Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling?
Global consumption of petroleum products stood at just more than 90 million barrels per day by the end of 2013, and was expected to increase to 91 million or more by the end of 2014. Petroleum companies were constantly exploring the planet for new oil reserves to meet this voracious demand for fossil fuels. Because three-quarters of the earth was water, it was evident that these oil reserves were largely underwater; however, until the end of 2013, very few players had explored this opportunity. Although reaching deep-water drilling sites posed various challenges - environmental, political, technological, etc. - offshore exploration was the future of the oil and gas industry.Because of its very successful campaigns, Cairn India was ideally positioned for offshore exploration. Capturing and capitalizing on the opportunity of offshore exploration would give it an edge, but the question remained: Would it be better to gain the prime mover advantage or wait for other players to start the process so that it could learn from others' mistakes and reap benefits later? Sandeep Puri is affiliated with Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad.
Swot Analysis of "Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling?" written by Sandeep Puri, Srinivas Raghavan, Kartikeyun Arumunganain Muruganandan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Offshore Cairn facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Offshore Cairn, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Offshore Cairn 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 Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Offshore Cairn
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Offshore Cairn
Strengths Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Offshore Cairn in Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Offshore Cairn digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Offshore Cairn 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Offshore Cairn to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Offshore Cairn to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Offshore Cairn is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Offshore Cairn in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Offshore Cairn is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Offshore Cairn 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 Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Offshore Cairn 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 Offshore Cairn in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Offshore Cairn in the sector have low bargaining power. Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Offshore Cairn to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? 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 Offshore Cairn 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)
– Offshore Cairn 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 Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? - 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 Offshore Cairn 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 Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Offshore Cairn 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Offshore Cairn 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. Offshore Cairn 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling?, it seems that the employees of Offshore Cairn don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Offshore Cairn 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Offshore Cairn is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Offshore Cairn needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Offshore Cairn to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Offshore Cairn 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 - Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? 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 Offshore Cairn 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? 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 Offshore Cairn has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Offshore Cairn 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling?, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling?, is just above the industry average. Offshore Cairn 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.
Opportunities Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? | 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 Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? are -
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. Offshore Cairn can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Offshore Cairn can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Offshore Cairn 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
– Offshore Cairn 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Offshore Cairn has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Offshore Cairn to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? case study. Offshore Cairn can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Offshore Cairn 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Offshore Cairn 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.
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 Offshore Cairn in the consumer business. Now Offshore Cairn can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Offshore Cairn can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Offshore Cairn in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Developing new processes and practices
– Offshore Cairn can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Offshore Cairn 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 Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Offshore Cairn to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Offshore Cairn to increase its market reach. Offshore Cairn 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.
Threats Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? 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 Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling?, Offshore Cairn may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Offshore Cairn can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Offshore Cairn
– 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 Offshore Cairn.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Offshore Cairn with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Offshore Cairn 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Offshore Cairn 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.
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 Offshore Cairn.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Offshore Cairn 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 Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Offshore Cairn in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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 Offshore Cairn business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Offshore Cairn 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.
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 Offshore Cairn in the Strategy & Execution 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? 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 Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? 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 Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? 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 Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? 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 Should Cairn India Venture into Offshore Drilling? 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 Offshore Cairn needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.