Technology & Operations industry regulations.
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 Tamago Ya business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Tamago Ya needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Tamago Ya 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.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Tamago Ya can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Tamago Ya 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Tamago Ya has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Tamago Ya needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Technology & Operations 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.
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 Tamago Ya.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work, Tamago Ya may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Tamago Ya is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work 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 Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work 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 Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work 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 Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work 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 Tamago-ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work 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 Tamago Ya needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
