Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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 Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Trucking sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko
Strengths of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko is one of the leading players in the Trucking 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 brand equity
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko is present in almost all the verticals within the Trucking industry. This has provided Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Trucking 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)
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko staying ahead in the Trucking industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko is one of the most innovative firm in Trucking sector.
Analytics focus
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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 Trucking 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Trucking industry
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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 Trucking
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko is one of the leading players in the Trucking industry in Japan. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Trucking industry in Japan but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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 Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko in Trucking industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko has one of the best training and development program in Transportation 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.
Weaknesses of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Trucking industry, Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko to provide better information regarding Trucking products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko has high operating costs in the Trucking industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Japan, Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Trucking industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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 Trucking industry.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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 Trucking industry using digital technology.
Need for greater diversity
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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.
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 Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Trucking industry, but Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko to focus more on services in the Trucking industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Trucking industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko is planning to shift buying processes online.
Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Trucking industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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 Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Trucking industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko to increase its market reach. Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko can utilize new technology in the field of Trucking industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko can develop new processes and procedures in Trucking 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Trucking sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Trucking 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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 Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Trucking 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 Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko in Trucking industry. The Trucking 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 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. Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Trucking industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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 Trucking industry and other sectors.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Trucking industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Trucking 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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.
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 Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko in the Trucking sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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. Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Trucking industry.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko is facing in Trucking sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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 Trucking industry.
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 Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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 Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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 Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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 Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko 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 Nippon Konpo Unyu Soko needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.