Swot Analysis of "Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B)" written by Michael Y. Yoshino, Yukihiko Endo includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Matsushita Electric facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy, Leadership, Organizational culture and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Matsushita Electric, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Matsushita Electric 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 Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Matsushita Electric
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Matsushita Electric
Strengths Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Matsushita Electric in Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Matsushita Electric in the sector have low bargaining power. Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Matsushita Electric to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Matsushita Electric in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Matsushita Electric 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 Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Matsushita Electric 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 Matsushita Electric is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Matsushita Electric 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 Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (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.
Organizational Resilience of Matsushita Electric
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Matsushita Electric does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Matsushita Electric 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 Matsushita Electric in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Matsushita Electric is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Matsushita Electric 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 Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Matsushita Electric digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Matsushita Electric 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.
Analytics focus
– Matsushita Electric 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 Michael Y. Yoshino, Yukihiko Endo 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
– Matsushita Electric has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Matsushita Electric 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.
Weaknesses Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Matsushita Electric 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. Matsushita Electric 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Matsushita Electric 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Matsushita Electric is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Matsushita Electric needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Matsushita Electric to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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 Matsushita Electric supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Matsushita Electric vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Matsushita Electric 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Matsushita Electric, firm in the HBR case study Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) HBR case study mentions - Matsushita Electric 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Matsushita Electric 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Matsushita Electric 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B), in the dynamic environment Matsushita Electric has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Matsushita Electric has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (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 Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) are -
Buying journey improvements
– Matsushita Electric can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (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.
Manufacturing automation
– Matsushita Electric can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Matsushita Electric 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Matsushita Electric 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 Matsushita Electric to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Matsushita Electric 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. Matsushita Electric 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Matsushita Electric 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 Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Matsushita Electric to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Matsushita Electric can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Matsushita Electric operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Matsushita Electric 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Matsushita Electric can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Matsushita Electric can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Matsushita Electric in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Matsushita Electric 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Matsushita Electric is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Threats Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B) are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Matsushita Electric 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Matsushita Electric in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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
– Matsushita Electric 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. Matsushita Electric can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Matsushita Electric 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
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.
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 Matsushita Electric business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Matsushita Electric
– 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 Matsushita Electric.
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. Matsushita Electric 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Matsushita Electric can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (B), Matsushita Electric may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Matsushita Electric 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.
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. Matsushita Electric needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Matsushita Electric.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (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 Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (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 Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (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 Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (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 Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (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 Matsushita Electric needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
