SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Maruha Nichiro Corp (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Maruha Nichiro Corp is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices,
technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Maruha Nichiro Corp
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Maruha Nichiro Corp can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Maruha Nichiro Corp, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Maruha Nichiro Corp can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Maruha Nichiro Corp
2. Improving business portfolio management of Maruha Nichiro Corp
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Fish/Livestock sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Maruha Nichiro Corp
Strengths of Maruha Nichiro Corp | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Maruha Nichiro Corp are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Maruha Nichiro Corp 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Maruha Nichiro Corp in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Maruha Nichiro Corp has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Maruha Nichiro Corp to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Maruha Nichiro Corp is one of the leading players in the Fish/Livestock 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Maruha Nichiro Corp 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.
Training and development
– Maruha Nichiro Corp 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.
High brand equity
– Maruha Nichiro Corp has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Maruha Nichiro Corp to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Maruha Nichiro Corp
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Maruha Nichiro Corp does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management in the Fish/Livestock industry
– Maruha Nichiro Corp is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Maruha Nichiro Corp in Fish/Livestock industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Fish/Livestock
– Maruha Nichiro Corp is one of the leading players in the Fish/Livestock industry in Japan. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Fish/Livestock industry in Japan but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Maruha Nichiro Corp in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Maruha Nichiro Corp has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Maruha Nichiro Corp staying ahead in the Fish/Livestock industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Fish/Livestock industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Maruha Nichiro Corp digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Maruha Nichiro Corp 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.
Weaknesses of Maruha Nichiro Corp | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Maruha Nichiro Corp are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Maruha Nichiro Corp has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Fish/Livestock industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Fish/Livestock industry.
Skills based hiring in Fish/Livestock industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 strategic competitive environment developments
– As Maruha Nichiro Corp is one of the leading players in the Fish/Livestock industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Fish/Livestock industry in last five years.
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 Maruha Nichiro Corp supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Maruha Nichiro Corp is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Maruha Nichiro Corp vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Japan, Maruha Nichiro Corp needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Fish/Livestock industry, Maruha Nichiro Corp needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Maruha Nichiro Corp is just above the Fish/Livestock 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Maruha Nichiro Corp has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Fish/Livestock industry over the last five years. Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Maruha Nichiro Corp is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Maruha Nichiro Corp to provide better information regarding Fish/Livestock products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Maruha Nichiro Corp has some of the most successful models in the Fish/Livestock industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Maruha Nichiro Corp should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Maruha Nichiro Corp Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Maruha Nichiro Corp are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Maruha Nichiro Corp to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Fish/Livestock industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Maruha Nichiro Corp can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Fish/Livestock industry.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Maruha Nichiro Corp to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Maruha Nichiro Corp can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Maruha Nichiro Corp operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Fish/Livestock sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Maruha Nichiro Corp has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Fish/Livestock sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Maruha Nichiro Corp to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Fish/Livestock industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Maruha Nichiro Corp 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. Maruha Nichiro Corp 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Maruha Nichiro Corp has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Fish/Livestock industry. This can help Maruha Nichiro Corp to build a more holistic ecosystem for Maruha Nichiro Corp products in the Fish/Livestock 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, Maruha Nichiro Corp 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Maruha Nichiro Corp can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Maruha Nichiro Corp can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Maruha Nichiro Corp can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Fish/Livestock 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Maruha Nichiro Corp in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Fish/Livestock industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Maruha Nichiro Corp External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Maruha Nichiro Corp are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Maruha Nichiro Corp has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Fish/Livestock industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Maruha Nichiro Corp needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Fish/Livestock 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.
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 Maruha Nichiro Corp business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Fish/Livestock industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Fish/Livestock industry and other sectors.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Fish/Livestock industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Maruha Nichiro Corp can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Maruha Nichiro Corp.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Fish/Livestock industry are lowering. It can presents Maruha Nichiro Corp with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Fish/Livestock sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Maruha Nichiro Corp may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Fish/Livestock sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Fish/Livestock industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Maruha Nichiro Corp is facing in Fish/Livestock sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Maruha Nichiro Corp in the Fish/Livestock 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Maruha Nichiro Corp Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Maruha Nichiro Corp needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.