Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country
To maximize their effectiveness, color cases should be printed in color.This case showcases the 30-year career of Naina Lal Kidwai, Chairman of HSBC India, a leading woman business leader globally. It demonstrates how Kidwai spent a lifetime overcoming barriers as a woman in a male-dominated profession and as an Indian in the global marketplace. Now, as opportunities to play a role in the environment are beginning to open up, she has to decide the next direction to take in her career.
Swot Analysis of "Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country" written by Boris Groysberg, Anjali Raina includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Kidwai Lal facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Organizational culture and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kidwai Lal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kidwai Lal 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 Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kidwai Lal
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 Kidwai Lal
Strengths Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Kidwai Lal in Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Kidwai Lal to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Kidwai Lal to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Kidwai Lal has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Kidwai Lal 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Kidwai Lal is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Kidwai Lal 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.
Analytics focus
– Kidwai Lal 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 Boris Groysberg, Anjali Raina 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Kidwai Lal is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Kidwai Lal in the sector have low bargaining power. Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Kidwai Lal to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Kidwai Lal has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country 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.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Kidwai Lal digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Kidwai Lal 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.
Learning organization
- Kidwai Lal 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 Kidwai Lal is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Kidwai Lal is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country 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.
Weaknesses Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Kidwai Lal is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Kidwai Lal has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country, is just above the industry average. Kidwai Lal 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country 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 Kidwai Lal 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country 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 Kidwai Lal has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country HBR case study mentions - Kidwai Lal 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Kidwai Lal 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country, in the dynamic environment Kidwai Lal has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Kidwai Lal has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Kidwai Lal 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country 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 Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Kidwai Lal is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Kidwai Lal products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Kidwai Lal needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country | 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 Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Kidwai Lal can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Kidwai Lal operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Kidwai Lal 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 Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Kidwai Lal to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Kidwai Lal has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Kidwai Lal to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country case study. Kidwai Lal can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Kidwai Lal 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 Kidwai Lal in the consumer business. Now Kidwai Lal can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Kidwai Lal can develop new processes and procedures in Global Business industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
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. Kidwai Lal can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Kidwai Lal 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Kidwai Lal 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.
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. Kidwai Lal 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. Kidwai Lal 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Kidwai Lal can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Kidwai Lal 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. Kidwai Lal can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country are -
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. Kidwai Lal can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Kidwai Lal 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country, Kidwai Lal 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Kidwai Lal 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Kidwai Lal 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Kidwai Lal in the Global Business industry. The Global Business 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.
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. Kidwai Lal needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Kidwai Lal is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Kidwai Lal has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Kidwai Lal 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. Kidwai Lal 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.
Increasing wage structure of Kidwai Lal
– 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 Kidwai Lal.
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 Kidwai Lal business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country 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 Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country 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 Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country 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 Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country 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 Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country 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 Kidwai Lal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
