SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Kuribayashi Steamship (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Kuribayashi Steamship is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Kuribayashi Steamship
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Kuribayashi Steamship can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kuribayashi Steamship, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kuribayashi Steamship 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 Kuribayashi Steamship can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Kuribayashi Steamship
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kuribayashi Steamship
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Water Transportation sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Kuribayashi Steamship
Strengths of Kuribayashi Steamship | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Kuribayashi Steamship are -
Ability to lead change in Water Transportation
– Kuribayashi Steamship is one of the leading players in the Water Transportation industry in Japan. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Water Transportation industry in Japan but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Kuribayashi Steamship in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Kuribayashi Steamship has one of the best training and development program in Transportation 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.
Analytics focus
– Kuribayashi Steamship 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 Water Transportation 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.
High brand equity
– Kuribayashi Steamship has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Kuribayashi Steamship to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Kuribayashi Steamship is present in almost all the verticals within the Water Transportation industry. This has provided Kuribayashi Steamship 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Kuribayashi Steamship in the Transportation sector have low bargaining power. Kuribayashi Steamship has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Kuribayashi Steamship to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management in the Water Transportation industry
– Kuribayashi Steamship is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Kuribayashi Steamship 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 Kuribayashi Steamship is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Kuribayashi Steamship emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Water Transportation industry
– Kuribayashi Steamship has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Kuribayashi Steamship to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Water Transportation industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Kuribayashi Steamship to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Kuribayashi Steamship
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Kuribayashi Steamship does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Water Transportation industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Kuribayashi Steamship digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Kuribayashi Steamship 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Kuribayashi Steamship is one of the leading players in the Water Transportation 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.
Weaknesses of Kuribayashi Steamship | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Kuribayashi Steamship are -
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Kuribayashi Steamship, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Water Transportation industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Water Transportation industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, Kuribayashi Steamship 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 Water Transportation industry.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Kuribayashi Steamship has high operating costs in the Water Transportation industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Kuribayashi Steamship lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring in Water Transportation industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Kuribayashi Steamship 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.
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 Kuribayashi Steamship supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Kuribayashi Steamship is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Kuribayashi Steamship vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Kuribayashi Steamship has some of the most successful models in the Water Transportation industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Kuribayashi Steamship should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Kuribayashi Steamship has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Water Transportation industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Kuribayashi Steamship is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Water Transportation industry, but Kuribayashi Steamship needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Kuribayashi Steamship to focus more on services in the Water Transportation industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Kuribayashi Steamship is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Kuribayashi Steamship to provide better information regarding Water Transportation products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ less understanding of Kuribayashi Steamship strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Kuribayashi Steamship 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Kuribayashi Steamship has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Kuribayashi Steamship Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Kuribayashi Steamship are -
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 Kuribayashi Steamship 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
– Kuribayashi Steamship 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Kuribayashi Steamship can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Kuribayashi Steamship in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Water Transportation industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Kuribayashi Steamship 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Kuribayashi Steamship can develop new processes and procedures in Water Transportation 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Kuribayashi Steamship can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Kuribayashi Steamship operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Water Transportation sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Kuribayashi Steamship 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 Water Transportation industry.
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. Kuribayashi Steamship 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 Water Transportation industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Kuribayashi Steamship in the Water Transportation industry. Now Kuribayashi Steamship can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Kuribayashi Steamship to increase its market reach. Kuribayashi Steamship will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Kuribayashi Steamship 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 Kuribayashi Steamship to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Kuribayashi Steamship 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 Kuribayashi Steamship to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Kuribayashi Steamship External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Kuribayashi Steamship are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Kuribayashi Steamship 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 Kuribayashi Steamship prominent markets.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Kuribayashi Steamship 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 Water Transportation industry and other sectors.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Kuribayashi Steamship may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Water Transportation sector.
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 Kuribayashi Steamship.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Kuribayashi Steamship in Water Transportation industry. The Water Transportation 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.
Increasing wage structure of Kuribayashi Steamship
– 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 Kuribayashi Steamship.
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 Kuribayashi Steamship in the Water Transportation sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Kuribayashi Steamship high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Kuribayashi Steamship has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Water Transportation industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Kuribayashi Steamship needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Water Transportation 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Water Transportation industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Kuribayashi Steamship can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Kuribayashi Steamship 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Kuribayashi Steamship Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Kuribayashi Steamship 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 Kuribayashi Steamship 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 Kuribayashi Steamship 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 Kuribayashi Steamship 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 Kuribayashi Steamship needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.