SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Maruwa Unyu Kikan (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Maruwa Unyu Kikan is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Maruwa Unyu Kikan
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Maruwa Unyu Kikan can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Maruwa Unyu Kikan, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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 Maruwa Unyu Kikan can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Maruwa Unyu Kikan
2. Improving business portfolio management of Maruwa Unyu Kikan
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Business Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Maruwa Unyu Kikan
Strengths of Maruwa Unyu Kikan | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Maruwa Unyu Kikan are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Maruwa Unyu Kikan in Business Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Maruwa Unyu Kikan has one of the best training and development program in Services 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Maruwa Unyu Kikan is one of the leading players in the Business Services 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.
Ability to lead change in Business Services
– Maruwa Unyu Kikan is one of the leading players in the Business Services industry in Japan. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Business Services industry in Japan but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Maruwa Unyu Kikan in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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 Maruwa Unyu Kikan in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Maruwa Unyu Kikan has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Maruwa Unyu Kikan to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Maruwa Unyu Kikan has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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.
Learning organization
- Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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 Maruwa Unyu Kikan is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Maruwa Unyu Kikan emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management in the Business Services industry
– Maruwa Unyu Kikan is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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.
Organizational Resilience of Maruwa Unyu Kikan
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Maruwa Unyu Kikan does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Business Services industry
– Maruwa Unyu Kikan has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Maruwa Unyu Kikan to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Business Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Maruwa Unyu Kikan to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses of Maruwa Unyu Kikan | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Maruwa Unyu Kikan are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Maruwa Unyu Kikan has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Business Services industry over the last five years. Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Maruwa Unyu Kikan has some of the most successful models in the Business Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Maruwa Unyu Kikan should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Business Services industry, Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Maruwa Unyu Kikan has high operating costs in the Business Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Maruwa Unyu Kikan lucrative customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Maruwa Unyu Kikan products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Maruwa Unyu Kikan needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Maruwa Unyu Kikan is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Maruwa Unyu Kikan to provide better information regarding Business Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring in Business Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Maruwa Unyu Kikan is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Business Services industry, but Maruwa Unyu Kikan needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Maruwa Unyu Kikan to focus more on services in the Business Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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 dependence on Maruwa Unyu Kikan ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Maruwa Unyu Kikan still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Business Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Maruwa Unyu Kikan has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Maruwa Unyu Kikan is one of the leading players in the Business Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Business Services industry in last five years.
Maruwa Unyu Kikan Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Maruwa Unyu Kikan are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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 Maruwa Unyu Kikan to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Business Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Maruwa Unyu Kikan can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Maruwa Unyu Kikan is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Maruwa Unyu Kikan can utilize new technology in the field of Business Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Maruwa Unyu Kikan to increase its market reach. Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Maruwa Unyu Kikan can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Business Services 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Maruwa Unyu Kikan can develop new processes and procedures in Business Services 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Maruwa Unyu Kikan can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Maruwa Unyu Kikan can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Business Services 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Maruwa Unyu Kikan has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Business Services industry. This can help Maruwa Unyu Kikan to build a more holistic ecosystem for Maruwa Unyu Kikan products in the Business Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Maruwa Unyu Kikan External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Maruwa Unyu Kikan are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Maruwa Unyu Kikan may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Business Services sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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 Business Services industry regulations.
Environmental challenges
– Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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. Maruwa Unyu Kikan can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Business Services industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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 Business Services industry.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Maruwa Unyu Kikan
– 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 Maruwa Unyu Kikan.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Business Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Maruwa Unyu Kikan can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Maruwa Unyu Kikan in Business Services industry. The Business Services 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Maruwa Unyu Kikan is facing in Business Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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 Business Services industry and other sectors.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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 Maruwa Unyu Kikan prominent markets.
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 Maruwa Unyu Kikan business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Maruwa Unyu Kikan.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Maruwa Unyu Kikan Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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 Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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 Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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 Maruwa Unyu Kikan 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 Maruwa Unyu Kikan needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.