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, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
wage bills are increasing, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , 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 -
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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Oberoi Hotels is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve 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
– 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.
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.
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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Oberoi Hotels in the sector have low bargaining power. Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Oberoi Hotels to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
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.
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.
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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Oberoi Hotels 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 Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
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.
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 -
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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Oberoi Hotels products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Oberoi Hotels 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, 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.
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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve, it seems that the employees of Oberoi Hotels don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Oberoi Hotels 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.
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 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 Oberoi Hotels supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Oberoi Hotels vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Oberoi Hotels 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 - Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Oberoi Hotels can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Oberoi Hotels to increase its market reach. Oberoi Hotels will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for 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.
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.
Buying journey improvements
– Oberoi Hotels can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Oberoi Hotels can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Oberoi Hotels can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Oberoi Hotels to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Oberoi Hotels to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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.
Manufacturing automation
– Oberoi Hotels can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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.
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 -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Oberoi Hotels 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.
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.
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 Oberoi Hotels.
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 .
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.
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.
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.
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. Oberoi Hotels needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Oberoi Hotels 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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Oberoi Hotels 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 Oberoi Hotels: Train Whistle in the Tiger Reserve .
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.