Case Study Description of Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach
In December 2005, Sapient Consulting signed a fixed-price contract with U.S.-based Global HR Outsourcing Inc. to design a human resources portal for its international customers. Sapient's senior manager of project management, who was based in India, had been handed the project with full faith that it would not only be delivered on time but within the fixed price and using the new agile hybrid methodology. The client wanted the portal built for them and insisted that the project be delivered in a phased manner and with functionality approved by them. Thus, the challenge was to meet the needs of the client while maintaining the margins for the organization.
Swot Analysis of "Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach" written by Aparna Raman, Sangeeta Shah Bharadwaj includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sapient Agile facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sapient Agile, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sapient Agile 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 Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sapient Agile
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Sapient Agile
Strengths Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sapient Agile in Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Sapient Agile 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 Aparna Raman, Sangeeta Shah Bharadwaj 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Sapient Agile to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Sapient Agile to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sapient Agile in the sector have low bargaining power. Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sapient Agile to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Sapient Agile is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sapient Agile 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Sapient Agile is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Sapient Agile in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Sapient Agile has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Sapient Agile to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Sapient Agile is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Sapient Agile is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sapient Agile 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.
Weaknesses Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Sapient Agile, firm in the HBR case study Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Sapient Agile is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach 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 Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Sapient Agile is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach, in the dynamic environment Sapient Agile has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Sapient Agile has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Sapient Agile 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. Sapient Agile 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sapient Agile products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sapient Agile needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach, is just above the industry average. Sapient Agile 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach, it seems that the employees of Sapient Agile 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Sapient Agile is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Sapient Agile needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Sapient Agile to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Aparna Raman, Sangeeta Shah Bharadwaj suggests that, Sapient Agile 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach 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 Sapient Agile 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach | 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 Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach are -
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 Sapient Agile 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sapient Agile has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Sapient Agile to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach case study. Sapient Agile can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Technology & Operations industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Sapient Agile can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Sapient Agile 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 Sapient Agile to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Sapient Agile in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Sapient Agile to increase its market reach. Sapient Agile 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Sapient Agile can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Technology & Operations segment.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Sapient Agile can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Sapient Agile 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 Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Sapient Agile to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Sapient Agile can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sapient Agile 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Sapient Agile 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sapient Agile is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach 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.
Threats Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach are -
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 Sapient Agile business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Sapient Agile needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Sapient Agile can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Sapient Agile 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 Technology & Operations industry regulations.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach, Sapient Agile may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Sapient Agile 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sapient Agile can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Sapient Agile in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline 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 Sapient Agile.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Sapient Agile has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sapient Agile needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Technology & Operations 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sapient Agile 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 Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach 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 Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach 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 Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach 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 Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach 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 Sapient Consulting: Enriching Experience Using Hybrid Agile Approach 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 Sapient Agile needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.