Japan Foods Holding Ltd (JPFD) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Restaurants
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Japan Foods Holding Ltd (Singapore)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Japan Foods Holding Ltd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Japan Foods Holding Ltd
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Japan Foods Holding Ltd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Japan Foods Holding Ltd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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 Japan Foods Holding Ltd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Japan Foods Holding Ltd
2. Improving business portfolio management of Japan Foods Holding Ltd
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Singapore
4. Making a Restaurants sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Japan Foods Holding Ltd
Strengths of Japan Foods Holding Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Japan Foods Holding Ltd are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Japan Foods Holding Ltd in Restaurants industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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 Restaurants industry
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Japan Foods Holding Ltd to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Restaurants industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Japan Foods Holding Ltd to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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 Restaurants industry. The technology infrastructure of Singapore 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.
High brand equity
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Japan Foods Holding Ltd to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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 Japan Foods Holding Ltd is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Japan Foods Holding Ltd emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Restaurants
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd is one of the leading players in the Restaurants industry in Singapore. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Restaurants industry in Singapore but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Japan Foods Holding Ltd in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Restaurants industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Japan Foods Holding Ltd have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd is present in almost all the verticals within the Restaurants industry. This has provided Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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 Restaurants industry
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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.
Weaknesses of Japan Foods Holding Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Japan Foods Holding Ltd are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Japan Foods Holding Ltd is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Restaurants industry, but Japan Foods Holding Ltd needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Japan Foods Holding Ltd to focus more on services in the Restaurants industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Japan Foods Holding Ltd, in the dynamic environment of Restaurants industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Japan Foods Holding Ltd has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 Japan Foods Holding Ltd supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Japan Foods Holding Ltd is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Japan Foods Holding Ltd vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Japan Foods Holding Ltd, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Restaurants 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 strategic competitive environment developments
– As Japan Foods Holding Ltd is one of the leading players in the Restaurants industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Restaurants industry in last five years.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Japan Foods Holding Ltd has some of the most successful models in the Restaurants industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Japan Foods Holding Ltd should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Restaurants industry, Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Singapore, Japan Foods Holding Ltd needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Japan Foods Holding Ltd needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Restaurants industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Japan Foods Holding Ltd can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Japan Foods Holding Ltd is planning to shift buying processes online.
Japan Foods Holding Ltd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Japan Foods Holding Ltd are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Japan Foods Holding Ltd to increase its market reach. Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Restaurants 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Japan Foods Holding Ltd in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Restaurants industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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.
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. Japan Foods Holding Ltd can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Restaurants sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Japan Foods Holding Ltd to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Japan Foods Holding Ltd to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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 Restaurants industry.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Restaurants industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Japan Foods Holding Ltd in the Restaurants industry. Now Japan Foods Holding Ltd can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Japan Foods Holding Ltd is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Japan Foods Holding Ltd can utilize new technology in the field of Restaurants industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Restaurants 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Restaurants industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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. Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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.
Threats Japan Foods Holding Ltd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Japan Foods Holding Ltd in Restaurants industry. The Restaurants 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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.
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 Japan Foods Holding Ltd business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Restaurants industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Japan Foods Holding Ltd needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Restaurants 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.
Environmental challenges
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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. Japan Foods Holding Ltd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Restaurants industry.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Regulatory challenges
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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 Restaurants industry regulations.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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 Restaurants industry.
Increasing wage structure of Japan Foods Holding Ltd
– 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 Japan Foods Holding Ltd.
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 Japan Foods Holding Ltd in the Restaurants sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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 Japan Foods Holding Ltd prominent markets.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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 Restaurants industry and other sectors.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Japan Foods Holding Ltd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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 Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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 Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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 Japan Foods Holding Ltd 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 Japan Foods Holding Ltd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.