Swot Analysis of "Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (C)" 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 (C) 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 (C) casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (C)
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 (C) 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 (C) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (C) 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 (C) | 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 (C) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (C) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Matsushita Electric to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Matsushita Electric to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
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.
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.
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 (C) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
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 (C) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
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.
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.
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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Matsushita Electric 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.
Training and development
– Matsushita Electric has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (C) Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– 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 (C) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
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 (C) | 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 (C) are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (C) that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (C) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Matsushita Electric is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 (C), 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Matsushita Electric 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.
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 (C) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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.
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 (C), 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.
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.
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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Matsushita Electric 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 - Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (C) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Matsushita Electric products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Matsushita Electric needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (C) | 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 (C) are -
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.
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 (C) suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, 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.
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.
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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Matsushita Electric 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.
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.
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 Matsushita Electric 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.
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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Matsushita Electric can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Matsushita Electric can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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.
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.
Threats Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (C) 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 (C) are -
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 (C), 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 .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Matsushita Electric 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 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.
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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Matsushita Electric 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 Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (C) .
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Matsushita Electric is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Transformation of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 2005 (C) 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 (C) 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 (C) 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 (C) 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 (C) 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.
