Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value
Recruit Holdings, Japan's largest staffing firm and a leading marketing media company started out in the early 1960s as an advertising company publishing magazines for jobseekers. It scaled up over the following decades to add business verticals such as real estate, bridal, travel, beauty salons and restaurants. Spurred by the internet revolution in the early 2000s, Recruit launched job boards and websites for its diverse media businesses while also moving content online by digitizing many of its popular magazines. In the early 2010s, it transitioned into becoming a service provider with the launch of a number of web-based platforms that allowed SMEs to digitize several key activities, such as point-of-sale registers, reservations and payments. By 2015 Recruit's digital platforms had gained significant popularity and the company was generating enormous amounts of online data on types of transactions, end-user behaviors and SME business characteristics. It also held significant deep offline data that resided within the sales team. However, the platforms and the data was specific to individual businesses. Recruit began to push for a unified backbone platform that would cut across all businesses with vertically stacked integrated solutions. It also established an artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory in Silicon Valley. The mandate was to apply the latest technologies in data analytics, machine learning and AI to achieve breakthrough innovation. At the same time, Recruit harbored global aspirations and embarked on international expansion, mainly through acquisitions. Its goal was to become the world's largest staffing firm by 2020 and the largest media company by 2030. Could Recruit replicate its business model successfully overseas? Could it leverage its people and technological platforms to transform itself into a truly global internet corporation? Could it cannibalize its existing businesses through data-driven innovations to leapfrog into the future?
Authors :: Howard H. Yu, Thomas W. Malnight, Ivy Buche
Swot Analysis of "Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value" written by Howard H. Yu, Thomas W. Malnight, Ivy Buche includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Recruit Platforms facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Innovation, IT, Marketing and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value casestudy better are - – technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Recruit Platforms, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Recruit Platforms 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 Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Recruit Platforms
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 Recruit Platforms
Strengths Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Recruit Platforms in Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Recruit Platforms is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Recruit Platforms is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Recruit Platforms in the sector have low bargaining power. Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Recruit Platforms to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Recruit Platforms has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Recruit Platforms 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.
Learning organization
- Recruit Platforms 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 Recruit Platforms is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Recruit Platforms 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 Howard H. Yu, Thomas W. Malnight, Ivy Buche 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.
Training and development
– Recruit Platforms has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value 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.
Organizational Resilience of Recruit Platforms
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Recruit Platforms does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Recruit Platforms in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Recruit Platforms digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Recruit Platforms 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Recruit Platforms 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 Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Recruit Platforms 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 Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Recruit Platforms 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 - Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Recruit Platforms 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Howard H. Yu, Thomas W. Malnight, Ivy Buche suggests that, Recruit Platforms 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Recruit Platforms 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value, in the dynamic environment Recruit Platforms has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Recruit Platforms has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Recruit Platforms is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Recruit Platforms, firm in the HBR case study Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Recruit Platforms products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Recruit Platforms needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value, is just above the industry average. Recruit Platforms 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, Recruit Platforms 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value HBR case study mentions - Recruit Platforms 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.
Opportunities Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value | 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 Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Recruit Platforms can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Recruit Platforms 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Recruit Platforms can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value 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.
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. Recruit Platforms can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Recruit Platforms in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Recruit Platforms 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 Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Recruit Platforms to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Recruit Platforms 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 Recruit Platforms to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Recruit Platforms to increase its market reach. Recruit Platforms 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.
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 Recruit Platforms in the consumer business. Now Recruit Platforms can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Recruit Platforms 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Recruit Platforms can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Recruit Platforms operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Recruit Platforms 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 Recruit Platforms can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value are -
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 Recruit Platforms business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Recruit Platforms can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Recruit Platforms in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Recruit Platforms has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Recruit Platforms 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.
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.
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 Recruit Platforms.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Recruit Platforms 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value, Recruit Platforms 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Recruit Platforms 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.
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. Recruit Platforms 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
– Recruit Platforms 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Recruit Platforms in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations 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.
Environmental challenges
– Recruit Platforms 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. Recruit Platforms can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value 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 Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value 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 Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value 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 Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value 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 Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value 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 Recruit Platforms needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.