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 – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, 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 -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Maruha Nichiro Corp comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Fish/Livestock 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Maruha Nichiro Corp is one of the most innovative firm in Fish/Livestock sector.
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 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.
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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Maruha Nichiro Corp is present in almost all the verticals within the Fish/Livestock industry. This has provided Maruha Nichiro Corp 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.
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.
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.
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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Maruha Nichiro Corp has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Fish/Livestock industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Maruha Nichiro Corp have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
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.
Learning organization
- Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Maruha Nichiro Corp is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Maruha Nichiro Corp emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
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 -
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.
Need for greater diversity
– Maruha Nichiro Corp has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Employees’ less understanding of Maruha Nichiro Corp strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Maruha Nichiro Corp 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.
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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Maruha Nichiro Corp has high operating costs in the Fish/Livestock industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Maruha Nichiro Corp lucrative customers.
High dependence on Maruha Nichiro Corp ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Maruha Nichiro Corp still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Fish/Livestock industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Maruha Nichiro Corp has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Maruha Nichiro Corp needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Fish/Livestock industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Maruha Nichiro Corp can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Maruha Nichiro Corp is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 -
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.
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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Maruha Nichiro Corp is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Maruha Nichiro Corp can utilize new technology in the field of Fish/Livestock industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Maruha Nichiro Corp 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.
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.
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 Maruha Nichiro Corp 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.
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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Maruha Nichiro Corp to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Maruha Nichiro Corp can develop new processes and procedures in Fish/Livestock 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.
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 -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Maruha Nichiro Corp 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 Maruha Nichiro Corp prominent markets.
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.
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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Maruha Nichiro Corp 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.
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.
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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Maruha Nichiro Corp 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. Maruha Nichiro Corp can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Fish/Livestock industry.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Maruha Nichiro Corp in Fish/Livestock industry. The Fish/Livestock 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.
Increasing wage structure of Maruha Nichiro Corp
– 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 Maruha Nichiro Corp.
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.
