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 - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, 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 -
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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– W16748 Somaiya has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
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.
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.
High brand equity
– W16748 Somaiya has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled W16748 Somaiya to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
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.
Diverse revenue streams
– W16748 Somaiya is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) 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 lead change in Organizational Development field
– W16748 Somaiya 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 W16748 Somaiya in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– W16748 Somaiya is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
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.
Training and development
– W16748 Somaiya has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) 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.
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 -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, W16748 Somaiya has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Products dominated business model
– Even though W16748 Somaiya 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 - Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, W16748 Somaiya 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as W16748 Somaiya is planning to shift buying processes online.
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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of W16748 Somaiya, firm in the HBR case study Infinity Life Insurance Company: Creating an Organization (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. W16748 Somaiya can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. W16748 Somaiya 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. W16748 Somaiya 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help W16748 Somaiya to increase its market reach. W16748 Somaiya 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.
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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, W16748 Somaiya 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.
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 -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. W16748 Somaiya can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that W16748 Somaiya is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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.
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.
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) .
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.
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.
