Case Study Description of PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A)
In 2002, Population Services International (PSI) was committed to curbing the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in India. Sanjay Chaganti, program director of HIV/AIDS at PSI India, has to decide on the best communication strategy to achieve this goal. Up to this date most efforts consisted of on-the-ground efforts by PSI personnel, but Chaganti was considering shifting a significant portion of funds to a provocative mass media advertising campaign. The campaign would feature a fictional character-Balbir Pasha. At one extreme the campaign would impact that target population and lift barriers to safe sex practices. At the other extreme the campaign could be controversial, ineffective, and squander precious resources.
Swot Analysis of "PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A)" written by Elie Ofek, Peter Wickersham includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Psi Balbir facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate communications, Customers, Health, Social enterprise and Communication.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) casestudy better are - – 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, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Psi Balbir, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Psi Balbir 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 PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Psi Balbir
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Communication field.
4. Making a Communication topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Psi Balbir
Strengths PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Psi Balbir in PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Psi Balbir 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.
Organizational Resilience of Psi Balbir
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Psi Balbir does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Psi Balbir in the sector have low bargaining power. PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Psi Balbir to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) 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.
Learning organization
- Psi Balbir 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 Psi Balbir is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Psi Balbir 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 Elie Ofek, Peter Wickersham 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Psi Balbir has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Psi Balbir 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Psi Balbir is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Psi Balbir is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Psi Balbir 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 Psi Balbir in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Communication industry
– PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Psi Balbir to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Communication industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Psi Balbir to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A), is just above the industry average. Psi Balbir needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Psi Balbir is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Communication segment. Psi Balbir needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Psi Balbir to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Psi Balbir 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. Psi Balbir 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) 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 Psi Balbir has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Psi Balbir 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) 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 Psi Balbir 's lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Psi Balbir 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 Psi Balbir 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A), it seems that the employees of Psi Balbir 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 to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Psi Balbir is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A), in the dynamic environment Psi Balbir has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Psi Balbir has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) | 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 PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) are -
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. Psi Balbir can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Communication industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Psi Balbir can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Psi Balbir 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Psi Balbir can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Psi Balbir 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 Psi Balbir to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Psi Balbir has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Psi Balbir to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) case study. Psi Balbir can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Psi Balbir in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Communication segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Psi Balbir 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, PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Psi Balbir 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Psi Balbir 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Psi Balbir 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 PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Psi Balbir to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Psi Balbir is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Psi Balbir can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Communication 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.
Threats PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Psi Balbir 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Psi Balbir 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 PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Psi Balbir 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 PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A), Psi Balbir may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Communication .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Communication field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Psi Balbir can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Psi Balbir in the Communication sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Psi Balbir in the Communication industry. The Communication 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.
Environmental challenges
– Psi Balbir 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. Psi Balbir can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Communication industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Psi Balbir 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 Communication industry regulations.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Psi Balbir is facing in Communication sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Psi Balbir 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.
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 Psi Balbir.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) 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 PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) 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 PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) 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 PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) 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 PSI India--Will Balbir Pasha Help Fight AIDS? (A) 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 Psi Balbir needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.