SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Kadoya Sesame Mills (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Kadoya Sesame Mills is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Kadoya Sesame Mills
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Kadoya Sesame Mills can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kadoya Sesame Mills, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kadoya Sesame Mills 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 Kadoya Sesame Mills can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Kadoya Sesame Mills
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kadoya Sesame Mills
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Food Processing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Kadoya Sesame Mills
Strengths of Kadoya Sesame Mills | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Kadoya Sesame Mills are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Kadoya Sesame Mills comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Food Processing 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Kadoya Sesame Mills has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Food Processing industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Kadoya Sesame Mills have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Kadoya Sesame Mills has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Kadoya Sesame Mills to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management in the Food Processing industry
– Kadoya Sesame Mills is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Kadoya Sesame Mills in Food Processing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Kadoya Sesame Mills is one of the most innovative firm in Food Processing sector.
Learning organization
- Kadoya Sesame Mills 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 Kadoya Sesame Mills is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Kadoya Sesame Mills emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Kadoya Sesame Mills
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Kadoya Sesame Mills does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Kadoya Sesame Mills is one of the leading players in the Food Processing 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)
– Kadoya Sesame Mills has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Kadoya Sesame Mills staying ahead in the Food Processing industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Kadoya Sesame Mills 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 Food Processing 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Food Processing industry
– Kadoya Sesame Mills has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Kadoya Sesame Mills to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Food Processing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Kadoya Sesame Mills to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses of Kadoya Sesame Mills | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Kadoya Sesame Mills are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Japan, Kadoya Sesame Mills needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Kadoya Sesame Mills is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Food Processing industry, but Kadoya Sesame Mills needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Kadoya Sesame Mills to focus more on services in the Food Processing industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on Kadoya Sesame Mills ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Kadoya Sesame Mills still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Food Processing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Kadoya Sesame Mills has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Kadoya Sesame Mills has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Food Processing 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 Kadoya Sesame Mills supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Kadoya Sesame Mills is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Kadoya Sesame Mills vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Kadoya Sesame Mills needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Food Processing industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Kadoya Sesame Mills can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Kadoya Sesame Mills is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Kadoya Sesame Mills products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Kadoya Sesame Mills needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Kadoya Sesame Mills has high operating costs in the Food Processing industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Kadoya Sesame Mills lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Kadoya Sesame Mills, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Food Processing 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Kadoya Sesame Mills has some of the most successful models in the Food Processing industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Kadoya Sesame Mills should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring in Food Processing industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Kadoya Sesame Mills 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.
Kadoya Sesame Mills Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Kadoya Sesame Mills 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, Kadoya Sesame Mills can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Kadoya Sesame Mills operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Food Processing sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Kadoya Sesame Mills in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Food Processing industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Kadoya Sesame Mills 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Kadoya Sesame Mills 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Food Processing industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Kadoya Sesame Mills in the Food Processing industry. Now Kadoya Sesame Mills can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Kadoya Sesame Mills 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Kadoya Sesame Mills has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Food Processing industry. This can help Kadoya Sesame Mills to build a more holistic ecosystem for Kadoya Sesame Mills products in the Food Processing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Kadoya Sesame Mills 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Kadoya Sesame Mills to increase its market reach. Kadoya Sesame Mills 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.
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. Kadoya Sesame Mills can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Food Processing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Kadoya Sesame Mills 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 Kadoya Sesame Mills 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 Kadoya Sesame Mills to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Kadoya Sesame Mills can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Food Processing 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 Kadoya Sesame Mills External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Kadoya Sesame Mills are -
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Food Processing industry are lowering. It can presents Kadoya Sesame Mills with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Food Processing sector.
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. Kadoya Sesame Mills needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Food Processing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Kadoya Sesame Mills 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 Kadoya Sesame Mills prominent markets.
Environmental challenges
– Kadoya Sesame Mills 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. Kadoya Sesame Mills can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Food Processing 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.
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. Kadoya Sesame Mills 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 Kadoya Sesame Mills in Food Processing industry. The Food Processing 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Food Processing industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Kadoya Sesame Mills 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 Kadoya Sesame Mills
– 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 Kadoya Sesame Mills.
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 Kadoya Sesame Mills.
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 Kadoya Sesame Mills business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Kadoya Sesame Mills has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Food Processing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Kadoya Sesame Mills needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Food Processing 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Kadoya Sesame Mills Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Kadoya Sesame Mills 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 Kadoya Sesame Mills 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 Kadoya Sesame Mills 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 Kadoya Sesame Mills 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 Kadoya Sesame Mills needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
