Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK (1716) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Construction Services
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, technology disruption,
increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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 Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK
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 Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK
Strengths of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK in Construction Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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 Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Construction Services industry
– Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Construction Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Construction Services industry
– Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK has one of the best training and development program in Capital Goods 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Construction Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK staying ahead in the Construction Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Weaknesses of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Construction Services industry, but Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK to focus more on services in the Construction Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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 Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK is one of the leading players in the Construction Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Construction Services industry in last five years.
Employees’ less understanding of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK, in the dynamic environment of Construction Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Construction Services industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Construction Services industry, Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK, 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Construction Services industry over the last five years. Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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, Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Construction Services sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK can utilize new technology in the field of Construction Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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 Construction Services industry.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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 Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
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. Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK are -
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. Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
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 Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK in the Construction Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK is facing in Construction Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Environmental challenges
– Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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. Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors 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 Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Construction Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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 Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK prominent markets.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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 Construction Services industry and other sectors.
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
– Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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 Construction Services industry regulations.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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 Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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 Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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 Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK 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 Dai-Ichi Cutter Kogyo KK needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.