Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve
Celebrated as one of the world's premiere luxury hotel brands, Oberoi Hotels attracts and serves some of the most quality sensitive guests in the world. The case considers the challenge of how an organization, with a standardized service model, can repeatedly delight customers whose expectations grow with every interaction. To explore this question, the case details the design elements of Oberoi's complex service operation, including its approaches to employee management and continuous improvement, as well as the dynamics of service competition in a rapidly growing market. Teaching Note includes links to videos intended for display during classroom debrief.
Authors :: Ryan W. Buell, Ananth Raman, Vidhya Muthuram
Swot Analysis of "Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve" written by Ryan W. Buell, Ananth Raman, Vidhya Muthuram includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Oberoi Hotels facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Developing employees, Labor, Motivating people, Product development, Supply chain and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Oberoi Hotels, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Oberoi Hotels 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 Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Oberoi Hotels
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Oberoi Hotels
Strengths Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Oberoi Hotels in Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Oberoi Hotels
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Oberoi Hotels does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Oberoi Hotels has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Oberoi Hotels 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Oberoi Hotels 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 Oberoi Hotels in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Oberoi Hotels 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 Oberoi Hotels is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Oberoi Hotels in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Oberoi Hotels has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Oberoi Hotels to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Oberoi Hotels 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Oberoi Hotels digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Oberoi Hotels 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Oberoi Hotels is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Oberoi Hotels 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 Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve - 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
– Oberoi Hotels has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Oberoi Hotels 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 Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve 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 Oberoi Hotels 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve, in the dynamic environment Oberoi Hotels has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Oberoi Hotels has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Oberoi Hotels 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Oberoi Hotels 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve HBR case study mentions - Oberoi Hotels 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Oberoi Hotels 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. Oberoi Hotels 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve 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 Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Oberoi Hotels is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve, is just above the industry average. Oberoi Hotels 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Oberoi Hotels is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Oberoi Hotels needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Oberoi Hotels to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve 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 Oberoi Hotels has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Opportunities Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve | 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 Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Oberoi Hotels 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 Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Oberoi Hotels to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Oberoi Hotels 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 Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Oberoi Hotels 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. Oberoi Hotels 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Oberoi Hotels 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.
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. Oberoi Hotels can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Oberoi Hotels 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, Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Oberoi Hotels can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Oberoi Hotels in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People 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, Oberoi Hotels can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Oberoi Hotels operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Oberoi Hotels 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Oberoi Hotels has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Oberoi Hotels to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve case study. Oberoi Hotels can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Oberoi Hotels 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.
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 Oberoi Hotels in the consumer business. Now Oberoi Hotels can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Oberoi Hotels can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Oberoi Hotels 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve, Oberoi Hotels may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
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 Oberoi Hotels business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Oberoi Hotels is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Oberoi Hotels 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Oberoi Hotels with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Oberoi Hotels has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Oberoi Hotels needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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 wage structure of Oberoi Hotels
– 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 Oberoi Hotels.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Oberoi Hotels 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
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.
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 Oberoi Hotels in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve 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 Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve 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 Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve 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 Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve 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 Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve 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 Oberoi Hotels needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
