Swot Analysis of "Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy?" written by Aldo Musacchio, Tarun Khanna, Rachna Tahilyani includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Color.you Railways facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government, Strategy and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, 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%, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Color.you Railways, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Color.you Railways 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 Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Color.you Railways
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 Color.you Railways
Strengths Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Color.you Railways in Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Color.you Railways has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Color.you Railways is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Color.you Railways 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Color.you Railways 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.
Organizational Resilience of Color.you Railways
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Color.you Railways does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Color.you Railways is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Color.you Railways in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Color.you Railways has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Color.you Railways to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Color.you Railways 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 Aldo Musacchio, Tarun Khanna, Rachna Tahilyani 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
- Color.you Railways 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 Color.you Railways is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Color.you Railways has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Color.you Railways 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.
Weaknesses Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? 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 Color.you Railways 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Color.you Railways 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Color.you Railways has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Color.you Railways 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. Color.you Railways 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy?, it seems that the employees of Color.you Railways 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.
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 Color.you Railways supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Color.you Railways vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Color.you Railways 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 - Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Color.you Railways, firm in the HBR case study Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Color.you Railways 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Color.you Railways 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 Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy?, 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.
Opportunities Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? | 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 Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Color.you Railways 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Color.you Railways 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
– Color.you Railways can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Color.you Railways is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Color.you Railways can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Global Business segment.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Color.you Railways 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 Color.you Railways to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Color.you Railways 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, Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Color.you Railways 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 Color.you Railways has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Color.you Railways to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? case study. Color.you Railways 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, Color.you Railways can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Color.you Railways operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
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 Color.you Railways in the consumer business. Now Color.you Railways can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Color.you Railways 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. Color.you Railways 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.
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. Color.you Railways can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Color.you Railways with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Color.you Railways has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Color.you Railways 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Color.you Railways 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 Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Color.you Railways 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.
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. Color.you Railways 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Color.you Railways is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Color.you Railways 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 wage structure of Color.you Railways
– 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 Color.you Railways.
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 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.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Color.you Railways needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Color.you Railways 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. Color.you Railways can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Color.you Railways can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? 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 Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? 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 Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? 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 Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? 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 Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy? 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 Color.you Railways needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.