ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance
The case describes the opportunities and challenges in the cigarette industry in India. The description suggests that there are tremendous opportunities for growth in the cigarette industry. However, there are challenges due to the health hazards associated with cigarette smoking, distortion in the tax system as applied to the cigarette industry, and restrictions on smoking placed by new legislation. Further, there are challenges in the market due to smuggling, contraband products, and other issues. The case presents ITC Limited as a dominant player in the industry with a significant dependence on tobacco and tobacco products promising to pursue the triple bottom line approach by focusing on economic, environmental and social value. There is a need for the company to decide on some directions for the future to live up to the promise of a triple bottom line approach. The case, based on the real issues faced by ITC Limited, will allow students to understand the dilemmas the firm faced in trying to meet the social demands to ban or restrict smoking. Any decision to stop producing and selling cigarettes has negative implications for the business. How does ITC Limited arrive at the right balance?
Swot Analysis of "ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance" written by Abhoy Ojha includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Itc Cigarette facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Itc Cigarette, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Itc Cigarette 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 ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Itc Cigarette
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Itc Cigarette
Strengths ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Itc Cigarette in ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Itc Cigarette has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Itc Cigarette has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Itc Cigarette 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
– Itc Cigarette is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance case study 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Itc Cigarette is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Itc Cigarette in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Itc Cigarette is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Itc Cigarette 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 Itc Cigarette 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Itc Cigarette digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Itc Cigarette 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.
Learning organization
- Itc Cigarette 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 Itc Cigarette is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Itc Cigarette 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 ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Itc Cigarette 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance HBR case study mentions - Itc Cigarette takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Itc Cigarette has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Itc Cigarette has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance, it seems that the employees of Itc Cigarette 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Abhoy Ojha suggests that, Itc Cigarette 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 industry.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Itc Cigarette is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Itc Cigarette 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance, is just above the industry average. Itc Cigarette 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Itc Cigarette 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. 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.
Opportunities ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Itc Cigarette 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Itc Cigarette has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Itc Cigarette to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Itc Cigarette 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Itc Cigarette 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. Itc Cigarette 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Itc Cigarette 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 Itc Cigarette to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Itc Cigarette can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Itc Cigarette operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Itc Cigarette 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Itc Cigarette to increase its market reach. Itc Cigarette 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.
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. Itc Cigarette can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Itc Cigarette can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Itc Cigarette is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Itc Cigarette can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Itc Cigarette 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.
Threats ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Itc Cigarette has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Itc Cigarette needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
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 Itc Cigarette in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Itc Cigarette 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 the industry and other sectors.
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 Itc Cigarette.
Environmental challenges
– Itc Cigarette 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. Itc Cigarette can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Itc Cigarette 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Itc Cigarette is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Itc Cigarette
– 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 Itc Cigarette.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Itc Cigarette with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Itc Cigarette 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 prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance .
Regulatory challenges
– Itc Cigarette 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
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 Itc Cigarette business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance 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 the case study ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance 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 the Harvard case study ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance 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 ITC LTD.: Toward a Triple Bottom Line Performance is 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 Itc Cigarette needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
