Obic Business Consultants (4733) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Obic Business Consultants (Japan)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Obic Business Consultants is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc

---

---

---

---

Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Obic Business Consultants

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

---

Strengths of Obic Business Consultants | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Obic Business Consultants are -

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Obic Business Consultants in the Technology sector have low bargaining power. Obic Business Consultants has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Obic Business Consultants to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Strong track record of project management in the Computer Networks industry

– Obic Business Consultants is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Ability to lead change in Computer Networks

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

Organizational Resilience of Obic Business Consultants

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

Successful track record of launching new products

– Obic Business Consultants has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Obic Business Consultants 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Obic Business Consultants comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Computer Networks 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Obic Business Consultants has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Obic Business Consultants staying ahead in the Computer Networks industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Training and development

– Obic Business Consultants has one of the best training and development program in Technology 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.

Learning organization

- Obic Business Consultants 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 Obic Business Consultants is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Obic Business Consultants emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Analytics focus

– Obic Business Consultants 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 Computer Networks 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

– Obic Business Consultants has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Computer Networks industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Obic Business Consultants have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

High brand equity

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

---

---

Weaknesses of Obic Business Consultants | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Obic Business Consultants are -

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, Obic Business Consultants has high operating costs in the Computer Networks industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Obic Business Consultants lucrative customers.

Products dominated business model

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

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Obic Business Consultants is one of the leading players in the Computer Networks industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Computer Networks industry in last five years.

Skills based hiring in Computer Networks industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Obic Business Consultants has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Obic Business Consultants has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Computer Networks 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 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 Obic Business Consultants supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Obic Business Consultants is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Obic Business Consultants vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Low market penetration in new markets

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

Aligning sales with marketing

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

High bargaining power of channel partners in Computer Networks industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, Obic Business Consultants is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the Computer Networks industry.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Obic Business Consultants is just above the Computer Networks 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

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

---

Obic Business Consultants Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Obic Business Consultants are -

Increase in government spending

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

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Obic Business Consultants has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Computer Networks sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Obic Business Consultants to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Obic Business Consultants to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Computer Networks industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Obic Business Consultants 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. Obic Business Consultants 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.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Computer Networks industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Obic Business Consultants in the Computer Networks industry. Now Obic Business Consultants can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Obic Business Consultants 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

– Obic Business Consultants can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Computer Networks 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Obic Business Consultants is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Obic Business Consultants can utilize new technology in the field of Computer Networks industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, 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. Obic Business Consultants can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Obic Business Consultants 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 Computer Networks industry.

Loyalty marketing

– Obic Business Consultants 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.

Creating value in data economy

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

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Obic Business Consultants 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Obic Business Consultants can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Computer Networks 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.

---

Threats Obic Business Consultants External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Obic Business Consultants are -

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Obic Business Consultants 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 Computer Networks industry.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Obic Business Consultants in Computer Networks industry. The Computer Networks 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.

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 Obic Business Consultants business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Obic Business Consultants has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Computer Networks industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Obic Business Consultants needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Computer Networks 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.

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. Obic Business Consultants needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Computer Networks industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Easy access to finance

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

Learning curve for new practices

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

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Obic Business Consultants is facing in Computer Networks sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Increasing wage structure of Obic Business Consultants

– 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 Obic Business Consultants.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Computer Networks industry are lowering. It can presents Obic Business Consultants with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Computer Networks sector.

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.

Environmental challenges

– Obic Business Consultants needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Obic Business Consultants can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Computer Networks industry.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Obic Business Consultants 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.

---

Weighted SWOT Analysis of Obic Business Consultants Template, Example

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

--- ---