Case Study Description of Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action
Godrej Security Solutions (GSS) offered both physical security products (such as safes, lockers, etc.) and electronic security products (such as cameras with analytics, closed circuit television, biometric and access control systems, burglar alarms, etc.). Although homeowners were evidently worried about their security, they were typically passive and reactive - as opposed to proactive - in addressing the problem. GSS had launched two effective advertising campaigns; however, continuing to communicate the importance of security solutions and converting this buyer inertia to action was fundamental to its ongoing success. What should the company's communication strategy be? Bhagyalakshmi Venkatesh is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Indore.
Swot Analysis of "Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action" written by Bhagyalakshmi Venkatesh, Mehernosh Pithawalla, Suruchi Trivedi includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Security Gss facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, technology disruption,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Security Gss, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Security Gss 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 Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Security Gss
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 Security Gss
Strengths Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Security Gss in Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Security Gss in the sector have low bargaining power. Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Security Gss to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Security Gss is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action 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.
Training and development
– Security Gss has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action 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.
Organizational Resilience of Security Gss
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Security Gss does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Security Gss 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 Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Security Gss has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Security Gss 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 Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Security Gss 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.
High brand equity
– Security Gss has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Security Gss to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Security Gss 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 Security Gss is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Security Gss to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Security Gss to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Security Gss 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.
Weaknesses Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action 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 Security Gss 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Bhagyalakshmi Venkatesh, Mehernosh Pithawalla, Suruchi Trivedi suggests that, Security Gss 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 Security Gss products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Security Gss needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Security Gss 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, Security Gss 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. Security Gss 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Security Gss 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action 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 Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Security Gss is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action HBR case study mentions - Security Gss takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action, in the dynamic environment Security Gss has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Security Gss has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Security Gss 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 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 Security Gss supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Security Gss vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action | 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 Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Security Gss can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Security Gss 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 Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Security Gss to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Security Gss 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. Security Gss 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Security Gss can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action 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 Security Gss in the consumer business. Now Security Gss can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Security Gss 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.
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. Security Gss can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Security Gss 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Security Gss to increase its market reach. Security Gss 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Security Gss 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 Security Gss 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, Security Gss can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Security Gss operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– Security Gss can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Security Gss 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 Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action are -
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. Security Gss can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Security Gss 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. Security Gss needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Security Gss 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.
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 Security Gss in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Security Gss 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Security Gss 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.
Increasing wage structure of Security Gss
– 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 Security Gss.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Security Gss 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.
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 Security Gss.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action, Security Gss 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action 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 Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action 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 Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action 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 Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action 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 Godrej Security Solutions Ltd: Moving Consumers to Action 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 Security Gss needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.