SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Maruzen Showa Unyu (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Maruzen Showa Unyu is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Maruzen Showa Unyu
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Maruzen Showa Unyu can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Maruzen Showa Unyu, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Maruzen Showa Unyu 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 Maruzen Showa Unyu can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Maruzen Showa Unyu
2. Improving business portfolio management of Maruzen Showa Unyu
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 Maruzen Showa Unyu
Strengths of Maruzen Showa Unyu | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Maruzen Showa Unyu are -
Analytics focus
– Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Maruzen Showa Unyu is one of the most innovative firm in Trucking sector.
Training and development
– Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Trucking industry
– Maruzen Showa Unyu 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 recruit top talent
– Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Maruzen Showa Unyu has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Digital Transformation in Trucking industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Maruzen Showa Unyu digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Maruzen Showa Unyu has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Trucking industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Maruzen Showa Unyu have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Trucking industry
– Maruzen Showa Unyu has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Maruzen Showa Unyu to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Trucking industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Maruzen Showa Unyu to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Maruzen Showa Unyu is present in almost all the verticals within the Trucking industry. This has provided Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Weaknesses of Maruzen Showa Unyu | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Maruzen Showa Unyu are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Maruzen Showa Unyu is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Maruzen Showa Unyu to provide better information regarding Trucking products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Trucking industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Maruzen Showa Unyu 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 Maruzen Showa Unyu lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Maruzen Showa Unyu is just above the Trucking 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.
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 Maruzen Showa Unyu supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Maruzen Showa Unyu is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Maruzen Showa Unyu vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on Maruzen Showa Unyu ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Maruzen Showa Unyu still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Trucking industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Maruzen Showa Unyu has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Maruzen Showa Unyu, in the dynamic environment of Trucking industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Maruzen Showa Unyu has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Trucking industry, Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Skills based hiring in Trucking industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Japan, Maruzen Showa Unyu needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Maruzen Showa Unyu Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Maruzen Showa Unyu are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Maruzen Showa Unyu can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Maruzen Showa Unyu operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Trucking sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Maruzen Showa Unyu has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Trucking industry. This can help Maruzen Showa Unyu to build a more holistic ecosystem for Maruzen Showa Unyu products in the Trucking industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Maruzen Showa Unyu has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Trucking sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Maruzen Showa Unyu to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Maruzen Showa Unyu to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Maruzen Showa Unyu 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 Trucking industry.
Manufacturing automation
– Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Maruzen Showa Unyu 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 Maruzen Showa Unyu to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Maruzen Showa Unyu can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Maruzen Showa Unyu to increase its market reach. Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Trucking industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Maruzen Showa Unyu 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. Maruzen Showa Unyu 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 Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Maruzen Showa Unyu is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Threats Maruzen Showa Unyu External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Maruzen Showa Unyu are -
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 Maruzen Showa Unyu business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Maruzen Showa Unyu 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 Maruzen Showa Unyu prominent markets.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Trucking industry are lowering. It can presents Maruzen Showa Unyu with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Trucking sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
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. Maruzen Showa Unyu 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Trucking industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Maruzen Showa Unyu can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Maruzen Showa Unyu has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Trucking industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Maruzen Showa Unyu 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 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. Maruzen Showa Unyu needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Trucking industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Maruzen Showa Unyu 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. Maruzen Showa Unyu can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Trucking 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 Maruzen Showa Unyu.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Maruzen Showa Unyu Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Maruzen Showa Unyu 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 Maruzen Showa Unyu 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 Maruzen Showa Unyu 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 Maruzen Showa Unyu 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 Maruzen Showa Unyu needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.