Misawa Homes Chugoku (1728) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Misawa Homes Chugoku (Japan)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Misawa Homes Chugoku is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc

---

---

---

---

Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Misawa Homes Chugoku

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Misawa Homes Chugoku can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Misawa Homes Chugoku, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Misawa Homes Chugoku 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 Misawa Homes Chugoku can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Misawa Homes Chugoku
2. Improving business portfolio management of Misawa Homes Chugoku
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 Misawa Homes Chugoku

---

Strengths of Misawa Homes Chugoku | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Misawa Homes Chugoku are -

Analytics focus

– Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

Learning organization

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

Training and development

– Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Misawa Homes Chugoku is one of the most innovative firm in Construction Services sector.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Misawa Homes Chugoku has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Construction Services industry

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

Digital Transformation in Construction Services industry

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

Highly skilled collaborators

– Misawa Homes Chugoku 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 Misawa Homes Chugoku have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

High brand equity

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

Organizational Resilience of Misawa Homes Chugoku

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Misawa Homes Chugoku 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 Construction Services industry

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

Superior customer experience

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

---

---

Weaknesses of Misawa Homes Chugoku | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Misawa Homes Chugoku are -

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Misawa Homes Chugoku has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Construction Services industry over the last five years. Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

Need for greater diversity

– Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

Skills based hiring in Construction Services industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Misawa Homes Chugoku 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 Misawa Homes Chugoku has some of the most successful models in the Construction Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Misawa Homes Chugoku should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Japan, Misawa Homes Chugoku needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

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

Lack of clear differentiation of Misawa Homes Chugoku products

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

High dependence on Misawa Homes Chugoku ‘s star products

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

Ability to respond to the competition

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

Aligning sales with marketing

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

---

Misawa Homes Chugoku Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Misawa Homes Chugoku 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 Misawa Homes Chugoku 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

– Misawa Homes Chugoku can develop new processes and procedures in Construction Services industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

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. Misawa Homes Chugoku can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Low interest rates

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

Buying journey improvements

– Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

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

Leveraging digital technologies

– Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

Better consumer reach

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

Loyalty marketing

– Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

Increase in government spending

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

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Misawa Homes Chugoku 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 Misawa Homes Chugoku to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Misawa Homes Chugoku to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

---

Threats Misawa Homes Chugoku External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Misawa Homes Chugoku are -

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, Misawa Homes Chugoku 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 Misawa Homes Chugoku prominent markets.

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. Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

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 Misawa Homes Chugoku business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

Barriers of entry lowering

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

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Misawa Homes Chugoku is facing in Construction Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Regulatory challenges

– Misawa Homes Chugoku 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 Construction Services industry regulations.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

Increasing wage structure of Misawa Homes Chugoku

– 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 Misawa Homes Chugoku.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

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 Misawa Homes Chugoku.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Misawa Homes Chugoku 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.

---

Weighted SWOT Analysis of Misawa Homes Chugoku Template, Example

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

--- ---