Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise
In early 2017, after launching its successful "Greenhouse-in-a-Box" pilot project in India with fifteen smallholder farmers, Kheyti, a non-profit agricultural technology (AgTech) social enterprise, was struggling with several decisions in developing and growing its business. Kheyti was launched in 2015 to help smallholder farmers battle poverty and income variability by providing affordable technologies bundled with services. Over eighteen months, the team had developed a low-cost and modular greenhouse product to which it added financing, inputs, training, and market linkages to create a comprehensive "full-stack" solution for small farmers. The pilot project was a success in many ways, but Saumya, Kheyti's co-founder and head of product, was concerned that it revealed shortcomings that could severely affect the viability and scalability of Kheyti's solution. Saumya had some important decisions to make. Should Kheyti redesign the product from scratch, or find other ways to reduce the cost for early adopters? Should it rely on upfront revenues from sales of the greenhouse, or consider developing an innovative financing or contract farming model? Kheyti's dwindling cash reserves meant that these decisions were urgent and critical. The path chosen now would determine whether the startup would move beyond the pilot stage and achieve its vision of serving 1 million farmers by 2025.
Authors :: Mohanbir Sawhney, Saumya
Topics :: Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Tags :: Product development, Social enterprise, Social responsibility, Strategic planning, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise" written by Mohanbir Sawhney, Saumya includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Kheyti Kheyti's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Product development, Social enterprise, Social responsibility, Strategic planning and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kheyti Kheyti's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kheyti Kheyti's 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 Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kheyti Kheyti's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Kheyti Kheyti's
Strengths Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Kheyti Kheyti's in Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Kheyti Kheyti's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Kheyti Kheyti's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise 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.
Learning organization
- Kheyti Kheyti's 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 Kheyti Kheyti's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Kheyti Kheyti's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise 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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Kheyti Kheyti's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Kheyti Kheyti's has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Kheyti Kheyti's 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 Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Kheyti Kheyti's 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 Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Kheyti Kheyti's in the sector have low bargaining power. Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Kheyti Kheyti's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Kheyti Kheyti's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Kheyti Kheyti's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Kheyti Kheyti's 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 Mohanbir Sawhney, Saumya 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Kheyti Kheyti's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Kheyti Kheyti's 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Kheyti Kheyti's 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Mohanbir Sawhney, Saumya suggests that, Kheyti Kheyti's 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Kheyti Kheyti's 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 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 Kheyti Kheyti's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Kheyti Kheyti's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Kheyti Kheyti's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Kheyti Kheyti's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Kheyti Kheyti's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise 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 Kheyti Kheyti's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Kheyti Kheyti's 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 - Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise 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 Kheyti Kheyti's 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise, is just above the industry average. Kheyti Kheyti's 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.
Opportunities Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise | 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 Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Kheyti Kheyti's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Kheyti Kheyti's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Kheyti Kheyti's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise case study. Kheyti Kheyti's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Kheyti Kheyti's 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Kheyti Kheyti's 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. Kheyti Kheyti's 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Kheyti Kheyti's 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 Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Kheyti Kheyti's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Kheyti Kheyti's 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Kheyti Kheyti's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Kheyti Kheyti's to increase its market reach. Kheyti Kheyti's 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.
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 Kheyti Kheyti's 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.
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 Kheyti Kheyti's in the consumer business. Now Kheyti Kheyti's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Kheyti Kheyti's 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 Kheyti Kheyti's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Kheyti Kheyti's can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Kheyti Kheyti's 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 Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise are -
Environmental challenges
– Kheyti Kheyti's 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. Kheyti Kheyti's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Kheyti Kheyti's 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.
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. Kheyti Kheyti's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Kheyti Kheyti's
– 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 Kheyti Kheyti's.
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 Kheyti Kheyti's.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Kheyti Kheyti's in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Kheyti Kheyti's 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 Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise .
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. Kheyti Kheyti's 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Kheyti Kheyti's is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Kheyti Kheyti's 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Kheyti Kheyti's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise, Kheyti Kheyti's may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise 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 Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise 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 Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise 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 Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise 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 Kheyti: Product and Business Development at an AgTech Social Enterprise 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 Kheyti Kheyti's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
