Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc (4182) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc (Japan)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Chemical Manufacturing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc

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Strengths of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc are -

Digital Transformation in Chemical Manufacturing industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 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.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc 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.

Strong track record of project management in the Chemical Manufacturing industry

– Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.

Analytics focus

– Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 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 Chemical Manufacturing 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc 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.

Learning organization

- Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 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 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Organizational Resilience of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc

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

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Chemical Manufacturing industry

– Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc in Chemical Manufacturing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Training and development

– Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc has one of the best training and development program in Basic Materials 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

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Weaknesses of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc are -

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry using digital technology.

Skills based hiring in Chemical Manufacturing industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

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 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry over the last five years. Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc is one of the leading players in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Chemical Manufacturing industry in last five years.

Employees’ less understanding of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc 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 of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc is just above the Chemical Manufacturing industry average. It 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.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc has high operating costs in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc lucrative customers.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc to provide better information regarding Chemical Manufacturing products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

High dependence on Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Chemical Manufacturing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

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Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc are -

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc 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 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Chemical Manufacturing industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. Now Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Chemical Manufacturing 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc to increase its market reach. Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc can develop new processes and procedures in Chemical Manufacturing 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Chemical Manufacturing sector.

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 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 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.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc 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 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Chemical Manufacturing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc 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.

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Threats Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc are -

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 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 Chemical Manufacturing sector.

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 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Chemical Manufacturing industry are lowering. It can presents Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Chemical Manufacturing sector.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc in Chemical Manufacturing industry. The Chemical Manufacturing 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry.

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. Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Increasing wage structure of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 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 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc.

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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc is facing in Chemical Manufacturing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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. Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc 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 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc in the Chemical Manufacturing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc 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.

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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc Template, Example

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

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