Takara Holdings Inc. (2531) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Beverages (Alcoholic)
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Takara Holdings Inc. (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Takara Holdings Inc. is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Takara Holdings Inc.
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Takara Holdings Inc. can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Takara Holdings Inc., and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Takara Holdings 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 Takara Holdings Inc. can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Takara Holdings Inc.
2. Improving business portfolio management of Takara Holdings Inc.
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Beverages (Alcoholic) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Takara Holdings Inc.
Strengths of Takara Holdings Inc. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Takara Holdings Inc. are -
Strong track record of project management in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry
– Takara Holdings 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.
Training and development
– Takara Holdings Inc. has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-Cyclical 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.
Digital Transformation in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Takara Holdings Inc. digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Takara Holdings 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry
– Takara Holdings Inc. has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Takara Holdings Inc. to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Takara Holdings Inc. to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Takara Holdings 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 Takara Holdings Inc. is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Takara Holdings Inc. emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Takara Holdings Inc. has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Takara Holdings Inc. staying ahead in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Takara Holdings Inc. is present in almost all the verticals within the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry. This has provided Takara Holdings 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Takara Holdings 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Takara Holdings Inc. is one of the most innovative firm in Beverages (Alcoholic) sector.
Organizational Resilience of Takara Holdings Inc.
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Takara Holdings Inc. 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
– Takara Holdings Inc. has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Takara Holdings 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Takara Holdings Inc. is one of the leading players in the Beverages (Alcoholic) 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.
Weaknesses of Takara Holdings Inc. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Takara Holdings Inc. are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Takara Holdings Inc. is one of the leading players in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry in last five years.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, Takara Holdings Inc. 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 Beverages (Alcoholic) industry.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Takara Holdings Inc., in the dynamic environment of Beverages (Alcoholic) industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Takara Holdings 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 Takara Holdings Inc. ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Takara Holdings Inc. still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Takara Holdings Inc. has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Takara Holdings Inc. needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Takara Holdings Inc. can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Takara Holdings Inc. is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Takara Holdings Inc. has high operating costs in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Takara Holdings Inc. lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Takara Holdings 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Takara Holdings Inc. is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Takara Holdings Inc. to provide better information regarding Beverages (Alcoholic) products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Takara Holdings Inc. is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry, but Takara Holdings Inc. needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Takara Holdings Inc. to focus more on services in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ less understanding of Takara Holdings Inc. strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Takara Holdings 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Takara Holdings 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 Beverages (Alcoholic) industry using digital technology.
Takara Holdings Inc. Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Takara Holdings Inc. are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Takara Holdings Inc. is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Takara Holdings Inc. can utilize new technology in the field of Beverages (Alcoholic) industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Takara Holdings 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. Takara Holdings 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Takara Holdings 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 Beverages (Alcoholic) industry.
Manufacturing automation
– Takara Holdings Inc. can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Beverages (Alcoholic) 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 Takara Holdings Inc. to increase its market reach. Takara Holdings 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Takara Holdings Inc. has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Beverages (Alcoholic) sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Takara Holdings Inc. to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Takara Holdings Inc. to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Takara Holdings 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Takara Holdings 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Takara Holdings 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 Takara Holdings Inc. to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Takara Holdings 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Takara Holdings Inc. can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Takara Holdings Inc. operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Beverages (Alcoholic) sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Takara Holdings 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 Beverages (Alcoholic) industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Takara Holdings Inc. in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry. Now Takara Holdings Inc. can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Takara Holdings Inc. External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Takara Holdings Inc. are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Takara Holdings Inc. is facing in Beverages (Alcoholic) sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Takara Holdings Inc. can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Takara Holdings Inc. needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Takara Holdings 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 Beverages (Alcoholic) industry and other sectors.
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 Takara Holdings Inc. in the Beverages (Alcoholic) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
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 Takara Holdings 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Takara Holdings 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 Takara Holdings Inc. prominent markets.
Increasing wage structure of Takara Holdings 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 Takara Holdings Inc..
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Takara Holdings Inc. in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry. The Beverages (Alcoholic) 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Takara Holdings 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Takara Holdings 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 Beverages (Alcoholic) sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Takara Holdings Inc. Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Takara Holdings 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 Takara Holdings 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 Takara Holdings 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 Takara Holdings 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 Takara Holdings Inc. needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
