Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B)
Supplement to case W16748. Meenakshi Aggarwal-Gupta is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Indore. Amitabha Sengupta is affiliated with K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research.
Swot Analysis of "Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B)" written by Meenakshi Aggarwal-Gupta, Amitabha Sengupta includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that W16748 Somaiya facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Innovation, Organizational culture, Talent management and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, there is backlash against globalization,
increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the W16748 Somaiya, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which W16748 Somaiya 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 Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of W16748 Somaiya
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 W16748 Somaiya
Strengths Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of W16748 Somaiya in Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) 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.
Learning organization
- W16748 Somaiya 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 W16748 Somaiya is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of W16748 Somaiya
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that W16748 Somaiya does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– W16748 Somaiya has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. W16748 Somaiya 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– W16748 Somaiya 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 Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled W16748 Somaiya to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped W16748 Somaiya to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– W16748 Somaiya is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– W16748 Somaiya is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– W16748 Somaiya 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 Meenakshi Aggarwal-Gupta, Amitabha Sengupta 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of W16748 Somaiya in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the W16748 Somaiya 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of W16748 Somaiya in the sector have low bargaining power. Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps W16748 Somaiya to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract W16748 Somaiya 's lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, W16748 Somaiya 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 Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) HBR case study mentions - W16748 Somaiya 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 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 W16748 Somaiya supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left W16748 Somaiya vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Meenakshi Aggarwal-Gupta, Amitabha Sengupta suggests that, W16748 Somaiya 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B), it seems that the employees of W16748 Somaiya 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at W16748 Somaiya 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, W16748 Somaiya is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B), is just above the industry average. W16748 Somaiya 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B), in the dynamic environment W16748 Somaiya has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. W16748 Somaiya has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
W16748 Somaiya 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.
Opportunities Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) | 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 Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) are -
Manufacturing automation
– W16748 Somaiya can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– W16748 Somaiya can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, W16748 Somaiya is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for W16748 Somaiya in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Loyalty marketing
– W16748 Somaiya 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.
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 W16748 Somaiya 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– W16748 Somaiya 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 Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help W16748 Somaiya to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for W16748 Somaiya in the consumer business. Now W16748 Somaiya can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, W16748 Somaiya can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that W16748 Somaiya operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects W16748 Somaiya can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at W16748 Somaiya 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, W16748 Somaiya 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, as suggested in case study, Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– W16748 Somaiya 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.
Threats Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on W16748 Somaiya 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– W16748 Somaiya 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents W16748 Somaiya with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the 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 W16748 Somaiya business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– W16748 Somaiya 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 Organizational Development industry regulations.
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 W16748 Somaiya.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– W16748 Somaiya 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.
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, W16748 Somaiya 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 Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) .
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. W16748 Somaiya 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B), W16748 Somaiya 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– W16748 Somaiya has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, W16748 Somaiya needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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.
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. W16748 Somaiya needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) 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 Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) 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 Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) 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 Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) 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 Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) 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 W16748 Somaiya needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.