The Incident in Kabul SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Incident in Kabul
Captain William Waverly was a member of the US Army's forces in Afghanistan, and was stationed in a post in western Kabul, beginning in late 2011. He was the commander of this post, one of the several bases in that city. US soldiers guarded the power plant located at this post. Waverly and his team also launched the security and stability operations from this location. For this latter function, the US Army always conducted security and stability operations jointly with the Afghan municipal police forces. To conduct these operations, the US government had supplied fuel to the Afghan forces to operate their armored vehicles for city patrols. However, to begin to ensure that the Afghan government was now developing and perfecting its own fuel acquisition, storage, protection, and distribution processes, the two-star US Army general in this region in Afghanistan ordered, in early 2012, all US units to stop providing fuel to the Afghan forces. The objective of this order was to make the Afghan government self-reliant on its own fuel procurement and protection processes. A few days after the order to stop providing fuel to Afghan forces, Afghan police armored trucks pulled into the post for a patrol and expected gas. A tense situation quickly developed. The head of the Afghan forces, Ghotai Sharma, upon learning from one of Waverly's sergeants that he was not getting gasoline that day, became upset. Sharma drew his pistol, started gesticulating and raised his voice. Sharma's troops swung their gun turrets from their armored vehicles toward the US soldiers and Waverly heard the familiar metallic click associated with Sharma's troops chambering an ammunition round in an AK-47 weapon. At the same time, he heard in his earpiece the chattering from his own US troops as they coordinated who was covering what target among the Afghan police should a firefight break out. In the not too distant past, Waverly had lost, at the hands of Afghan forces who were living as allies with the US troops, a fellow officer, who was Waverly's roommate in Afghanistan. He knew that his next few steps would be critical in this emerging conflict situation.
Swot Analysis of "The Incident in Kabul" written by Karen E. Boroff, Matthew Pratt includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Afghan Waverly facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Incident in Kabul case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Conflict, Government, International business, Leadership, Negotiations, Organizational culture and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Incident in Kabul casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Incident in Kabul
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Incident in Kabul case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Afghan Waverly, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Afghan Waverly 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 The Incident in Kabul can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Incident in Kabul case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Afghan Waverly
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Afghan Waverly
Strengths The Incident in Kabul | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Afghan Waverly in The Incident in Kabul Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Afghan Waverly is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Incident in Kabul 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.
Organizational Resilience of Afghan Waverly
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Afghan Waverly does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Afghan Waverly has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Incident in Kabul 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Afghan Waverly has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Afghan Waverly 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.
Learning organization
- Afghan Waverly 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 Afghan Waverly is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Incident in Kabul Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Afghan Waverly is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Afghan Waverly in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Afghan Waverly 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Incident in Kabul 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
– Afghan Waverly 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 The Incident in Kabul HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Afghan Waverly in the sector have low bargaining power. The Incident in Kabul has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Afghan Waverly to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Afghan Waverly has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Afghan Waverly to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Afghan Waverly in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses The Incident in Kabul | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Incident in Kabul are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Incident in Kabul, it seems that the employees of Afghan Waverly 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 to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Afghan Waverly is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Incident in Kabul can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Afghan Waverly 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Incident in Kabul 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 Afghan Waverly 's lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Incident in Kabul 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 The Incident in Kabul can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Afghan Waverly is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Afghan Waverly 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Incident in Kabul HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Afghan Waverly has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Afghan Waverly 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Afghan Waverly products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Afghan Waverly 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 The Incident in Kabul, is just above the industry average. Afghan Waverly 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Incident in Kabul HBR case study mentions - Afghan Waverly takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Opportunities The Incident in Kabul | 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 The Incident in Kabul are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Afghan Waverly can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Afghan Waverly 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 The Incident in Kabul - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Afghan Waverly to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Afghan Waverly can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Afghan Waverly 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 Afghan Waverly to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Afghan Waverly 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Afghan Waverly 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 Organizational Development segment.
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 Afghan Waverly 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Afghan Waverly 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Afghan Waverly can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Incident in Kabul 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Afghan Waverly can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Afghan Waverly operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Afghan Waverly in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Afghan Waverly 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, The Incident in Kabul, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Afghan Waverly 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.
Threats The Incident in Kabul External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Incident in Kabul are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Afghan Waverly 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 The Incident in Kabul .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Afghan Waverly with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Afghan Waverly is facing in Organizational Development 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.
Environmental challenges
– Afghan Waverly 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. Afghan Waverly can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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 Afghan Waverly in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Afghan Waverly
– 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 Afghan Waverly.
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. Afghan Waverly 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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Afghan Waverly 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.
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 Afghan Waverly 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. Afghan Waverly needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Afghan Waverly has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Afghan Waverly needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Incident in Kabul 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 The Incident in Kabul 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 The Incident in Kabul 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 The Incident in Kabul 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 The Incident in Kabul 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 Afghan Waverly needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.