Kamogawa Grand Hotel (9695) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Kamogawa Grand Hotel (Japan)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Kamogawa Grand Hotel is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Kamogawa Grand Hotel

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

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Strengths of Kamogawa Grand Hotel | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Kamogawa Grand Hotel are -

Training and development

– Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Kamogawa Grand Hotel has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Kamogawa Grand Hotel has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Kamogawa Grand Hotel comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Hotels & Motels 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.

Analytics focus

– Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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 Hotels & Motels 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Kamogawa Grand Hotel is one of the most innovative firm in Hotels & Motels sector.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

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

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Kamogawa Grand Hotel in Hotels & Motels industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Organizational Resilience of Kamogawa Grand Hotel

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

Strong track record of project management in the Hotels & Motels industry

– Kamogawa Grand Hotel is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Digital Transformation in Hotels & Motels industry

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

Low bargaining power of suppliers

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

Diverse revenue streams

– Kamogawa Grand Hotel is present in almost all the verticals within the Hotels & Motels industry. This has provided Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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.

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Weaknesses of Kamogawa Grand Hotel | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Kamogawa Grand Hotel are -

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Kamogawa Grand Hotel needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Hotels & Motels industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Kamogawa Grand Hotel can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Kamogawa Grand Hotel is planning to shift buying processes online.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Kamogawa Grand Hotel is one of the leading players in the Hotels & Motels industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Hotels & Motels industry in last five years.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Kamogawa Grand Hotel has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Hotels & Motels industry over the last five years. Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Japan, Kamogawa Grand Hotel needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Employees’ less understanding of Kamogawa Grand Hotel strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Kamogawa Grand Hotel has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Hotels & Motels industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Kamogawa Grand Hotel, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Hotels & Motels 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 operating costs

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

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Kamogawa Grand Hotel is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Kamogawa Grand Hotel to provide better information regarding Hotels & Motels products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

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

Increasing silos among functional specialists

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

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Kamogawa Grand Hotel Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Kamogawa Grand Hotel are -

Leveraging digital technologies

– Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

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

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Hotels & Motels industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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. Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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 Hotels & Motels 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. Kamogawa Grand Hotel can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Loyalty marketing

– Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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 Kamogawa Grand Hotel to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

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

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 Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Kamogawa Grand Hotel can develop new processes and procedures in Hotels & Motels 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Kamogawa Grand Hotel has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Hotels & Motels industry. This can help Kamogawa Grand Hotel to build a more holistic ecosystem for Kamogawa Grand Hotel products in the Hotels & Motels industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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, Kamogawa Grand Hotel can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Kamogawa Grand Hotel operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Hotels & Motels sector.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

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Threats Kamogawa Grand Hotel External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Kamogawa Grand Hotel are -

Instability in the European markets

– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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 Hotels & Motels 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.

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. Kamogawa Grand Hotel needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Hotels & Motels industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Learning curve for new practices

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

Regulatory challenges

– Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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 Hotels & Motels industry regulations.

Environmental challenges

– Kamogawa Grand Hotel 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. Kamogawa Grand Hotel can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Hotels & Motels industry.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Kamogawa Grand Hotel is facing in Hotels & Motels sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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.

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 Kamogawa Grand Hotel.

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 Kamogawa Grand Hotel in the Hotels & Motels sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Kamogawa Grand Hotel has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Hotels & Motels industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Kamogawa Grand Hotel needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Hotels & Motels 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.

Barriers of entry lowering

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

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Kamogawa Grand Hotel Template, Example

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

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