Swot Analysis of "Russia: Tribulations and Toska" written by Rawi Abdelal, Morena Skalamera, Marat Atnashev includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Toska Tribulations facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Russia: Tribulations and Toska case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Russia: Tribulations and Toska casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Russia: Tribulations and Toska
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Russia: Tribulations and Toska case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Toska Tribulations, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Toska Tribulations 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 Russia: Tribulations and Toska can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Russia: Tribulations and Toska case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Toska Tribulations
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 Toska Tribulations
Strengths Russia: Tribulations and Toska | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Toska Tribulations in Russia: Tribulations and Toska Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Toska Tribulations has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Russia: Tribulations and Toska 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Toska Tribulations 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.
High brand equity
– Toska Tribulations has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Toska Tribulations to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Toska Tribulations is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Toska Tribulations has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Russia: Tribulations and Toska HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Toska Tribulations 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 Toska Tribulations is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Russia: Tribulations and Toska Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Toska Tribulations is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Russia: Tribulations and Toska are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Toska Tribulations 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 Russia: Tribulations and Toska - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Toska Tribulations is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Toska Tribulations in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Toska Tribulations
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Toska Tribulations does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Toska Tribulations digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Toska Tribulations 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Toska Tribulations in the sector have low bargaining power. Russia: Tribulations and Toska has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Toska Tribulations to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Russia: Tribulations and Toska | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Russia: Tribulations and Toska are -
Need for greater diversity
– Toska Tribulations 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Toska Tribulations is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Toska Tribulations needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Toska Tribulations to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Russia: Tribulations and Toska 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 Russia: Tribulations and Toska can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Toska Tribulations is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Russia: Tribulations and Toska, is just above the industry average. Toska Tribulations 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Toska Tribulations 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Russia: Tribulations and Toska 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 Toska Tribulations has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Russia: Tribulations and Toska 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 Toska Tribulations 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Toska Tribulations 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. Toska Tribulations 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Toska Tribulations 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Toska Tribulations is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Russia: Tribulations and Toska can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Toska Tribulations 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.
Opportunities Russia: Tribulations and Toska | 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 Russia: Tribulations and Toska 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. Toska Tribulations can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Toska Tribulations 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.
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. Toska Tribulations 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. Toska Tribulations 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
– Toska Tribulations can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Russia: Tribulations and Toska 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Toska Tribulations 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.
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 Toska Tribulations in the consumer business. Now Toska Tribulations can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Toska Tribulations has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Toska Tribulations to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Russia: Tribulations and Toska case study. Toska Tribulations can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Toska Tribulations 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 Russia: Tribulations and Toska - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Toska Tribulations 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 Toska Tribulations to increase its market reach. Toska Tribulations 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Toska Tribulations 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.
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 Toska Tribulations 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Toska Tribulations can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Toska Tribulations 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.
Threats Russia: Tribulations and Toska External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Russia: Tribulations and Toska are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Russia: Tribulations and Toska, Toska Tribulations 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 .
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. Toska Tribulations can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Toska Tribulations needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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.
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 Toska Tribulations business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Toska Tribulations.
Environmental challenges
– Toska Tribulations 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. Toska Tribulations can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Toska Tribulations 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 Toska Tribulations 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
– Toska Tribulations has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Toska Tribulations 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, Toska Tribulations 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 Russia: Tribulations and Toska .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Toska Tribulations with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Russia: Tribulations and Toska 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 Russia: Tribulations and Toska 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 Russia: Tribulations and Toska 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 Russia: Tribulations and Toska 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 Russia: Tribulations and Toska 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 Toska Tribulations needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
