Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer
Rajesh Exports Limited (REL), founded by Rajesh Mehta in the 1980s and based in India, was the world's largest, lowest cost gold jewellery manufacturer. REL derived more than 90 per cent of its total revenue from exporting gold jewellery to more than 60 countries; but, in 2017, REL set a goal of increasing the portion of revenue contributed by the retail segment to 90 per cent by 2030-an increase from the current contribution of 10 per cent. REL had initiated strategies to differentiate itself in the retail jewellery segment; nonetheless, analysts were skeptical about REL's ability to achieve its revenue goal. They pointed to the hindrances of severe competition in the global retail jewellery market; REL's lack of experience in retail jewellery; and the perception of low quality associated with products produced in India. Was Mehta's vision to establish REL's presence in the retail segment appropriate, and if so, how could REL overcome the barriers and establish its identity in the international retail jewellery market? Arpita Agnihotri is affiliated with Pennsylvania State University - Harrisburg. Saurabh Bhattacharya is affiliated with Newcastle University.
Swot Analysis of "Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer" written by Arpita Agnihotri, Saurabh Bhattacharya includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Rel Jewellery facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business, Mergers & acquisitions and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Rel Jewellery, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Rel Jewellery 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 Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Rel Jewellery
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Rel Jewellery
Strengths Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Rel Jewellery in Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Rel Jewellery has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Rel Jewellery to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Rel Jewellery 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 Rel Jewellery is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Rel Jewellery 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Rel Jewellery in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Rel Jewellery is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Rel Jewellery in the sector have low bargaining power. Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Rel Jewellery to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Rel Jewellery is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Rel Jewellery has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Rel Jewellery 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Rel Jewellery 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 Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Rel Jewellery 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 Rel Jewellery 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
– Rel Jewellery is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer 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.
Weaknesses Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Rel Jewellery, firm in the HBR case study Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Rel Jewellery 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Rel Jewellery 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 - Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Rel Jewellery 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. Rel Jewellery 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Arpita Agnihotri, Saurabh Bhattacharya suggests that, Rel Jewellery 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer, it seems that the employees of Rel Jewellery 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer 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 Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Rel Jewellery is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Rel Jewellery is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Rel Jewellery needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Rel Jewellery 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, Rel Jewellery 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer, in the dynamic environment Rel Jewellery has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Rel Jewellery has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer | 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 Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Rel Jewellery 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 Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Rel Jewellery to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Rel Jewellery in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Global Business segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 Rel Jewellery 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Rel Jewellery is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Rel Jewellery 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Rel Jewellery can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Rel Jewellery in the consumer business. Now Rel Jewellery 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 Rel Jewellery 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 Rel Jewellery 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. Rel Jewellery can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Rel Jewellery 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Rel Jewellery has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Rel Jewellery to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer case study. Rel Jewellery can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Rel Jewellery can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Rel Jewellery operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Global Business industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Rel Jewellery can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer are -
Environmental challenges
– Rel Jewellery 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. Rel Jewellery can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Rel Jewellery has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Rel Jewellery needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business 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.
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. Rel Jewellery 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Rel Jewellery 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Rel Jewellery 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer, Rel Jewellery may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Global Business .
Regulatory challenges
– Rel Jewellery 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 Global Business industry regulations.
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 Rel Jewellery
– 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 Rel Jewellery.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Rel Jewellery with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Rel Jewellery 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.
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 Rel Jewellery in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Rel Jewellery business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer 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 Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer 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 Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer 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 Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer 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 Rajesh Exports: Gold Trader to International Jewellery Retailer 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 Rel Jewellery needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.