Case Study Description of Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally
On June 25, 2014, the director of marketing and development at Allied Founders Pvt. Ltd., a company that operated out of Belgaum in India, was analyzing various problems associated with his company's management approach. The director was considering a change from the company's system of breakdown maintenance to a new information system of preventive maintenance. While executing its first international export order, the company faced several challenges related to production delays, mainly due to poor equipment maintenance. To plan for his company's future in the international market, the director proposed adopting preventive maintenance as a solution, but he was unsure whether to use traditional means (i.e., manual record keeping) or implement a new information system. He was concerned about the issues that could arise from the change, including resistance from employees worried about job loss, providing the necessary training, and exposing the company to other risks. Gurudutt Nayak, Amol Dhaigude, and Debmallya Chatterjee are affiliated with T.A. Pai Management Institute.
Swot Analysis of "Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally" written by Gurudutt Nayak, Amol Dhaigude, Debmallya Chatterjee includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Maintenance Preventive facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Manufacturing and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Maintenance Preventive, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Maintenance Preventive 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 Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Maintenance Preventive
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Maintenance Preventive
Strengths Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Maintenance Preventive in Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Maintenance Preventive 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Maintenance Preventive has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Maintenance Preventive 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Maintenance Preventive 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 Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally 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.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Maintenance Preventive digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Maintenance Preventive 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Maintenance Preventive is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Maintenance Preventive 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Maintenance Preventive to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Maintenance Preventive to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Maintenance Preventive 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 Gurudutt Nayak, Amol Dhaigude, Debmallya Chatterjee 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.
Training and development
– Maintenance Preventive has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally 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.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Maintenance Preventive 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 Maintenance Preventive in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Maintenance Preventive is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Maintenance Preventive is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Maintenance Preventive needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Maintenance Preventive to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Gurudutt Nayak, Amol Dhaigude, Debmallya Chatterjee suggests that, Maintenance Preventive 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Maintenance Preventive 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Maintenance Preventive 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally, it seems that the employees of Maintenance Preventive 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Maintenance Preventive 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. Maintenance Preventive 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally HBR case study mentions - Maintenance Preventive 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 to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Maintenance Preventive is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally 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 Maintenance Preventive has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
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 Maintenance Preventive supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Maintenance Preventive vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally | 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 Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Maintenance Preventive in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Buying journey improvements
– Maintenance Preventive can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally 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.
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 Maintenance Preventive in the consumer business. Now Maintenance Preventive can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Maintenance Preventive can develop new processes and procedures in Technology & Operations 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Maintenance Preventive 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Maintenance Preventive 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, Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Maintenance Preventive can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Technology & Operations 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Maintenance Preventive has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Maintenance Preventive to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally case study. Maintenance Preventive can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Technology & Operations industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Maintenance Preventive 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 Technology & Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Maintenance Preventive 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. Maintenance Preventive can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Loyalty marketing
– Maintenance Preventive 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.
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 Maintenance Preventive 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Maintenance Preventive can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Maintenance Preventive is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Maintenance Preventive 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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Maintenance Preventive has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Maintenance Preventive needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Technology & Operations sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally, Maintenance Preventive may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Maintenance Preventive can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Maintenance Preventive in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Maintenance Preventive with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
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 Maintenance Preventive.
Increasing wage structure of Maintenance Preventive
– 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 Maintenance Preventive.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Maintenance Preventive 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Maintenance Preventive 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 Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally 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 Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally 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 Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally 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 Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally 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 Allied Founders: Surviving Internationally 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 Maintenance Preventive needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
