Case Study Description of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (DMRC), a government-owned enterprise in India, was responsible for building, operating, and managing the metro rail network in the National Capital Region of India. Delhi's reliable, punctual, clean, and green metro services began operation in 2002. By 2016, DMRC had transformed peoples' lives and become an essential form of transit for an average of 2.5 million commuters per day. In terms of customer satisfaction, DMRC was ranked in a global online survey as the second-best metro system in the world. But management at DMRC knew that to maintain that level of customer satisfaction, it had to be conscious of the gap between performance and customer expectations, which were increasing with demands from DMRC's assertive and ambitious millennial commuters. In addition, the government was embarking on strategies to induce commuters to switch from private to public transit. DMRC needed to evaluate its strategic service priorities while continuing to deliver value to its stakeholders. Should DMRC focus on enhancing customer experience with augmented services or invest in measures to reduce operational costs? Was DMRC's culture of customer delight sustainable?
Swot Analysis of "Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction" written by Somnath Chakrabarti, B. S. Kiran includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Dmrc Metro facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers, Leadership, Project management and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dmrc Metro, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dmrc Metro 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 Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dmrc Metro
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 Dmrc Metro
Strengths Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dmrc Metro in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Dmrc Metro is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Dmrc Metro 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 Dmrc Metro in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Dmrc Metro 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 Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Dmrc Metro digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Dmrc Metro 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Dmrc Metro 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Dmrc Metro 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 Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Dmrc Metro 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Dmrc Metro to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Dmrc Metro to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Dmrc Metro is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction 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.
Organizational Resilience of Dmrc Metro
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Dmrc Metro does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Dmrc Metro has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Dmrc Metro 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 - Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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 Dmrc Metro supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Dmrc Metro vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Dmrc Metro 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Somnath Chakrabarti, B. S. Kiran suggests that, Dmrc Metro 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Dmrc Metro 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction, is just above the industry average. Dmrc Metro 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction, 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Dmrc Metro has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Dmrc Metro is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction 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 Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction, it seems that the employees of Dmrc Metro 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 Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction | 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 Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction are -
Buying journey improvements
– Dmrc Metro can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction 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.
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 Dmrc Metro in the consumer business. Now Dmrc Metro can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Dmrc Metro 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Dmrc Metro to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Dmrc Metro to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Dmrc Metro is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction 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
– Dmrc Metro 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Dmrc Metro has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Dmrc Metro to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction case study. Dmrc Metro can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Dmrc Metro 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. Dmrc Metro 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Dmrc Metro 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 Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Dmrc Metro to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Dmrc Metro can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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. Dmrc Metro can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Dmrc Metro 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Dmrc Metro 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 Sales & Marketing segment.
Threats Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Dmrc Metro with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Dmrc Metro has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Dmrc Metro 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.
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 Dmrc Metro.
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.
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 Dmrc Metro business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Dmrc Metro 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Dmrc Metro 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.
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. Dmrc Metro needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Dmrc Metro 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. Dmrc Metro can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Increasing wage structure of Dmrc Metro
– 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 Dmrc Metro.
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 Dmrc Metro in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Dmrc Metro can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction 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 Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction 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 Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction 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 Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction 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 Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction 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 Dmrc Metro needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
