SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Furukawa Battery (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Furukawa Battery is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Furukawa Battery can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Furukawa Battery, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Furukawa Battery 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 Furukawa Battery can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Furukawa Battery
2. Improving business portfolio management of Furukawa Battery
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Electronic Instr. & Controls sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Furukawa Battery
Strengths of Furukawa Battery | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Furukawa Battery are -
Learning organization
- Furukawa Battery 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 Furukawa Battery is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Furukawa Battery emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Furukawa Battery has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Furukawa Battery 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Furukawa Battery has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Furukawa Battery have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry
– Furukawa Battery has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Furukawa Battery to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Furukawa Battery to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Furukawa Battery in the Technology sector have low bargaining power. Furukawa Battery has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Furukawa Battery to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Furukawa Battery in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Furukawa Battery
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Furukawa Battery does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Furukawa Battery is one of the most innovative firm in Electronic Instr. & Controls sector.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Furukawa Battery comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Electronic Instr. & Controls 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry
– Furukawa Battery 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 lead change in Electronic Instr. & Controls
– Furukawa Battery is one of the leading players in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry in Japan. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry in Japan but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Furukawa Battery in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Furukawa Battery has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Furukawa Battery to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses of Furukawa Battery | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Furukawa Battery are -
High dependence on Furukawa Battery ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Furukawa Battery still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Furukawa Battery has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Furukawa Battery has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry over the last five years. Furukawa Battery even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Employees’ less understanding of Furukawa Battery strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Furukawa Battery 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, Furukawa Battery has high operating costs in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Furukawa Battery lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Furukawa Battery 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry using digital technology.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Furukawa Battery is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, but Furukawa Battery needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Furukawa Battery to focus more on services in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Furukawa Battery products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Furukawa Battery 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 Furukawa Battery supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Furukawa Battery is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Furukawa Battery vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, Furukawa Battery 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, Furukawa Battery needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Furukawa Battery 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.
Furukawa Battery Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Furukawa Battery 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, Furukawa Battery can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Furukawa Battery operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Electronic Instr. & Controls sector.
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. Furukawa Battery can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Furukawa Battery can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Electronic Instr. & Controls 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Furukawa Battery in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Furukawa Battery can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Furukawa Battery has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. This can help Furukawa Battery to build a more holistic ecosystem for Furukawa Battery products in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Furukawa Battery to increase its market reach. Furukawa Battery 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Furukawa Battery can develop new processes and procedures in Electronic Instr. & Controls 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Furukawa Battery 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. Furukawa Battery 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Furukawa Battery 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry.
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 Furukawa Battery 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Furukawa Battery 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Furukawa Battery has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Electronic Instr. & Controls sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Furukawa Battery to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Furukawa Battery to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Furukawa Battery External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Furukawa Battery are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Furukawa Battery is facing in Electronic Instr. & Controls sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Furukawa Battery 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 Furukawa Battery in Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. The Electronic Instr. & Controls 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.
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 Furukawa Battery in the Electronic Instr. & Controls sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Furukawa Battery.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Furukawa Battery may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Electronic Instr. & Controls sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Furukawa Battery 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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Furukawa Battery 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry regulations.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Furukawa Battery 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry.
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. Furukawa Battery needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Furukawa Battery has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Electronic Instr. & Controls industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Furukawa Battery needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Electronic Instr. & Controls 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Furukawa Battery 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 Electronic Instr. & Controls industry and other sectors.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Furukawa Battery Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Furukawa Battery 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 Furukawa Battery 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 Furukawa Battery 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 Furukawa Battery 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 Furukawa Battery needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
