SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Asahi Holdings Inc (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Asahi Holdings Inc is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Asahi Holdings Inc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Asahi Holdings Inc can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Asahi Holdings Inc, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Asahi 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 Asahi Holdings Inc can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Asahi Holdings Inc
2. Improving business portfolio management of Asahi Holdings Inc
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Waste Management Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Asahi Holdings Inc
Strengths of Asahi Holdings Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Asahi Holdings Inc are -
Learning organization
- Asahi 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 Asahi Holdings Inc is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Asahi Holdings Inc emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Waste Management Services industry
– Asahi Holdings Inc has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Asahi Holdings Inc to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Waste Management Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Asahi Holdings Inc to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Asahi Holdings Inc 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Asahi Holdings Inc has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Asahi 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Waste Management Services industry
– Asahi 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Asahi Holdings Inc is one of the most innovative firm in Waste Management Services sector.
Ability to lead change in Waste Management Services
– Asahi Holdings Inc is one of the leading players in the Waste Management Services industry in Japan. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Waste Management Services industry in Japan but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Asahi Holdings Inc in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Asahi Holdings Inc is one of the leading players in the Waste Management 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Asahi Holdings Inc has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Asahi Holdings Inc staying ahead in the Waste Management Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Asahi Holdings Inc has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Waste Management Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Asahi Holdings Inc have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Asahi Holdings Inc 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Asahi Holdings Inc in Waste Management Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses of Asahi Holdings Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Asahi Holdings Inc are -
High bargaining power of channel partners in Waste Management Services industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, Asahi 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 Waste Management Services industry.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Asahi Holdings Inc has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Waste Management Services industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Asahi Holdings Inc is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Waste Management Services industry, but Asahi Holdings Inc needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Asahi Holdings Inc to focus more on services in the Waste Management Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Asahi Holdings Inc 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Asahi Holdings Inc strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Asahi 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Asahi Holdings Inc has high operating costs in the Waste Management Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Asahi Holdings Inc lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Asahi 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 Waste Management Services industry using digital technology.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Asahi Holdings Inc is one of the leading players in the Waste Management Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Waste Management Services industry in last five years.
Skills based hiring in Waste Management Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Asahi 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Waste Management Services industry, Asahi Holdings Inc 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Japan, Asahi Holdings Inc needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Asahi Holdings Inc Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Asahi Holdings Inc are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Asahi Holdings Inc can develop new processes and procedures in Waste Management 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Asahi 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Asahi 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Waste Management Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Asahi 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. Asahi 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Asahi 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Asahi Holdings Inc has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Waste Management Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Asahi Holdings Inc to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Asahi Holdings Inc to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Asahi 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 Asahi Holdings Inc to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Asahi Holdings Inc to increase its market reach. Asahi 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Asahi Holdings Inc in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Waste Management Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Asahi 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.
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. Asahi Holdings Inc can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Asahi 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 Waste Management Services industry.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Asahi Holdings Inc has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Waste Management Services industry. This can help Asahi Holdings Inc to build a more holistic ecosystem for Asahi Holdings Inc products in the Waste Management Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Asahi Holdings Inc External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Asahi Holdings Inc are -
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 Asahi Holdings Inc in the Waste Management Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Asahi 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 Waste Management Services industry and other sectors.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Asahi 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, Asahi 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 Waste Management Services sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Asahi 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 Asahi Holdings Inc prominent markets.
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.
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 Asahi Holdings Inc.
Environmental challenges
– Asahi Holdings Inc 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. Asahi Holdings Inc can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Waste Management Services 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 Asahi Holdings Inc business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Asahi 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 Waste Management Services industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Asahi 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 Asahi Holdings Inc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Waste Management Services industry are lowering. It can presents Asahi Holdings Inc with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Waste Management Services sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Asahi Holdings Inc 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 Waste Management Services industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Asahi Holdings Inc Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Asahi 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 Asahi 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 Asahi 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 Asahi 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 Asahi Holdings Inc needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.