SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Moshi Moshi Hotline (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Moshi Moshi Hotline is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Moshi Moshi Hotline
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Moshi Moshi Hotline can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Moshi Moshi Hotline, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Moshi Moshi Hotline 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 Moshi Moshi Hotline can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Moshi Moshi Hotline
2. Improving business portfolio management of Moshi Moshi Hotline
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 Moshi Moshi Hotline
Strengths of Moshi Moshi Hotline | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Moshi Moshi Hotline are -
Digital Transformation in Business Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Moshi Moshi Hotline digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Moshi Moshi Hotline in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Moshi Moshi Hotline has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Moshi Moshi Hotline to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Moshi Moshi Hotline comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Business Services 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Moshi Moshi Hotline is present in almost all the verticals within the Business Services industry. This has provided Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Business Services industry
– Moshi Moshi Hotline has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Moshi Moshi Hotline to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Business Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Moshi Moshi Hotline to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Moshi Moshi Hotline in Business Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Moshi Moshi Hotline has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Moshi Moshi Hotline to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Moshi Moshi Hotline 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 Moshi Moshi Hotline is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Moshi Moshi Hotline emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Moshi Moshi Hotline is one of the most innovative firm in Business Services sector.
Training and development
– Moshi Moshi Hotline 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
– Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Moshi Moshi Hotline has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
Weaknesses of Moshi Moshi Hotline | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Moshi Moshi Hotline are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Moshi Moshi Hotline 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 Business Services industry using digital technology.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Business Services industry, Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Moshi Moshi Hotline, in the dynamic environment of Business Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Moshi Moshi Hotline has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Moshi Moshi Hotline, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Business Services industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High dependence on Moshi Moshi Hotline ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Moshi Moshi Hotline 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 Moshi Moshi Hotline has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Moshi Moshi Hotline is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Business Services industry, but Moshi Moshi Hotline needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Moshi Moshi Hotline to focus more on services in the Business Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Moshi Moshi Hotline has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Business 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.
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 Moshi Moshi Hotline supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Moshi Moshi Hotline is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Moshi Moshi Hotline vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Moshi Moshi Hotline is just above the Business Services 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.
Skills based hiring in Business Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
Moshi Moshi Hotline Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Moshi Moshi Hotline are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Moshi Moshi Hotline can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Moshi Moshi Hotline 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 Moshi Moshi Hotline to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
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. Moshi Moshi Hotline can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Business Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Moshi Moshi Hotline 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. Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
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 Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Moshi Moshi Hotline 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 Moshi Moshi Hotline to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Moshi Moshi Hotline in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Business Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Moshi Moshi Hotline can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Moshi Moshi Hotline operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Business Services sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Moshi Moshi Hotline 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 Business Services industry.
Threats Moshi Moshi Hotline External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Moshi Moshi Hotline are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Moshi Moshi Hotline is facing in Business Services 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 Moshi Moshi Hotline in the Business Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Business Services industry are lowering. It can presents Moshi Moshi Hotline with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Business Services sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
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. Moshi Moshi Hotline can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Moshi Moshi Hotline
– 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 Moshi Moshi Hotline.
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 Moshi Moshi Hotline.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Moshi Moshi Hotline 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 Moshi Moshi Hotline 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 Moshi Moshi Hotline business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
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. Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Moshi Moshi Hotline 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Moshi Moshi Hotline Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Moshi Moshi Hotline 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 Moshi Moshi Hotline 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 Moshi Moshi Hotline 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 Moshi Moshi Hotline 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 Moshi Moshi Hotline needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
