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 – technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, 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 -

Digital Transformation in Construction Services industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Kawagishi Bridge Works digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Kawagishi Bridge Works 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 Kawagishi Bridge Works

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Kawagishi Bridge Works does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ability to lead change in Construction Services

– Kawagishi Bridge Works is one of the leading players in the Construction Services industry in Japan. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Construction Services industry in Japan but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Kawagishi Bridge Works in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Training and development

– Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

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.

Analytics focus

– Kawagishi Bridge Works is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the Construction Services industry. The technology infrastructure of Japan is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.

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.

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.

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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 -

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Japan, Kawagishi Bridge Works needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Lack of clear differentiation of Kawagishi Bridge Works products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Kawagishi Bridge Works needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

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.

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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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 -

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.

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. Kawagishi Bridge Works can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Construction Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Kawagishi Bridge Works 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. Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Construction Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Kawagishi Bridge Works can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

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.

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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 -

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.

Environmental challenges

– Kawagishi Bridge Works 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. Kawagishi Bridge Works can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Construction Services industry.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Kawagishi Bridge Works 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.

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.

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.

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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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