Chiikishinbunsha (2164) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Chiikishinbunsha (Japan)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Chiikishinbunsha is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Chiikishinbunsha

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Chiikishinbunsha can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Chiikishinbunsha, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Chiikishinbunsha 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 Chiikishinbunsha can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Chiikishinbunsha
2. Improving business portfolio management of Chiikishinbunsha
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Printing & Publishing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Chiikishinbunsha

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Strengths of Chiikishinbunsha | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Chiikishinbunsha are -

Training and development

– Chiikishinbunsha has one of the best training and development program in Services 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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Chiikishinbunsha in Printing & Publishing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Chiikishinbunsha in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Chiikishinbunsha has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Chiikishinbunsha to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Chiikishinbunsha is one of the leading players in the Printing & Publishing 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.

Digital Transformation in Printing & Publishing industry

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

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

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Chiikishinbunsha comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Printing & Publishing 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Chiikishinbunsha has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Chiikishinbunsha staying ahead in the Printing & Publishing industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Learning organization

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

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Chiikishinbunsha 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.

High brand equity

– Chiikishinbunsha has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Chiikishinbunsha to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Successful track record of launching new products

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

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Weaknesses of Chiikishinbunsha | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Chiikishinbunsha are -

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Chiikishinbunsha has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the Printing & Publishing industry using digital technology.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, Chiikishinbunsha has high operating costs in the Printing & Publishing industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Chiikishinbunsha lucrative customers.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at Chiikishinbunsha, in the dynamic environment of Printing & Publishing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Chiikishinbunsha has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

High dependence on Chiikishinbunsha ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Chiikishinbunsha still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Printing & Publishing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Chiikishinbunsha has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Need for greater diversity

– Chiikishinbunsha 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.

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 Chiikishinbunsha supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Chiikishinbunsha is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Chiikishinbunsha vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Skills based hiring in Printing & Publishing industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Chiikishinbunsha 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Chiikishinbunsha has some of the most successful models in the Printing & Publishing industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Chiikishinbunsha should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Chiikishinbunsha has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Printing & Publishing industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

Employees’ less understanding of Chiikishinbunsha strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Chiikishinbunsha 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Chiikishinbunsha products

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

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Chiikishinbunsha Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Chiikishinbunsha are -

Creating value in data economy

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

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. Chiikishinbunsha can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Printing & Publishing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Chiikishinbunsha 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. Chiikishinbunsha 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Chiikishinbunsha can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Printing & Publishing 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Chiikishinbunsha 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Chiikishinbunsha 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.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Printing & Publishing industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Chiikishinbunsha in the Printing & Publishing industry. Now Chiikishinbunsha can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

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

Developing new processes and practices

– Chiikishinbunsha can develop new processes and procedures in Printing & Publishing 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Chiikishinbunsha to increase its market reach. Chiikishinbunsha 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Chiikishinbunsha is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Chiikishinbunsha can utilize new technology in the field of Printing & Publishing industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Chiikishinbunsha 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 Printing & Publishing industry.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Chiikishinbunsha can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Chiikishinbunsha operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Printing & Publishing sector.

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Threats Chiikishinbunsha External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Chiikishinbunsha are -

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Chiikishinbunsha in Printing & Publishing industry. The Printing & Publishing 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Chiikishinbunsha 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 Printing & Publishing industry.

Barriers of entry lowering

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

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Printing & Publishing industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Chiikishinbunsha 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 Chiikishinbunsha in the Printing & Publishing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Chiikishinbunsha 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 Chiikishinbunsha prominent markets.

Regulatory challenges

– Chiikishinbunsha 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 Printing & Publishing industry regulations.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Chiikishinbunsha 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.

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 Chiikishinbunsha business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Chiikishinbunsha 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 Printing & Publishing industry and other sectors.

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.

Learning curve for new practices

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

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Chiikishinbunsha Template, Example

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

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