Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space
In April 2011, Vithal Gambhir, the marketing director of Vibhava Chemicals (Vibhava), an entrepreneurial venture and leader in the black phenyl category in the home cleaning agents (HCA) market in South India, was faced with a marketing challenge. A slew of multi-national corporation (MNC) brands in the emerging new category of specialty cleaning agents had whittled down Vibhava's share of the traditional black phenyl category by 50 per cent over the previous eight years. The marketing efforts of the MNCs had also led to a gradual transformation of the HCA market, expanding and segmenting it in terms of applications (e.g. floor-cleaning agents and toilet-cleaning agents) and benefits (e.g. disinfecting, cleaning and deodorizing). As a result, Vibhava's leading brand, 'Black Belt' black phenyl disinfectant, began losing ground in the market. Vibhava had successfully responded to this decline by launching Ozone, a pine-oil-based floor cleaner, in 2003. Positioned as an herbal, eco-friendly, deodorizing floor cleaner, Ozone managed to keep out of the way of Domex, the leading MNC brand of disinfecting floor cleaner; however, during the last couple of years Domex had been available in many variants serving many segments and the market became flooded with both MNC and established Indian brands. While the sale of Ozone rose in absolute terms, Vibhava's share in the growing home cleaning market dropped from 25 per cent in a predominantly traditional product market in the 1990s, to 11 per cent in the transformed market of 2010. Gambhir now faced the daunting challenge of meeting an ambitious sales target of INR1 billion for 2011/12, which was double the sales of the previous year.
Swot Analysis of "Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space" written by N Ramesh, N. Barnabus includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Vibhava Cleaning facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, International business, Strategy and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Vibhava Cleaning, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Vibhava Cleaning 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 Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Vibhava Cleaning
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Vibhava Cleaning
Strengths Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Vibhava Cleaning in Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Vibhava Cleaning is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Vibhava Cleaning is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Vibhava Cleaning digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Vibhava Cleaning 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.
Organizational Resilience of Vibhava Cleaning
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Vibhava Cleaning does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Vibhava Cleaning are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Vibhava Cleaning in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Vibhava Cleaning is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Vibhava Cleaning is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space 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.
Training and development
– Vibhava Cleaning has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Vibhava Cleaning 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 Vibhava Cleaning in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Vibhava Cleaning has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Vibhava Cleaning 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 Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Vibhava Cleaning, firm in the HBR case study Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Vibhava Cleaning 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, N Ramesh, N. Barnabus suggests that, Vibhava Cleaning 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.
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 Vibhava Cleaning supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Vibhava Cleaning vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Vibhava Cleaning products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Vibhava Cleaning needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Vibhava Cleaning 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. Vibhava Cleaning 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Vibhava Cleaning is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Vibhava Cleaning 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 - Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space 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 Vibhava Cleaning has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space, in the dynamic environment Vibhava Cleaning has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Vibhava Cleaning has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Vibhava Cleaning 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.
Opportunities Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space | 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 Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Vibhava Cleaning 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Vibhava Cleaning is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Vibhava Cleaning has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Vibhava Cleaning to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space case study. Vibhava Cleaning can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Vibhava Cleaning in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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, Vibhava Cleaning can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Vibhava Cleaning operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Vibhava Cleaning 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. Vibhava Cleaning can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Vibhava Cleaning can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Vibhava Cleaning 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. Vibhava Cleaning 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.
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 Vibhava Cleaning in the consumer business. Now Vibhava Cleaning can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Vibhava Cleaning 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Vibhava Cleaning 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 Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Vibhava Cleaning to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Vibhava Cleaning 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 Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Vibhava Cleaning has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Vibhava Cleaning needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Vibhava Cleaning 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.
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 Vibhava Cleaning.
Regulatory challenges
– Vibhava Cleaning 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.
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. Vibhava Cleaning 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 Vibhava Cleaning
– 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 Vibhava Cleaning.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space, Vibhava Cleaning may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Vibhava Cleaning is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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 Vibhava Cleaning in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Vibhava Cleaning 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 Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space .
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 Vibhava Cleaning business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Vibhava Cleaning needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Vibhava Cleaning 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space 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 Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space 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 Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space 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 Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space 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 Vibhava Chemicals: Pursuit of a Cleaner Space 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 Vibhava Cleaning needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.