SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Miyaji Engineering (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Miyaji Engineering is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Miyaji Engineering
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Miyaji Engineering can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Miyaji Engineering, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Miyaji Engineering 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 Miyaji Engineering can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Miyaji Engineering
2. Improving business portfolio management of Miyaji Engineering
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Construction Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Miyaji Engineering
Strengths of Miyaji Engineering | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Miyaji Engineering are -
Strong track record of project management in the Construction Services industry
– Miyaji Engineering is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Miyaji Engineering has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Miyaji Engineering 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.
Digital Transformation in Construction Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Miyaji Engineering digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Miyaji Engineering 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.
Organizational Resilience of Miyaji Engineering
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Miyaji Engineering 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 Miyaji Engineering 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Miyaji Engineering in Construction Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Miyaji Engineering comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Construction 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.
Learning organization
- Miyaji Engineering 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 Miyaji Engineering is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Miyaji Engineering emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Miyaji Engineering in the Capital Goods sector have low bargaining power. Miyaji Engineering has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Miyaji Engineering to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Miyaji Engineering is present in almost all the verticals within the Construction Services industry. This has provided Miyaji Engineering 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Miyaji Engineering is one of the leading players in the Construction 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Construction Services industry
– Miyaji Engineering has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Miyaji Engineering to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Construction Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Miyaji Engineering to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses of Miyaji Engineering | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Miyaji Engineering are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Miyaji Engineering needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Construction Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Miyaji Engineering can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Miyaji Engineering is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Miyaji Engineering is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Miyaji Engineering to provide better information regarding Construction Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Miyaji Engineering is just above the Construction 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Miyaji Engineering, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Construction 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 bargaining power of channel partners in Construction Services industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, Miyaji Engineering 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 Construction Services industry.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Miyaji Engineering, in the dynamic environment of Construction Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Miyaji Engineering has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Miyaji Engineering has some of the most successful models in the Construction Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Miyaji Engineering should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Miyaji Engineering is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Construction Services industry, but Miyaji Engineering needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Miyaji Engineering to focus more on services in the Construction Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on Miyaji Engineering ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Miyaji Engineering still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Construction Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Miyaji Engineering has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Miyaji Engineering 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.
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 Miyaji Engineering supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Miyaji Engineering is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Miyaji Engineering vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Miyaji Engineering Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Miyaji Engineering are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Miyaji Engineering 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 Miyaji Engineering to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Miyaji Engineering can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Construction Services 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.
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 Miyaji Engineering 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Miyaji Engineering 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Miyaji Engineering to increase its market reach. Miyaji Engineering 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 Construction Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Miyaji Engineering in the Construction Services industry. Now Miyaji Engineering can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Miyaji Engineering can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Construction 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Miyaji Engineering can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Miyaji Engineering operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Construction Services 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. Miyaji Engineering can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Miyaji Engineering can develop new processes and procedures in Construction 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Miyaji Engineering in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Construction Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Miyaji Engineering has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Construction Services industry. This can help Miyaji Engineering to build a more holistic ecosystem for Miyaji Engineering products in the Construction Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Miyaji Engineering can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Miyaji Engineering External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Miyaji Engineering are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Miyaji Engineering is facing in Construction Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Miyaji Engineering 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. Miyaji Engineering can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Construction Services industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Miyaji Engineering has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Construction Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Miyaji Engineering needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Construction 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Miyaji Engineering 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Miyaji Engineering
– 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 Miyaji Engineering.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Miyaji Engineering 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 Miyaji Engineering prominent markets.
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 Miyaji Engineering in the Construction Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Miyaji Engineering 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 Construction 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 Miyaji Engineering business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Miyaji Engineering 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 Miyaji Engineering in Construction Services industry. The Construction 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. Miyaji Engineering needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Construction Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Miyaji Engineering Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Miyaji Engineering 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 Miyaji Engineering 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 Miyaji Engineering 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 Miyaji Engineering 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 Miyaji Engineering needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.