Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India
Reckitt Benckiser was the world's largest manufacturer of household products and a major marketer of health-care and personal-care products. The company was at a threshold of opportunities provided by a growing market of Indian consumers who were becoming health conscious and buying antibacterial products to make their homes germ-free. At a time when more and more Indians were looking for antibacterial products to protect their health, the company wondered if it should launch an antibacterial laundry detergent powder as part of its brand expansion strategy. Would the company benefit from a first-mover advantage by launching the first antibacterial laundry detergent in India? If the company were to consider entering this market, what strategic and branding objectives should it adopt? Should this new detergent be an extension of the company's famous Dettol brand or a new brand name? Sandeep Puri is affiliated with Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad.
Swot Analysis of "Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India" written by Sandeep Puri, Ankit Kaushik, Kartikeya Kachhwal includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Antibacterial Laundry facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Manufacturing, Marketing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India casestudy better are - – technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Antibacterial Laundry, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Antibacterial Laundry 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 Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Antibacterial Laundry
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 Antibacterial Laundry
Strengths Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Antibacterial Laundry in Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Antibacterial Laundry digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Antibacterial Laundry 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 Antibacterial Laundry 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 Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Antibacterial Laundry 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 Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Antibacterial Laundry to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Antibacterial Laundry to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Antibacterial Laundry
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Antibacterial Laundry does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Antibacterial Laundry is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Antibacterial Laundry 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)
– Antibacterial Laundry 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 Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Antibacterial Laundry has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Antibacterial Laundry 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Antibacterial Laundry is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Antibacterial Laundry has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Weaknesses Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Antibacterial Laundry 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Antibacterial Laundry 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India, 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 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 Antibacterial Laundry supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Antibacterial Laundry vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Antibacterial Laundry 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India 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 Antibacterial Laundry 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Antibacterial Laundry 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Antibacterial Laundry 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. Antibacterial Laundry 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Antibacterial Laundry 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India 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 Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Antibacterial Laundry is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India 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 Antibacterial Laundry has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India | 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 Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Antibacterial Laundry 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.
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 Antibacterial Laundry in the consumer business. Now Antibacterial Laundry can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Antibacterial Laundry 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Antibacterial Laundry 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 Antibacterial Laundry to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Antibacterial Laundry can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Antibacterial Laundry operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Antibacterial Laundry is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Antibacterial Laundry can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Antibacterial Laundry 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, Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Antibacterial Laundry 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Antibacterial Laundry has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Antibacterial Laundry to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India case study. Antibacterial Laundry can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Antibacterial Laundry to increase its market reach. Antibacterial Laundry 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.
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. Antibacterial Laundry can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Antibacterial Laundry 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.
Threats Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India are -
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Antibacterial Laundry 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 Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India .
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. Antibacterial Laundry can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Antibacterial Laundry 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.
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.
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 Antibacterial Laundry in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Antibacterial Laundry 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.
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 Antibacterial Laundry business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Antibacterial Laundry 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. Antibacterial Laundry can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Antibacterial Laundry 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India, Antibacterial Laundry 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 .
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. Antibacterial Laundry 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Antibacterial Laundry with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India 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 Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India 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 Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India 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 Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India 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 Reckitt Benckiser: Developing a New Laundry-Care Category in India 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 Antibacterial Laundry needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.