Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc (9508) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Electric Utilities
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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 Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Electric Utilities sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc
Strengths of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc are -
High brand equity
– Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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 Electric Utilities industry. The technology infrastructure of Japan is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Electric Utilities industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc staying ahead in the Electric Utilities industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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 Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc in the Utilities sector have low bargaining power. Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Electric Utilities industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Electric Utilities 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.
Training and development
– Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc has one of the best training and development program in Utilities industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc in Electric Utilities industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc is present in almost all the verticals within the Electric Utilities industry. This has provided Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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 of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc is one of the leading players in the Electric Utilities industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Electric Utilities industry in last five years.
Need for greater diversity
– Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Electric Utilities industry over the last five years. Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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, Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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 Electric Utilities industry using digital technology.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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 at Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc, in the dynamic environment of Electric Utilities industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Electric Utilities industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Electric Utilities industry, but Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc to focus more on services in the Electric Utilities industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc to provide better information regarding Electric Utilities products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Japan, Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Electric Utilities industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc is planning to shift buying processes online.
Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Electric Utilities industry. This can help Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc to build a more holistic ecosystem for Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc products in the Electric Utilities industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Electric Utilities sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc can develop new processes and procedures in Electric Utilities 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 Electric Utilities industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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. Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Electric Utilities sector. 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 Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Electric Utilities industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Electric Utilities industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc in the Electric Utilities industry. Now Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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 Electric Utilities industry.
Buying journey improvements
– Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Electric Utilities industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It 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.
Threats Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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 Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc prominent markets.
Increasing wage structure of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc
– 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 Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Electric Utilities sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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 Electric Utilities industry and other sectors.
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 Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc in Electric Utilities industry. The Electric Utilities 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Electric Utilities industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Electric Utilities 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.
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 Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Electric Utilities industry are lowering. It can presents Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Electric Utilities sector.
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 Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc in the Electric Utilities sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Electric Utilities industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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 Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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 Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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 Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc 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 Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.