Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management
In 2014, Hubtown Limited (Hubtown), an Indian real estate development company, was attempting to implement a process to differentiate between its employees in order to enhance performance, identify employees who could be groomed for future growth, and distribute rewards. Hubtown was consolidating to concentrate on a few large, complex projects in residential and commercial spaces in urban centres. Like other companies in the industry, it competed for talent and faced challenges when attempting to retain, reward, and promote valuable employees. Earlier efforts to implement a results-based performance management system had failed, so the organization decided to design and adopt a behaviour-based approach and to implement it from the bottom up to bypass resistance from senior management. Case A describes the challenges the human resources head faced in creating an institutionalized performance culture and designing the implementation plan for this system. Case B describes the implementation process and presents the initiatives taken by the human resources team to implement the process, train the stakeholders, and address challenges along the way. Kajari Mukherjee and Meenakshi Aggarwal-Gupta are affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Indore.
Swot Analysis of "Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management" written by Kajari Mukherjee, Meenakshi Aggarwal-Gupta includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hubtown Implement facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Developing employees and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hubtown Implement, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hubtown Implement 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 Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hubtown Implement
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Hubtown Implement
Strengths Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hubtown Implement in Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Hubtown Implement has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Hubtown Implement has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hubtown Implement 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Hubtown Implement 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.
Analytics focus
– Hubtown Implement 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 industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Kajari Mukherjee, Meenakshi Aggarwal-Gupta can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Hubtown Implement in the sector have low bargaining power. Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Hubtown Implement to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hubtown Implement in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Hubtown Implement is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Hubtown Implement in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hubtown Implement to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hubtown Implement to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Hubtown Implement
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Hubtown Implement does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Hubtown Implement 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 Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Hubtown Implement is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management are -
Need for greater diversity
– Hubtown Implement 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hubtown Implement products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hubtown Implement needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Kajari Mukherjee, Meenakshi Aggarwal-Gupta suggests that, Hubtown Implement 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management, in the dynamic environment Hubtown Implement has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Hubtown Implement has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hubtown Implement 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Hubtown Implement 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 industry using digital technology.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management HBR case study mentions - Hubtown Implement 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Hubtown Implement is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Hubtown Implement needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Hubtown Implement to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management, it seems that the employees of Hubtown Implement 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 Hubtown Implement supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hubtown Implement vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Hubtown Implement has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management | 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 Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Hubtown Implement to increase its market reach. Hubtown Implement 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Hubtown Implement 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 Hubtown Implement to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Hubtown Implement 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Hubtown Implement 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Hubtown Implement 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 Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hubtown Implement to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Hubtown Implement can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Hubtown Implement operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Hubtown Implement can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management suggest that firm 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hubtown Implement is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Hubtown Implement 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 Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Hubtown Implement 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. Hubtown Implement 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hubtown Implement 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 Organizational Development segment.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Hubtown Implement can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Hubtown Implement can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Hubtown Implement is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Hubtown Implement 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Hubtown Implement 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 Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Hubtown Implement with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Hubtown Implement needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Hubtown Implement 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management, Hubtown Implement may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Hubtown Implement 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. Hubtown Implement can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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 Hubtown Implement business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Hubtown Implement 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 field.
Increasing wage structure of Hubtown Implement
– 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 Hubtown Implement.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management 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 Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management 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 Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management 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 Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management 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 Hubtown (A): Designing a Bottom-Up Approach to Performance Management 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 Hubtown Implement needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
