Cj Seafood (11150) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Cj Seafood (South Korea)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Cj Seafood is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cj Seafood

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

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Strengths of Cj Seafood | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Cj Seafood are -

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Food Processing industry

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

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Cj Seafood has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Cj Seafood staying ahead in the Food Processing industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Cj Seafood 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.

Learning organization

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

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Cj Seafood in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Cj Seafood has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cj Seafood to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Innovation driven organization

– Cj Seafood is one of the most innovative firm in Food Processing sector.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Cj Seafood in Food Processing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

High brand equity

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

Ability to recruit top talent

– Cj Seafood is one of the leading players in the Food Processing industry in South Korea. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in South Korea. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Organizational Resilience of Cj Seafood

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

Training and development

– Cj Seafood has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-Cyclical 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Cj Seafood is present in almost all the verticals within the Food Processing industry. This has provided Cj Seafood 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.

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Weaknesses of Cj Seafood | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Cj Seafood are -

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Cj Seafood, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Food Processing 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.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of South Korea, Cj Seafood needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Need for greater diversity

– Cj Seafood 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

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

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Cj Seafood has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the Food Processing industry using digital technology.

Employees’ less understanding of Cj Seafood strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Cj Seafood 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 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 Cj Seafood supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Cj Seafood is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cj Seafood vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Ability to respond to the competition

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

Lack of clear differentiation of Cj Seafood products

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

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Cj Seafood is one of the leading players in the Food Processing industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Food Processing industry in last five years.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Cj Seafood is just above the Food Processing 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.

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Cj Seafood Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Cj Seafood are -

Leveraging digital technologies

– Cj Seafood 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

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

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 Cj Seafood 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.

Increase in government spending

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

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

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

Reforming the budgeting process

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

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cj Seafood 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.

Finding new ways to collaborate

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

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Cj Seafood has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Food Processing industry. This can help Cj Seafood to build a more holistic ecosystem for Cj Seafood products in the Food Processing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Cj Seafood can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Buying journey improvements

– Cj Seafood can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Food Processing 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 Cj Seafood in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Food Processing industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cj Seafood 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.

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Threats Cj Seafood External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Cj Seafood are -

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Cj Seafood has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Food Processing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cj Seafood needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Food Processing 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.

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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cj Seafood in Food Processing industry. The Food Processing 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Cj Seafood is facing in Food Processing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Cj Seafood 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.

Environmental challenges

– Cj Seafood 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. Cj Seafood can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Food Processing industry.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Cj Seafood may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Food Processing sector.

Capital market disruption

– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Cj Seafood.

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. Cj Seafood needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Food Processing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc

– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cj Seafood 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 Cj Seafood prominent markets.

Barriers of entry lowering

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

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 Cj Seafood business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cj Seafood Template, Example

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

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