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 - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, 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.
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.
High brand equity
– Dmrc Metro has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Dmrc Metro to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Dmrc Metro has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Dmrc Metro 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.
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.
Learning organization
- Dmrc Metro 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 Dmrc Metro is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
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.
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.
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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Dmrc Metro in the sector have low bargaining power. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Dmrc Metro to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
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.
Training and development
– Dmrc Metro has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction 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 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 -
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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Dmrc Metro is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Dmrc Metro needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Dmrc Metro to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Dmrc Metro 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.
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.
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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Dmrc Metro products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Dmrc Metro needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction 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 Dmrc Metro 's lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Dmrc Metro 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, 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.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Dmrc Metro 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, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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.
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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Dmrc Metro 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Dmrc Metro 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Dmrc Metro can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Dmrc Metro operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Dmrc Metro can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Threats 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 -
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Dmrc Metro in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction, Dmrc Metro 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 .
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.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Dmrc Metro 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Dmrc Metro 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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Dmrc Metro 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 Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (A): Delivering Customer Satisfaction .
Regulatory challenges
– Dmrc Metro 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.
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.
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.
