Yumemitsuketai (2673) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Retail (Catalog & Mail Order)
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Yumemitsuketai (Japan)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Yumemitsuketai is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Yumemitsuketai can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Yumemitsuketai, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Yumemitsuketai 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 Yumemitsuketai can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Yumemitsuketai
2. Improving business portfolio management of Yumemitsuketai
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Japan
4. Making a Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Yumemitsuketai
Strengths of Yumemitsuketai | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Yumemitsuketai are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Yumemitsuketai is one of the leading players in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) 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.
High brand equity
– Yumemitsuketai has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Yumemitsuketai to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Yumemitsuketai has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Yumemitsuketai have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Yumemitsuketai has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Yumemitsuketai 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 Yumemitsuketai comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Yumemitsuketai has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Yumemitsuketai staying ahead in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Yumemitsuketai 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 Yumemitsuketai is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Yumemitsuketai emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order)
– Yumemitsuketai is one of the leading players in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry in Japan. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry in Japan but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Yumemitsuketai in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Yumemitsuketai 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Yumemitsuketai 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Yumemitsuketai 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry
– Yumemitsuketai is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses of Yumemitsuketai | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Yumemitsuketai are -
Skills based hiring in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Yumemitsuketai 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.
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 Yumemitsuketai supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Yumemitsuketai is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Yumemitsuketai vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Japan, Yumemitsuketai needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ less understanding of Yumemitsuketai strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Yumemitsuketai 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Yumemitsuketai has high operating costs in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Yumemitsuketai lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Yumemitsuketai is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Yumemitsuketai to provide better information regarding Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Yumemitsuketai is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry, but Yumemitsuketai needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Yumemitsuketai to focus more on services in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry, Yumemitsuketai needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Yumemitsuketai is just above the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) 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 Yumemitsuketai ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Yumemitsuketai still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Yumemitsuketai has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Japan, Yumemitsuketai 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 Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry.
Yumemitsuketai Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Yumemitsuketai are -
Loyalty marketing
– Yumemitsuketai 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, Yumemitsuketai 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 Yumemitsuketai to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Yumemitsuketai in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Yumemitsuketai to increase its market reach. Yumemitsuketai 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Yumemitsuketai 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 Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Yumemitsuketai 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. Yumemitsuketai 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Yumemitsuketai has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Yumemitsuketai to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Yumemitsuketai to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Yumemitsuketai 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Yumemitsuketai is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Yumemitsuketai can utilize new technology in the field of Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, 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, Yumemitsuketai can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Yumemitsuketai operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) sector.
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. Yumemitsuketai can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Yumemitsuketai can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Yumemitsuketai 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 Yumemitsuketai to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Yumemitsuketai External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Yumemitsuketai are -
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 Yumemitsuketai.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Yumemitsuketai may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Yumemitsuketai 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 Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry and other sectors.
Regulatory challenges
– Yumemitsuketai 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 Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry regulations.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Yumemitsuketai can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Yumemitsuketai has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Yumemitsuketai needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Yumemitsuketai in Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry. The Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) 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.
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. Yumemitsuketai needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Yumemitsuketai 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Yumemitsuketai 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 Yumemitsuketai prominent markets.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Yumemitsuketai 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 Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) industry are lowering. It can presents Yumemitsuketai with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Retail (Catalog & Mail Order) sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Yumemitsuketai Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Yumemitsuketai 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 Yumemitsuketai 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 Yumemitsuketai 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 Yumemitsuketai 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 Yumemitsuketai needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
