Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore
Yamato Transport, Japan's leading parcel delivery company, experienced internationalization and geographical diversification issues. When it launched its operations in Singapore in 2010 with a view to further branching out into Southeast Asia, the company faced challenges owing to different cultural and social landscapes, difficulties penetrating a small and saturated market, and problems hiring manpower aligned with the company's business model. The key success factors for Yamato Transport in Japan and their applicability in Singapore are analyzed. What will it take for Yamato Transport to succeed in Singapore when pitted against the mighty SingPost? Authors Abhishek Aggarwal, Rohit Kadam, and Lawrence Loh are affiliated with NUS Business School.
Authors :: Abhishek Aggarwal, Rohit Kadam, Lawrence Loh
Swot Analysis of "Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore" written by Abhishek Aggarwal, Rohit Kadam, Lawrence Loh includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Yamato Transport facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
there is backlash against globalization, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Yamato Transport, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Yamato Transport 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 Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Yamato Transport
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 Yamato Transport
Strengths Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Yamato Transport in Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Yamato Transport 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 Abhishek Aggarwal, Rohit Kadam, Lawrence Loh 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Yamato Transport 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Yamato Transport 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Yamato Transport 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 Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore - 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 Yamato Transport
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Yamato Transport does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Yamato Transport 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 Yamato Transport is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Yamato Transport 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 Yamato Transport in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Yamato Transport in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Yamato Transport has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Yamato Transport to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Yamato Transport 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 Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Yamato Transport is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore 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.
Weaknesses Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore 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 Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Yamato Transport is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Yamato Transport 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 - Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore 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 Yamato Transport has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Yamato Transport products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Yamato Transport needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Yamato Transport 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore HBR case study mentions - Yamato Transport 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Yamato Transport is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Yamato Transport needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Yamato Transport to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore, in the dynamic environment Yamato Transport has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Yamato Transport has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore, 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 Yamato Transport supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Yamato Transport vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Yamato Transport, firm in the HBR case study Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore | 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 Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Yamato Transport can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Yamato Transport 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.
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 Yamato Transport 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Yamato Transport can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Yamato Transport operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Yamato Transport 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.
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. Yamato Transport 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. Yamato Transport 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Yamato Transport 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, Yamato Transport 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Yamato Transport can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Yamato Transport can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Yamato Transport 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 Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Yamato Transport to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Yamato Transport 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
– Yamato Transport 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.
Threats Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Yamato Transport 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. Yamato Transport 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Yamato Transport with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Yamato Transport 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 Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Yamato Transport 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 wage structure of Yamato Transport
– 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 Yamato Transport.
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 Yamato Transport.
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. Yamato Transport needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Yamato Transport has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Yamato Transport 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.
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 Yamato Transport business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Yamato Transport in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Yamato Transport 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore 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 Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore 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 Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore 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 Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore 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 Yamato Transport: Replicating Japanese Success in Singapore 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 Yamato Transport needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
