Kawagishi Bridge Works (5921) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Kawagishi Bridge Works (Japan)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Kawagishi Bridge Works is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Kawagishi Bridge Works

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Kawagishi Bridge Works can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kawagishi Bridge Works, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Kawagishi Bridge Works can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Kawagishi Bridge Works
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kawagishi Bridge Works
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 Kawagishi Bridge Works

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Strengths of Kawagishi Bridge Works | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Kawagishi Bridge Works are -

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Kawagishi Bridge Works in Construction Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Strong track record of project management in the Construction Services industry

– Kawagishi Bridge Works 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

– Kawagishi Bridge Works has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Construction Services industry

– Kawagishi Bridge Works has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Kawagishi Bridge Works to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Construction Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Kawagishi Bridge Works to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Diverse revenue streams

– Kawagishi Bridge Works is present in almost all the verticals within the Construction Services industry. This has provided Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Kawagishi Bridge Works 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 Kawagishi Bridge Works in the Capital Goods sector have low bargaining power. Kawagishi Bridge Works has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Kawagishi Bridge Works to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Kawagishi Bridge Works has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

Learning organization

- Kawagishi Bridge Works 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 Kawagishi Bridge Works is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Kawagishi Bridge Works emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Kawagishi Bridge Works 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 Kawagishi Bridge Works have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

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Weaknesses of Kawagishi Bridge Works | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Kawagishi Bridge Works are -

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Kawagishi Bridge Works 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. Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

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

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Kawagishi Bridge Works, 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 cash cycle compare to competitors

Kawagishi Bridge Works has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Construction Services industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, Kawagishi Bridge Works has high operating costs in the Construction Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Kawagishi Bridge Works lucrative customers.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Construction Services industry, Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

High dependence on Kawagishi Bridge Works ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Kawagishi Bridge Works 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 Kawagishi Bridge Works has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

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

Employees’ less understanding of Kawagishi Bridge Works strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Kawagishi Bridge Works 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 Kawagishi Bridge Works can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Kawagishi Bridge Works is planning to shift buying processes online.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Construction Services industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

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Kawagishi Bridge Works Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Kawagishi Bridge Works are -

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Kawagishi Bridge Works 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 Kawagishi Bridge Works 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

– Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

Leveraging digital technologies

– Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Kawagishi Bridge Works has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Construction Services industry. This can help Kawagishi Bridge Works to build a more holistic ecosystem for Kawagishi Bridge Works products in the Construction Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Kawagishi Bridge Works is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

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

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Kawagishi Bridge Works 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 Kawagishi Bridge Works to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Developing new processes and practices

– Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Kawagishi Bridge Works can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

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 Kawagishi Bridge Works in the Construction Services industry. Now Kawagishi Bridge Works can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

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Threats Kawagishi Bridge Works External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Kawagishi Bridge Works are -

Increasing wage structure of Kawagishi Bridge Works

– 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 Kawagishi Bridge Works.

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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

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 Kawagishi Bridge Works.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Kawagishi Bridge Works 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 Kawagishi Bridge Works prominent markets.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Kawagishi Bridge Works may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Construction Services sector.

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. Kawagishi Bridge Works needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Construction Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

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. Kawagishi Bridge Works will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Construction Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Kawagishi Bridge Works can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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 Kawagishi Bridge Works in the Construction Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Kawagishi Bridge Works is facing in Construction Services 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 Kawagishi Bridge Works business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Construction Services industry are lowering. It can presents Kawagishi Bridge Works with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Construction Services sector.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Kawagishi Bridge Works Template, Example

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

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