Case Study Description of Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985
James Clabough, marketing vice president at Ingersoll-Rand, has to decide on the distribution policy for a new product. The decision has marketing as well as organizational ramifications.
Swot Analysis of "Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985" written by V. Kasturi Rangan, E. Raymond Corey includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ingersoll Rand facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Product development, Sales and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ingersoll Rand, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ingersoll Rand 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 Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ingersoll Rand
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ingersoll Rand
Strengths Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ingersoll Rand in Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Ingersoll Rand has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Ingersoll Rand is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ingersoll Rand is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ingersoll Rand in the sector have low bargaining power. Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ingersoll Rand to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Ingersoll Rand has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ingersoll Rand to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Ingersoll Rand is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Ingersoll Rand 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 Ingersoll Rand is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ingersoll Rand 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
– Ingersoll Rand 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 V. Kasturi Rangan, E. Raymond Corey 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 Ingersoll Rand in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ingersoll Rand is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ingersoll Rand 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 Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Ingersoll Rand 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. Ingersoll Rand 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 Ingersoll Rand is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Ingersoll Rand needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ingersoll Rand to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 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 Ingersoll Rand has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Ingersoll Rand 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ingersoll Rand is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, V. Kasturi Rangan, E. Raymond Corey suggests that, Ingersoll Rand 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ingersoll Rand 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985, in the dynamic environment Ingersoll Rand has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ingersoll Rand has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ingersoll Rand, firm in the HBR case study Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 HBR case study mentions - Ingersoll Rand 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985, it seems that the employees of Ingersoll Rand 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.
Opportunities Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 | 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 Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Ingersoll Rand 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. Ingersoll Rand 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ingersoll Rand 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, Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ingersoll Rand can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ingersoll Rand operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ingersoll Rand can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Ingersoll Rand 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ingersoll Rand to increase its market reach. Ingersoll Rand 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ingersoll Rand 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 Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Ingersoll Rand can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ingersoll Rand is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 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.
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. Ingersoll Rand can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ingersoll Rand has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ingersoll Rand to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 case study. Ingersoll Rand can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ingersoll Rand 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Ingersoll Rand can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing 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 Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ingersoll Rand is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ingersoll Rand 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 Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 .
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 Ingersoll Rand in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Ingersoll Rand needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985, Ingersoll Rand may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Regulatory challenges
– Ingersoll Rand 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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ingersoll Rand has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ingersoll Rand needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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.
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. Ingersoll Rand 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Ingersoll Rand 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ingersoll Rand 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.
Environmental challenges
– Ingersoll Rand 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. Ingersoll Rand can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ingersoll Rand 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 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 Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 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 Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 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 Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 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 Ingersoll-Rand (A): Managing Multiple Channels--1985 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 Ingersoll Rand needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.