Hikari Business Form (3948) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Hikari Business Form (Japan)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Hikari Business Form is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hikari Business Form

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

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Strengths of Hikari Business Form | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Hikari Business Form are -

Innovation driven organization

– Hikari Business Form is one of the most innovative firm in Printing Services sector.

Successful track record of launching new products

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

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Hikari Business Form are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.

Organizational Resilience of Hikari Business Form

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

Ability to lead change in Printing Services

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

Ability to recruit top talent

– Hikari Business Form is one of the leading players in the Printing Services 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 Services industry

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

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Hikari Business Form has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Hikari Business Form staying ahead in the Printing Services 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 Hikari Business Form in Printing Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Training and development

– Hikari Business Form 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Hikari Business Form comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Printing Services industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.

Learning organization

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

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Weaknesses of Hikari Business Form | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Hikari Business Form are -

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Hikari Business Form is just above the Printing 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 Hikari Business Form supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Hikari Business Form is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hikari Business Form vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

High dependence on Hikari Business Form ‘s star products

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

Need for greater diversity

– Hikari Business Form 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Hikari Business Form is one of the leading players in the Printing Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Printing Services industry in last five years.

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Hikari Business Form, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Printing Services industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Hikari Business Form is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Hikari Business Form to provide better information regarding Printing Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Printing Services industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, Hikari Business Form 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 Printing Services industry.

Employees’ less understanding of Hikari Business Form strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Hikari Business Form don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

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

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Hikari Business Form has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.

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Hikari Business Form Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Hikari Business Form are -

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Hikari Business Form 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Hikari Business Form in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Printing Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Hikari Business Form 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 Hikari Business Form to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Hikari Business Form 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.

Increase in government spending

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

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Printing Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Hikari Business Form 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. Hikari Business Form can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.

Finding new ways to collaborate

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

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

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

Loyalty marketing

– Hikari Business Form 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.

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. Hikari Business Form can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Buying journey improvements

– Hikari Business Form can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Printing 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

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

Creating value in data economy

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

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Threats Hikari Business Form External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Hikari Business Form are -

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Hikari Business Form is facing in Printing Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Hikari Business Form 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 Services sector.

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. Hikari Business Form 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.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Printing Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Hikari Business Form can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Hikari Business Form 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 Services industry.

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 Hikari Business Form in the Printing Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Hikari Business Form 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 Services industry and other sectors.

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. Hikari Business Form needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Printing Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Environmental challenges

– Hikari Business Form 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. Hikari Business Form can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Printing Services industry.

Barriers of entry lowering

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

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 wage structure of Hikari Business Form

– 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 Hikari Business Form.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Hikari Business Form 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 Hikari Business Form prominent markets.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hikari Business Form Template, Example

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

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