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Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople


In April 2016, the owner of Moonka Automobile, a two-wheeled vehicle dealership for Honda Motor Company Ltd., was facing some difficult decisions regarding recruitment for Moonka Automobile's new branch in Jamshedpur, India. The owner wanted to improve the process for recruiting salespersons for this second branch. In addition to the constraints of a tight budget, limited managerial time and availability, and the need to complete the recruitment quickly, the owner's challenges included (1) identifying the knowledge, skills, and attitude he needed to look for in potential salespersons; (2) encouraging the appropriate candidates to apply for the job opening; and (3) improving the process to be followed for recruitment. The owner certainly did not want to rush things and end up recruiting unsuitable employees, which could have disastrous consequences for the business. At the same time, he needed to get sales underway in the new branch. How could the owner balance his many responsibilities while finding the right salespersons for Moonka Automobile? Atul Arun Pathak is affiliated with XLRI-Xavier School of Management. Gyanesh Mishra is affiliated with XLRI-Xavier School of Management.

Authors :: Atul Arun Pathak, Gyanesh Mishra

Topics :: Sales & Marketing

Tags :: International business, Marketing, Talent management, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople" written by Atul Arun Pathak, Gyanesh Mishra includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Moonka Salespersons facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business, Marketing, Talent management and Sales & Marketing.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Moonka Salespersons, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Moonka Salespersons 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 Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Moonka Salespersons
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 Moonka Salespersons




Strengths Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Moonka Salespersons in Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople Harvard Business Review case study are -

Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field

– Moonka Salespersons is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Moonka Salespersons in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople 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)

– Moonka Salespersons 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 Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Moonka Salespersons are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.

Strong track record of project management

– Moonka Salespersons is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Moonka Salespersons digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Moonka Salespersons 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Moonka Salespersons is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

High brand equity

– Moonka Salespersons has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Moonka Salespersons to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry

– Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Moonka Salespersons to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Moonka Salespersons to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Moonka Salespersons in the sector have low bargaining power. Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Moonka Salespersons to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Diverse revenue streams

– Moonka Salespersons is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople 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.

Learning organization

- Moonka Salespersons 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 Moonka Salespersons is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.



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Net Promoter Score



Weaknesses Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople are -

Products dominated business model

– Even though Moonka Salespersons 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 - Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Need for greater diversity

– Moonka Salespersons 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.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Moonka Salespersons 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.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople 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 Moonka Salespersons has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople 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 Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Moonka Salespersons is planning to shift buying processes online.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople 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 Moonka Salespersons 's lucrative customers.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Moonka Salespersons is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople, in the dynamic environment Moonka Salespersons has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Moonka Salespersons has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Moonka Salespersons 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.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Atul Arun Pathak, Gyanesh Mishra suggests that, Moonka Salespersons 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Moonka Salespersons 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.




Opportunities Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople | 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 Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople are -

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Moonka Salespersons can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Moonka Salespersons operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.

Buying journey improvements

– Moonka Salespersons can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Moonka Salespersons 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.

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. Moonka Salespersons can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

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 Moonka Salespersons in the consumer business. Now Moonka Salespersons can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Moonka Salespersons 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 Moonka Salespersons to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Moonka Salespersons to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Moonka Salespersons 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 Moonka Salespersons 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Moonka Salespersons 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 Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Moonka Salespersons to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Moonka Salespersons is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Moonka Salespersons has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Moonka Salespersons to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople case study. Moonka Salespersons can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

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. Moonka Salespersons can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.




Threats Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople are -

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople, Moonka Salespersons 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 .

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. Moonka Salespersons can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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 Moonka Salespersons.

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. Moonka Salespersons 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

– Moonka Salespersons 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.

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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Moonka Salespersons 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.

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 Moonka Salespersons business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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. Moonka Salespersons needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Moonka Salespersons 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 Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople .

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Moonka Salespersons with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Moonka Salespersons 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.

Environmental challenges

– Moonka Salespersons 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. Moonka Salespersons can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople 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 Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople 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 Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople 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 Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople 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 Moonka Auto: Recruiting Salespeople 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 Moonka Salespersons needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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