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Kobayashi Pharmaceutical (4967) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Kobayashi Pharmaceutical (Japan)


Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Kobayashi Pharmaceutical is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Kobayashi Pharmaceutical can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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 Kobayashi Pharmaceutical can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Major Drugs sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical




Strengths of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical are -

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Major Drugs 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.

Digital Transformation in Major Drugs industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Kobayashi Pharmaceutical digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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 recruit top talent

– Kobayashi Pharmaceutical is one of the leading players in the Major Drugs industry in Japan. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Japan. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Kobayashi Pharmaceutical is one of the most innovative firm in Major Drugs sector.

Strong track record of project management in the Major Drugs industry

– Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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 Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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.

Organizational Resilience of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Kobayashi Pharmaceutical does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Training and development

– Kobayashi Pharmaceutical has one of the best training and development program in Healthcare 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.

High brand equity

– Kobayashi Pharmaceutical has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Kobayashi Pharmaceutical to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Ability to lead change in Major Drugs

– Kobayashi Pharmaceutical is one of the leading players in the Major Drugs industry in Japan. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Major Drugs industry in Japan but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Kobayashi Pharmaceutical in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Major Drugs industry

– Kobayashi Pharmaceutical has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Kobayashi Pharmaceutical to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Major Drugs industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Kobayashi Pharmaceutical to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.






Weaknesses of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical are -

Products dominated business model

– Even though Kobayashi Pharmaceutical has some of the most successful models in the Major Drugs industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Kobayashi Pharmaceutical should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

High dependence on Kobayashi Pharmaceutical ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Major Drugs industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Kobayashi Pharmaceutical has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Major Drugs industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical has high operating costs in the Major Drugs industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Kobayashi Pharmaceutical lucrative customers.

Lack of clear differentiation of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Japan, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Employees’ less understanding of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Major Drugs industry, but Kobayashi Pharmaceutical needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Kobayashi Pharmaceutical to focus more on services in the Major Drugs industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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 Major Drugs industry using digital technology.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Kobayashi Pharmaceutical needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Major Drugs industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Kobayashi Pharmaceutical can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Kobayashi Pharmaceutical is planning to shift buying processes online.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, in the dynamic environment of Major Drugs industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Kobayashi Pharmaceutical has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.




Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical are -

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Major Drugs industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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. Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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.

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 Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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

– Kobayashi Pharmaceutical can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Major Drugs 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Kobayashi Pharmaceutical can utilize new technology in the field of Major Drugs industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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 Kobayashi Pharmaceutical to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Developing new processes and practices

– Kobayashi Pharmaceutical can develop new processes and procedures in Major Drugs industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Kobayashi Pharmaceutical in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Major Drugs industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Major Drugs industry. This can help Kobayashi Pharmaceutical to build a more holistic ecosystem for Kobayashi Pharmaceutical products in the Major Drugs industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Kobayashi Pharmaceutical to increase its market reach. Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Kobayashi Pharmaceutical operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Major Drugs sector.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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.




Threats Kobayashi Pharmaceutical External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical are -

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 Kobayashi Pharmaceutical business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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 Major Drugs industry are lowering. It can presents Kobayashi Pharmaceutical with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Major Drugs sector.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Kobayashi Pharmaceutical is facing in Major Drugs sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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 Major Drugs industry and other sectors.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Major Drugs sector.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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 Major Drugs industry.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Major Drugs industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Kobayashi Pharmaceutical can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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.

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.

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. Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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.

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 Kobayashi Pharmaceutical in the Major Drugs sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Increasing wage structure of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical

– 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 Kobayashi Pharmaceutical.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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 Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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 Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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 Kobayashi Pharmaceutical 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 Kobayashi Pharmaceutical needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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