SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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 Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Water Transportation sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha
Strengths of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha are -
Learning organization
- Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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 Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the Water Transportation industry. The technology infrastructure of Japan is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Organizational Resilience of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha in Water Transportation industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha staying ahead in the Water Transportation industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha is present in almost all the verticals within the Water Transportation industry. This has provided Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Water Transportation industry
– Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Water Transportation 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Water Transportation industry
– Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Water Transportation industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha are -
Skills based hiring in Water Transportation industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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
Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Water Transportation industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Water Transportation industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the Water Transportation industry.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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.
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 Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Water Transportation industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Water Transportation industry, but Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha to focus more on services in the Water Transportation industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha has high operating costs in the Water Transportation industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Japan, Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Water Transportation industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Water Transportation industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Water Transportation industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha in the Water Transportation industry. Now Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Water Transportation sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha to increase its market reach. Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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, Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha can utilize new technology in the field of Water Transportation industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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 Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Water Transportation industry. This can help Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha to build a more holistic ecosystem for Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha products in the Water Transportation 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, Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Water Transportation sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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 Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha are -
Environmental challenges
– Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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. Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Water Transportation industry.
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 Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha in Water Transportation industry. The Water Transportation industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
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 Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha in the Water Transportation sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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.
Increasing wage structure of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha
– 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 Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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 Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha prominent markets.
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. Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Water Transportation industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Water Transportation industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Water Transportation sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha is facing in Water Transportation 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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 Water Transportation industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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 Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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 Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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 Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha 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 Hyoki Kaiun Kaisha needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.