Case Study Description of Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees
In October 2014, Hari Krishna Exports, a US$975 million Indian diamond manufacturing company, made international news when it gave 1,268 employees a generous performance incentive of approximately US$5,700. This was part of a radical loyalty program the company had started in 2011. However, with the market dynamics of the diamond industry constantly changing, giving such performance incentives on a yearly basis would be a great challenge. Price fluctuations at every step of the process-from procurement, to polishing, to the retail markets of the diamonds-created inherent risk in the industry. Intermediaries such as diamond polishers, in comparison to miners, had less control over the upstream channels of diamond procurement, which usually comprised exploration and the mining of diamonds. What would be the ultimate engagement level of the employees? Would such performance benefits for retaining talented employees be sustainable over the long run for an export house? Malay Patel is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Patturaja Selvaraj is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Indore.
Swot Analysis of "Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees" written by Malay Patel, Patturaja Selvaraj includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Diamond Hari facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Motivating people, Organizational culture and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees casestudy better are - – technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Diamond Hari, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Diamond Hari 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 Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Diamond Hari
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 Diamond Hari
Strengths Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Diamond Hari in Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Diamond Hari 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 Diamond Hari is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Diamond Hari digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Diamond Hari 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.
Training and development
– Diamond Hari has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Diamond Hari to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Diamond Hari to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Diamond Hari
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Diamond Hari does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Diamond Hari 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Diamond Hari is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Diamond Hari in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Diamond Hari 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Diamond Hari is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Diamond Hari 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 Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees 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 Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Diamond Hari is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees 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 Diamond Hari has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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 Diamond Hari supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Diamond Hari vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Diamond Hari 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Diamond Hari 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Diamond Hari has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Diamond Hari even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Diamond Hari is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Diamond Hari needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Diamond Hari to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees HBR case study mentions - Diamond Hari 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees, in the dynamic environment Diamond Hari has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Diamond Hari has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees 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 Diamond Hari 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees | 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 Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Diamond Hari can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Diamond Hari 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Diamond Hari can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Diamond Hari 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Diamond Hari 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. Diamond Hari 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. Diamond Hari 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 Diamond Hari to increase its market reach. Diamond Hari 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Diamond Hari 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Diamond Hari 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Diamond Hari 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Diamond Hari 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Diamond Hari can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Manufacturing automation
– Diamond Hari 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.
Threats Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees are -
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. Diamond Hari 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Diamond Hari 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.
Increasing wage structure of Diamond Hari
– 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 Diamond Hari.
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 Diamond Hari in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Diamond Hari with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Diamond Hari.
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. Diamond Hari can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees, Diamond Hari 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 .
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. Diamond Hari 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 Diamond Hari 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.
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.
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 Diamond Hari business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees 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 Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees 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 Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees 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 Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees 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 Hari Krishna Exports: Transforming Employees 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 Diamond Hari needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
