Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions
Transport Corporation of India was a logistics company that provided multi-modal transport solutions to its customers. Set up in 1958, TCI had grown from a 'one man, one truck, one office' set-up to a company with revenues of $400 million in half a century. TCI's growth had been assisted by the creation of individual divisions that provided specialized services to its clients-Freight, Express, Supply Chain Solutions, Seaways and Global. In 2012, the company renewed it efforts to foster cross-selling across the divisions with the hope that this would increase customer-stickiness and foster growth. However, as the company tried to push the cross-selling agenda across its various divisions, it faced myriad issues. It needed to educate its divisional sales-staff about the services provided by divisions other than their own; to motivate them to cross-sell; and to create intra-division confidence to facilitate cross-selling. While the Joint Managing director, Vineet Agarwal, under the guidance of his father D.P. Agarwal, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, TCI, and in conjunction with TCI's Executive Committee, had introduced initiatives like training across divisions, competitions on cross-selling, and tracking of cross-selling leads, he was not sure that these were enough. Were there other ways in which TCI could successfully cross-sell? Could they put in place a system that specifically incentivized cross-sales to motivate sales staff? The (A) case focuses on TCI's cross-selling efforts and the strategic decisions before it. Cases (B), (C), and (D) discuss specific situations that demonstrate issues related to the cross-selling initiative.
Swot Analysis of "Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions" written by V.G. Narayanan, Saloni Chaturvedi includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cross Divisions facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers, Operations management, Organizational culture, Sales and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cross Divisions, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cross Divisions 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 Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cross Divisions
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Cross Divisions
Strengths Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cross Divisions in Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Cross Divisions 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 Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cross Divisions in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Cross Divisions 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 Cross Divisions is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Cross Divisions 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 V.G. Narayanan, Saloni Chaturvedi 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cross Divisions 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 Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Cross Divisions 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Cross Divisions in the sector have low bargaining power. Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cross Divisions to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Cross Divisions is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Cross Divisions is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cross Divisions to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cross Divisions to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Cross Divisions 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
– Cross Divisions has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cross Divisions to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Cross Divisions 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. Cross Divisions 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions HBR case study mentions - Cross Divisions 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Cross Divisions is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Cross Divisions needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Cross Divisions to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions 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 Cross Divisions 's lucrative customers.
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 Cross Divisions supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cross Divisions vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions 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 Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cross Divisions is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Cross Divisions products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Cross Divisions needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions, in the dynamic environment Cross Divisions has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Cross Divisions has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Cross Divisions has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Cross Divisions 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.
Opportunities Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions | 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 Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Cross Divisions 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 Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cross Divisions to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Cross Divisions can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Cross Divisions 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.
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. Cross Divisions can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Cross Divisions can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cross Divisions operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Cross Divisions can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting 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.
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 Cross Divisions 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Cross Divisions can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Cross Divisions 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 Cross Divisions to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cross Divisions 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cross Divisions 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 Cross Divisions has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Cross Divisions to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions case study. Cross Divisions can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cross Divisions 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, Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cross Divisions 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 Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions .
Regulatory challenges
– Cross Divisions 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Cross Divisions
– 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 Cross Divisions.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Cross Divisions can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Cross Divisions needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Cross Divisions 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Cross Divisions with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cross Divisions in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions, Cross Divisions may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Cross Divisions is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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 Cross Divisions.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions 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 Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions 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 Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions 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 Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions 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 Transport Corporation of India (D): Business Development across Divisions 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 Cross Divisions needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.