Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future
Urban Plus Infrabuild Pvt. Ltd. was a real estate brokerage company started in 2009 in Gurgaon, India, by a young MBA professional. In February 2010, he was considering the various issues he was faced with in day-to-day business activities. The company provided both resale and new bookings services, with a focus on the residential sector. The resale business was needed for immediate and substantial cash inflows to sustain the company's growth. The new bookings business was also crucial to capture more market share and achieve aggressive growth. However, confronted with multiple hurdles, the company had slow business growth in its initial year. It appeared that handling both types of businesses was becoming a challenge. A recent incident involving one employee's unethical behaviour in a resale transaction had forced the company to carefully consider its strategic plan. What strategy would the company need to compete in its sector and achieve its long term goals? Sonal Singh is affiliated with Management Development Institute. Rajesh Pillania is affiliated with Management Development Institute.
Swot Analysis of "Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future" written by Sonal Singh, Rajesh Pillania includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Resale Infrabuild facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Resale Infrabuild, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Resale Infrabuild 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 Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Resale Infrabuild
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 Resale Infrabuild
Strengths Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Resale Infrabuild in Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Resale Infrabuild 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 Resale Infrabuild is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Resale Infrabuild is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Sonal Singh, Rajesh Pillania can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Resale Infrabuild is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future 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 Resale Infrabuild in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Resale Infrabuild 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.
High brand equity
– Resale Infrabuild has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Resale Infrabuild to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Resale Infrabuild to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Resale Infrabuild to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Resale Infrabuild has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Resale Infrabuild 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Resale Infrabuild in the sector have low bargaining power. Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Resale Infrabuild to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Resale Infrabuild
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Resale Infrabuild does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Resale Infrabuild has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future 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 Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future are -
Need for greater diversity
– Resale Infrabuild 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Resale Infrabuild 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Resale Infrabuild 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. Resale Infrabuild 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 Resale Infrabuild 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future, it seems that the employees of Resale Infrabuild 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 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 Resale Infrabuild supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Resale Infrabuild vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Resale Infrabuild 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 - Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future, is just above the industry average. Resale Infrabuild 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Sonal Singh, Rajesh Pillania suggests that, Resale Infrabuild 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Resale Infrabuild is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Resale Infrabuild needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Resale Infrabuild to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future HBR case study mentions - Resale Infrabuild 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.
Opportunities Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future | 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 Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future 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. Resale Infrabuild can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Resale Infrabuild 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Resale Infrabuild 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Resale Infrabuild is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Resale Infrabuild has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Resale Infrabuild to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future case study. Resale Infrabuild can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Resale Infrabuild 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 Resale Infrabuild in the consumer business. Now Resale Infrabuild can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Resale Infrabuild 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Resale Infrabuild 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Resale Infrabuild to increase its market reach. Resale Infrabuild 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Resale Infrabuild 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Resale Infrabuild 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Resale Infrabuild can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Resale Infrabuild operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Threats Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future are -
Increasing wage structure of Resale Infrabuild
– 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 Resale Infrabuild.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Resale Infrabuild 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 Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future .
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Resale Infrabuild 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
– Resale Infrabuild 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.
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. Resale Infrabuild needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Resale Infrabuild business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Resale Infrabuild with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Resale Infrabuild.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future, Resale Infrabuild 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Resale Infrabuild is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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. Resale Infrabuild 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future 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 Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future 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 Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future 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 Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future 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 Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future 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 Resale Infrabuild needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
