Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers
Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Limited (Kaira Union), a member union of the popular dairy brand Amul, was using information technology (IT)-enabled services to benefit individual dairy farmers with very small herd sizes in India. The technical inputs, such as veterinary services, were provided through veterinary centres located near clusters of villages. To improve service delivery, better manage inventory, deploy veterinarians, and manage their routes, the union had established a centralized veterinary call centre staffed at all hours of the day. The call centre had resulted in considerable savings in the cost of service and improved the efficiency of service delivery. The managing director of Kaira Union wanted to extend the call centre to include the union's operations in the states of Maharashtra and West Bengal. However, he was not sure whether the current architecture was capable of facing the challenge. Kaira Union needed to develop a proposal for the expansion. Harekrishna Misra is affiliated with Institute of Rural Management. S. R. Asokan is affiliated with Institute of Rural Management.
Swot Analysis of "Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers" written by Harekrishna Misra, S.R. Asokan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Kaira Union facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kaira Union, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kaira Union 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 Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kaira Union
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 Kaira Union
Strengths Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Kaira Union in Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Kaira Union is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers 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
– Kaira Union is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers 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.
Analytics focus
– Kaira Union 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 Harekrishna Misra, S.R. Asokan 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
– Kaira Union has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers 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.
Organizational Resilience of Kaira Union
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Kaira Union does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Kaira Union has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Kaira Union to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Kaira Union 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 Kaira Union is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Kaira Union digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Kaira Union 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Kaira Union 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 Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Kaira Union has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Kaira Union 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Kaira Union is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Kaira Union to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Kaira Union to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Kaira Union 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Kaira Union 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Harekrishna Misra, S.R. Asokan suggests that, Kaira Union 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers, is just above the industry average. Kaira Union 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers HBR case study mentions - Kaira Union 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers 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 Kaira Union has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Kaira Union 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 Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers, it seems that the employees of Kaira Union 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers, 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers 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 Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Kaira Union is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Kaira Union is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers | 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 Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Kaira Union is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers 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
– Kaira Union can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Kaira Union 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 Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Kaira Union to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Kaira Union to increase its market reach. Kaira Union will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Kaira Union 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Kaira Union can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Kaira Union operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Kaira Union 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, Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers, 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 Kaira Union 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Kaira Union to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
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. Kaira Union can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Kaira Union 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Kaira Union 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.
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 Kaira Union in the consumer business. Now Kaira Union can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Kaira Union is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Kaira Union in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers, Kaira Union 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 .
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.
Increasing wage structure of Kaira Union
– 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 Kaira Union.
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. Kaira Union 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.
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 Kaira Union business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Kaira Union 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, Kaira Union 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 Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Kaira Union 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 Kaira Union 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Kaira Union has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Kaira Union 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Kaira Union 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers 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 Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers 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 Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers 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 Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers 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 Amul's IT-Enabled Service Delivery to Dairy Farmers 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 Kaira Union needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.