Tohokushinsha Film (2329) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Tohokushinsha Film (Japan)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Tohokushinsha Film is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc

---

---

---

---

Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Tohokushinsha Film

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Tohokushinsha Film can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tohokushinsha Film, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tohokushinsha Film 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 Tohokushinsha Film can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Tohokushinsha Film
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tohokushinsha Film
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 Tohokushinsha Film

---

Strengths of Tohokushinsha Film | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Tohokushinsha Film are -

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Tohokushinsha Film has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Tohokushinsha Film staying ahead in the Business Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Training and development

– Tohokushinsha Film 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.

Analytics focus

– Tohokushinsha Film 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 Business Services 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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Tohokushinsha Film in Business Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Tohokushinsha Film has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Business Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Tohokushinsha Film have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Tohokushinsha Film has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Tohokushinsha Film 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 Business Services industry

– Tohokushinsha Film is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Organizational Resilience of Tohokushinsha Film

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Tohokushinsha Film does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Tohokushinsha Film 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.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Tohokushinsha Film 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Tohokushinsha Film in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Tohokushinsha Film has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Tohokushinsha Film to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Ability to lead change in Business Services

– Tohokushinsha Film 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 Tohokushinsha Film in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

---

---

Weaknesses of Tohokushinsha Film | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Tohokushinsha Film are -

High bargaining power of channel partners in Business Services industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, Tohokushinsha Film 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 Business Services industry.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Tohokushinsha Film is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Business Services industry, but Tohokushinsha Film needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Tohokushinsha Film to focus more on services in the Business Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Need for greater diversity

– Tohokushinsha Film 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Tohokushinsha Film products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Tohokushinsha Film needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

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 Tohokushinsha Film supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Tohokushinsha Film is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Tohokushinsha Film vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Tohokushinsha Film 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 Tohokushinsha Film 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 Tohokushinsha Film 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.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Tohokushinsha Film is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Tohokushinsha Film to provide better information regarding Business Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Japan, Tohokushinsha Film needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at Tohokushinsha Film, in the dynamic environment of Business Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Tohokushinsha Film has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

---

Tohokushinsha Film Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Tohokushinsha Film are -

Buying journey improvements

– Tohokushinsha Film 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Tohokushinsha Film is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Tohokushinsha Film 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 Tohokushinsha Film to increase its market reach. Tohokushinsha Film 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.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Business Services industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Tohokushinsha Film in the Business Services industry. Now Tohokushinsha Film can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Tohokushinsha Film 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Tohokushinsha Film 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.

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. Tohokushinsha Film 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. Tohokushinsha Film 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Tohokushinsha Film has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Business Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Tohokushinsha Film to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Tohokushinsha Film to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Tohokushinsha Film 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Tohokushinsha Film has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Business Services industry. This can help Tohokushinsha Film to build a more holistic ecosystem for Tohokushinsha Film products in the Business Services 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 Tohokushinsha Film 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Tohokushinsha Film can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Tohokushinsha Film 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 Tohokushinsha Film to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

---

Threats Tohokushinsha Film External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Tohokushinsha Film are -

Environmental challenges

– Tohokushinsha Film 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. Tohokushinsha Film can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Business Services 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Tohokushinsha Film is facing in Business Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Tohokushinsha Film has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Business Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Tohokushinsha Film needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Business Services 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.

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. Tohokushinsha Film 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 Business Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Tohokushinsha Film can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Tohokushinsha Film 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.

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 Tohokushinsha Film business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Tohokushinsha Film 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.

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. Tohokushinsha Film needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Business Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

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 Tohokushinsha Film.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Tohokushinsha Film 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, Tohokushinsha Film 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 Tohokushinsha Film prominent markets.

---

Weighted SWOT Analysis of Tohokushinsha Film Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Tohokushinsha Film 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 Tohokushinsha Film 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 Tohokushinsha Film 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 Tohokushinsha Film 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 Tohokushinsha Film needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

--- ---