Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India?
Airtel mCommerce Services Limited was waiting for news from the Reserve Bank of India related to mobile banking regulations, as it was eager to unleash the massive potential and untapped opportunity in India regarding mobile commerce. Its service, Airtel Money, was struggling in India, but it had experienced a huge success in Africa. Though it had some initial success in India, it still had a long way to go to capture the Indian mobile market. Jayanthi Ranjan and Parijat Upadhyay are affiliated with Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad.
Swot Analysis of "Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India?" written by Jayanthi Ranjan, Parijat Upadhyay includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Airtel India facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Airtel India, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Airtel India 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 Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Airtel India
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 Airtel India
Strengths Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Airtel India in Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Airtel India 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 Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Airtel India is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? 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 Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Airtel India is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Airtel India has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Airtel India to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Airtel India to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Airtel India has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Airtel India to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Airtel India
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Airtel India does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Airtel India 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 Airtel India is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Airtel India 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 Jayanthi Ranjan, Parijat Upadhyay 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Airtel India 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Airtel India 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.
Weaknesses Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Airtel India 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jayanthi Ranjan, Parijat Upadhyay suggests that, Airtel India 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Airtel India is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India?, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Airtel India is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Airtel India needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Airtel India to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? HBR case study mentions - Airtel India 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Airtel India 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 - Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? 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, Airtel India is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Airtel India 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Airtel India 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.
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 Airtel India supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Airtel India vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? are -
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. Airtel India can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Airtel India in the consumer business. Now Airtel India can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Airtel India 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Airtel India can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Airtel India operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Technology & Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Airtel India 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. Airtel India 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Airtel India 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Airtel India can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Airtel India can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Airtel India 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, Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Airtel India 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 Airtel India to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Airtel India 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 Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Airtel India to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Airtel India is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? 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.
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. Airtel India can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Airtel India 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Airtel India is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Airtel India 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Airtel India has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Airtel India 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.
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 Airtel India in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Airtel India needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Airtel India can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Airtel India 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 Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India?, Airtel India 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 .
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. Airtel India 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.
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 Airtel India business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Airtel India 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 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. Airtel India needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Airtel India
– 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 Airtel India.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Airtel Money: Can the African Success Be Replicated in India? is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Airtel India needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.