Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures
Though the world has recently been described as "flat," we contend that it is also "lumpy." Some managerial practices may be universal (i.e., applicable across all cultures), while others may have to be customized for location. In this technical note, we discuss the application of kaizen principles across cultures. When managers analyze kaizen with cultural values in mind, they may find the key to its practical success, and where relevant values or predispositions do not come naturally, adjustments may benefit from a pragmatism based on cultural fluency.
Swot Analysis of "Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures" written by Elliott N. Weiss, Donald Stevenson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Kaizen Cultures facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business, Operations management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kaizen Cultures, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kaizen Cultures 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 Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kaizen Cultures
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 Kaizen Cultures
Strengths Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Kaizen Cultures in Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Kaizen Cultures 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 lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Kaizen Cultures 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 Kaizen Cultures in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Kaizen Cultures 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.
High brand equity
– Kaizen Cultures has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Kaizen Cultures to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Kaizen Cultures to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Kaizen Cultures to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Kaizen Cultures is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Kaizen Cultures is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Kaizen Cultures has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures 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.
Analytics focus
– Kaizen Cultures 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 Elliott N. Weiss, Donald Stevenson 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Kaizen Cultures is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Kaizen Cultures is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Organizational Resilience of Kaizen Cultures
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Kaizen Cultures does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Kaizen Cultures is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Kaizen Cultures needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Kaizen Cultures to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures, 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.
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 Kaizen Cultures supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Kaizen Cultures vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures 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 Kaizen Cultures has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Kaizen Cultures 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Kaizen Cultures 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Kaizen Cultures 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, Elliott N. Weiss, Donald Stevenson suggests that, Kaizen Cultures 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures, it seems that the employees of Kaizen Cultures 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures, is just above the industry average. Kaizen Cultures 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures 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 Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Kaizen Cultures is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures | 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 Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Kaizen Cultures 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 Kaizen Cultures 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 Kaizen Cultures 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Kaizen Cultures to increase its market reach. Kaizen Cultures 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Kaizen Cultures 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Kaizen Cultures can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Kaizen Cultures 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.
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. Kaizen Cultures can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Kaizen Cultures 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Kaizen Cultures can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Kaizen Cultures can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Kaizen Cultures 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Kaizen Cultures 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Kaizen Cultures 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.
Threats Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Kaizen Cultures 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.
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 Kaizen Cultures.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Kaizen Cultures has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Kaizen Cultures needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Kaizen Cultures 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.
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. Kaizen Cultures 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 Kaizen Cultures 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Kaizen Cultures 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 Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Kaizen Cultures is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Kaizen Cultures 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Kaizen Cultures 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.
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 Kaizen Cultures 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. Kaizen Cultures needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures 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 Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures 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 Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures 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 Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures 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 Kaizen in Translation: Suggestion Systems Across Cultures 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 Kaizen Cultures needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
