Swot Analysis of "Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B)" written by Pitabas Mohanty, Supriti Mishra includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that W17471 Maruti facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Manufacturing and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the W17471 Maruti, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which W17471 Maruti 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 Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of W17471 Maruti
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of W17471 Maruti
Strengths Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of W17471 Maruti in Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the W17471 Maruti 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– W17471 Maruti 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 Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that W17471 Maruti 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled W17471 Maruti to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped W17471 Maruti to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– W17471 Maruti has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. W17471 Maruti 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– W17471 Maruti is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– W17471 Maruti is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) 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.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– W17471 Maruti 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 W17471 Maruti in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– W17471 Maruti is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of W17471 Maruti in the sector have low bargaining power. Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps W17471 Maruti to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– W17471 Maruti 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 Pitabas Mohanty, Supriti Mishra 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.
Learning organization
- W17471 Maruti 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 W17471 Maruti is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) 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 W17471 Maruti has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) 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 Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as W17471 Maruti is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– W17471 Maruti 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 W17471 Maruti supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left W17471 Maruti vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, W17471 Maruti 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, Pitabas Mohanty, Supriti Mishra suggests that, W17471 Maruti 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, W17471 Maruti is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) 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 W17471 Maruti 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of W17471 Maruti, firm in the HBR case study Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
W17471 Maruti has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) HBR case study mentions - W17471 Maruti 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 Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) | 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 Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, W17471 Maruti 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, Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, W17471 Maruti 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.
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 W17471 Maruti 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for W17471 Maruti 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 W17471 Maruti to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. W17471 Maruti can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– W17471 Maruti 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 Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help W17471 Maruti 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
– W17471 Maruti can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
Loyalty marketing
– W17471 Maruti 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. W17471 Maruti can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. W17471 Maruti 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. W17471 Maruti 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– W17471 Maruti 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
– W17471 Maruti can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) 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 W17471 Maruti to increase its market reach. W17471 Maruti 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.
Threats Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) are -
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents W17471 Maruti with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 W17471 Maruti in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
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. W17471 Maruti 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B), W17471 Maruti may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– W17471 Maruti 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 W17471 Maruti business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of W17471 Maruti
– 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 W17471 Maruti.
Environmental challenges
– W17471 Maruti 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. W17471 Maruti can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Regulatory challenges
– W17471 Maruti 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– W17471 Maruti has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, W17471 Maruti needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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
– W17471 Maruti 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) 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 Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) 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 Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) 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 Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) 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 Maruti Suzuki: Good Company or Good Stock Dilemma (B) 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 W17471 Maruti needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.