Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise
To grow Phirbol, a telecom retail franchise chain in Delhi, India's underdeveloped markets, its founders were exploring ways to offer more value to the franchisees. In mid-2009, the Phirbol franchise was comprised of some 150 franchisees that had converted their small "mom-and-pop" shops into Phirbol-branded stores. Entrepreneurs Meghna Modi and Glenn Wong had launched the franchise in 2007, two years after they founded Go Mobile, a company-owned mobile retail chain. While Go Mobile stores were located in higher-income neighborhoods and focused primarily on selling phone handsets, Phirbol stores could be found in less-developed areas-most were not accessible by car-and focused on selling service connections (SIM cards) and recharges. Phirbol added value to the franchisees by streamlining some of their business processes, offering them a consistent product supply, sales support and incentives, and providing them with education on the constantly changing dynamics of India's mobile market. But as the founders looked towards expanding, they knew they would have to enhance their offering to franchisees in order to recruit some of the more established "mom-and-pop" stores they planned to target as franchisees. In addition, they would need to adjust their business model such that more responsibility was delegated to franchisees and staff. Looking forward, what should Modi and Wong do to ensure Phirbol's success?
Swot Analysis of "Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise" written by Rajiv Lal, Natalie Kindred includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Phirbol Franchisees facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurial management, Growth strategy, Influence and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Phirbol Franchisees, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Phirbol Franchisees 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 Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Phirbol Franchisees
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 Phirbol Franchisees
Strengths Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Phirbol Franchisees in Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Phirbol Franchisees 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Phirbol Franchisees 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 Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Phirbol Franchisees is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Phirbol Franchisees 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 Rajiv Lal, Natalie Kindred 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.
Organizational Resilience of Phirbol Franchisees
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Phirbol Franchisees does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Phirbol Franchisees in the sector have low bargaining power. Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Phirbol Franchisees to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Phirbol Franchisees has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Phirbol Franchisees has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Phirbol Franchisees 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Phirbol Franchisees in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Phirbol Franchisees has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Phirbol Franchisees to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Phirbol Franchisees 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 Phirbol Franchisees is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise 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 Phirbol Franchisees 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Phirbol Franchisees 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 - Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise, is just above the industry average. Phirbol Franchisees 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Rajiv Lal, Natalie Kindred suggests that, Phirbol Franchisees 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise 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 Phirbol Franchisees has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise, in the dynamic environment Phirbol Franchisees has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Phirbol Franchisees has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise 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 Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Phirbol Franchisees is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Phirbol Franchisees 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 to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Phirbol Franchisees is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise, it seems that the employees of Phirbol Franchisees 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 Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise | 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 Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise are -
Manufacturing automation
– Phirbol Franchisees 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Phirbol Franchisees 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 Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Phirbol Franchisees to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Phirbol Franchisees can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Phirbol Franchisees can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Phirbol Franchisees operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Phirbol Franchisees 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Phirbol Franchisees 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.
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. Phirbol Franchisees can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Phirbol Franchisees 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. Phirbol Franchisees 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.
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 Phirbol Franchisees in the consumer business. Now Phirbol Franchisees can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Phirbol Franchisees to increase its market reach. Phirbol Franchisees 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Phirbol Franchisees can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Phirbol Franchisees 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 Phirbol Franchisees in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise are -
Environmental challenges
– Phirbol Franchisees 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. Phirbol Franchisees can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Phirbol Franchisees 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, Phirbol Franchisees 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 Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise, Phirbol Franchisees 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Phirbol Franchisees with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Phirbol Franchisees 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Phirbol Franchisees 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Phirbol Franchisees 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
– Phirbol Franchisees has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Phirbol Franchisees 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. Phirbol Franchisees 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 Phirbol Franchisees business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Phirbol Franchisees
– 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 Phirbol Franchisees.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Phirbol Franchisees 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 Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise 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 Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise 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 Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise 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 Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise 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 Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise 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 Phirbol Franchisees needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
