Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions
Sunrise Power, a first-generation mid-sized power and mining company in India, was considering geographical diversification in the African continent. While many African nations were rich in resources, they often lagged in economic indicators, and global companies hesitated to invest in infrastructure due to limited risk appetite. However, this left an opportunity for mid-sized firms such as Sunrise Power, so long as they could attain regulatory support and ensure high returns. Sunrise Power needed to evaluate the complexities in identifying the right market in Southern Africa. This included examining indicators like population, gross domestic product, energy demand forecasts, and electrification capacity. The firm also had to identify the critical success factors and assess the risks in the strategy planning process. Finally, it needed to design an organizational structure for its African venture so as to realize the benefits of diversification. Sanjeev Kumar Prasad is affiliated with XLRI School of Business and Human Resources.
Swot Analysis of "Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions" written by Sanjeev Kumar Prasad includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sunrise Power facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sunrise Power, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sunrise Power 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 Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sunrise Power
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Sunrise Power
Strengths Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sunrise Power in Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sunrise Power in the sector have low bargaining power. Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sunrise Power to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Sunrise Power
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Sunrise Power does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Sunrise Power is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sunrise Power 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.
Learning organization
- Sunrise Power 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 Sunrise Power is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Sunrise Power to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Sunrise Power to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sunrise Power 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Sunrise Power digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Sunrise Power 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.
High brand equity
– Sunrise Power has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Sunrise Power to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Sunrise Power is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions 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
– Sunrise Power has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions 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.
Weaknesses Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Sanjeev Kumar Prasad suggests that, Sunrise Power 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Sunrise Power has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Sunrise Power 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions HBR case study mentions - Sunrise Power 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Sunrise Power 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. Sunrise Power 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Sunrise Power 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Sunrise Power, firm in the HBR case study Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sunrise Power products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sunrise Power needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Sunrise Power is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Sunrise Power needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Sunrise Power to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Sunrise Power 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions 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 Sunrise Power has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions | 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 Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sunrise Power is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Sunrise Power in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Loyalty marketing
– Sunrise Power 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Sunrise Power can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Sunrise Power 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Sunrise Power can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Sunrise Power operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
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 Sunrise Power 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Sunrise Power 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, Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions, 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 Sunrise Power 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 Sunrise Power to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Sunrise Power 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 Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Sunrise Power to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Sunrise Power can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Sunrise Power 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sunrise Power 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 Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions 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 Sunrise Power 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. Sunrise Power needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Sunrise Power 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Sunrise Power 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
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 Sunrise Power.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sunrise Power in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Increasing wage structure of Sunrise Power
– 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 Sunrise Power.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sunrise Power 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 Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions .
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. Sunrise Power 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Sunrise Power has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sunrise Power needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sunrise Power 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Sunrise Power with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions 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 Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions 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 Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions 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 Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions 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 Sunrise Power Limited: Charting Growth in Unexplored Regions 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 Sunrise Power needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.