SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Yaizu Suisankagaku (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Yaizu Suisankagaku is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption,
increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Yaizu Suisankagaku
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Yaizu Suisankagaku can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Yaizu Suisankagaku, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Yaizu Suisankagaku 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 Yaizu Suisankagaku can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Yaizu Suisankagaku
2. Improving business portfolio management of Yaizu Suisankagaku
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 Yaizu Suisankagaku
Strengths of Yaizu Suisankagaku | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Yaizu Suisankagaku are -
Ability to lead change in Food Processing
– Yaizu Suisankagaku is one of the leading players in the Food Processing industry in Japan. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Food Processing industry in Japan but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Yaizu Suisankagaku in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Yaizu Suisankagaku has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Yaizu Suisankagaku to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Yaizu Suisankagaku 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 Yaizu Suisankagaku have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Yaizu Suisankagaku in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Yaizu Suisankagaku has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Yaizu Suisankagaku to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management in the Food Processing industry
– Yaizu Suisankagaku is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
Learning organization
- Yaizu Suisankagaku 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 Yaizu Suisankagaku is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Yaizu Suisankagaku emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Yaizu Suisankagaku has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Food Processing industry
– Yaizu Suisankagaku has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Yaizu Suisankagaku to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Food Processing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Yaizu Suisankagaku to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Yaizu Suisankagaku has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-Cyclical 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.
Weaknesses of Yaizu Suisankagaku | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Yaizu Suisankagaku are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Yaizu Suisankagaku has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Food Processing industry over the last five years. Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Yaizu Suisankagaku, in the dynamic environment of Food Processing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Yaizu Suisankagaku has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring in Food Processing industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Yaizu Suisankagaku products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Yaizu Suisankagaku needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Yaizu Suisankagaku is just above the Food Processing 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Food Processing industry, Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Yaizu Suisankagaku is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Yaizu Suisankagaku to provide better information regarding Food Processing products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Yaizu Suisankagaku 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 Food Processing industry using digital technology.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Yaizu Suisankagaku is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Food Processing industry, but Yaizu Suisankagaku needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Yaizu Suisankagaku to focus more on services in the Food Processing industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Japan, Yaizu Suisankagaku needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ less understanding of Yaizu Suisankagaku strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
Yaizu Suisankagaku Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Yaizu Suisankagaku are -
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. Yaizu Suisankagaku can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Yaizu Suisankagaku is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Yaizu Suisankagaku can utilize new technology in the field of Food Processing industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
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. Yaizu Suisankagaku can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Yaizu Suisankagaku can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Yaizu Suisankagaku has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Food Processing industry. This can help Yaizu Suisankagaku to build a more holistic ecosystem for Yaizu Suisankagaku products in the Food Processing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
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 Yaizu Suisankagaku 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
– Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Food Processing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Yaizu Suisankagaku 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. Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
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 Yaizu Suisankagaku in the Food Processing industry. Now Yaizu Suisankagaku can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Yaizu Suisankagaku External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Yaizu Suisankagaku are -
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Yaizu Suisankagaku 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. Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Food Processing industry are lowering. It can presents Yaizu Suisankagaku with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Food Processing sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Yaizu Suisankagaku may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Food Processing sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Yaizu Suisankagaku 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 Food Processing industry and other sectors.
Environmental challenges
– Yaizu Suisankagaku 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. Yaizu Suisankagaku can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Food Processing industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Yaizu Suisankagaku has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Food Processing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Yaizu Suisankagaku is facing in Food Processing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Yaizu Suisankagaku 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 Yaizu Suisankagaku prominent markets.
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. Yaizu Suisankagaku can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Yaizu Suisankagaku 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 Food Processing industry regulations.
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. Yaizu Suisankagaku needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Food Processing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Yaizu Suisankagaku 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Yaizu Suisankagaku Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Yaizu Suisankagaku 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 Yaizu Suisankagaku 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 Yaizu Suisankagaku 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 Yaizu Suisankagaku 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 Yaizu Suisankagaku needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.