Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India
In September 2014, the co-founder and director of Treks `n Rapids, a leading adventure sports tourism company in New Delhi, India, needs to re-evaluate the company strategy. The adventure sports tourism industry has tremendous potential for growth in India, largely due to the number of young professionals with disposable incomes and a desire for new experiences, and is witnessing increased demand from a variety of profitable customer segments, both domestic and foreign, corporate and individual. However, the industry suffers from various problems such as poor infrastructure, the country's negative image in the minds of customers (especially with regard to safety and quality) and a string of natural disasters. Should the company focus on its currently profitable local corporate sector or diversify into other areas and other types of tourism? Atul Arun Pathak is affiliated with XLRI Xavier School of Management. Sanjeev Varshney is affiliated with XLRI Xavier School of Management,.
Swot Analysis of "Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India" written by Atul Arun Pathak, Sanjeev Varshney includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Tourism Adventure facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tourism Adventure, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tourism Adventure 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 Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tourism Adventure
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 Tourism Adventure
Strengths Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tourism Adventure in Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Tourism Adventure 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 Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Tourism Adventure has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Tourism Adventure to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Tourism Adventure has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Tourism Adventure has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Tourism Adventure is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Organizational Resilience of Tourism Adventure
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Tourism Adventure does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Tourism Adventure 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 Tourism Adventure is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Tourism Adventure 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 Tourism Adventure in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Tourism Adventure 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Tourism Adventure digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Tourism Adventure has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Tourism Adventure 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Tourism Adventure 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 Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Tourism Adventure to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Tourism Adventure to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Tourism Adventure 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Tourism Adventure is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Tourism Adventure 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. Tourism Adventure 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Tourism Adventure 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 Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Tourism Adventure has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India, in the dynamic environment Tourism Adventure has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Tourism Adventure has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 Tourism Adventure supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Tourism Adventure vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India, it seems that the employees of Tourism Adventure 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Atul Arun Pathak, Sanjeev Varshney suggests that, Tourism Adventure 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Tourism Adventure 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Tourism Adventure, firm in the HBR case study Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India are -
Manufacturing automation
– Tourism Adventure can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution 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 Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Tourism Adventure 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
– Tourism Adventure 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Tourism Adventure has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Tourism Adventure to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India case study. Tourism Adventure can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Tourism Adventure 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Tourism Adventure 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Tourism Adventure to increase its market reach. Tourism Adventure 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.
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 Tourism Adventure in the consumer business. Now Tourism Adventure can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Tourism Adventure 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, Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Tourism Adventure 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. Tourism Adventure 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
– Tourism Adventure can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Tourism Adventure 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 Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Tourism Adventure to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Tourism Adventure 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.
Threats Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Tourism Adventure 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.
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. Tourism Adventure 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
– Tourism Adventure 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.
Environmental challenges
– Tourism Adventure 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. Tourism Adventure can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Tourism Adventure has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Tourism Adventure needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
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 Tourism Adventure 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Tourism Adventure 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 Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India .
Increasing wage structure of Tourism Adventure
– 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 Tourism Adventure.
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.
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. Tourism Adventure needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Tourism Adventure 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.
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 Tourism Adventure.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Treks `n Rapids: Adventure Sports Tourism in India is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Tourism Adventure needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.