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 - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, 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 -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Resale Infrabuild 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.
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.
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.
Innovation driven organization
– Resale Infrabuild is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Resale Infrabuild 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 Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Resale Infrabuild is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future 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
– 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future 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 Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Resale Infrabuild is planning to shift buying processes online.
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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Resale Infrabuild has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Lack of clear differentiation of Resale Infrabuild products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Resale Infrabuild needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future, 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.
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.
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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Resale Infrabuild is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
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 -
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. Resale Infrabuild 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. Resale Infrabuild 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.
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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Resale Infrabuild 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 Resale Infrabuild to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Resale Infrabuild to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
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.
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.
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.
Buying journey improvements
– Resale Infrabuild can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future 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.
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.
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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Resale Infrabuild can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Resale Infrabuild can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Resale Infrabuild 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 Urban Plus Infrabuild: Making Choices for the Future - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Resale Infrabuild to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 -
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.
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 .
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.
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.
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 Resale Infrabuild 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.
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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Resale Infrabuild 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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Resale Infrabuild 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.
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.
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.
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.