Case Study Description of Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes
The owner of Tesco Cranes Engineers Pvt. Ltd. was considering the impact of various issues that had led to the closure of the company's sub-assembly plant in December 2012. Despite his efforts, he had not been able to stop workers from joining a regional trade union in July 2012. Immediately after joining the trade union, workers had slowed down production and gone on strike. Later, the plant had been closed by the owner. The company had suffered a production decline as a consequence of the strike and the subsequent plant closure. In view of these unexpected events, the owner was facing a dilemma. On one hand, he was wondering whether he should take proactive action to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the other two Tesco Cranes Engineers Pvt. Ltd. plants in the future. On the other hand, he was questioning whether it had been ethical of him to close the sub-assembly plant; he knew that this decision had left all of those workers unemployed and helpless, with most of them doing menial work or returning to their villages. Harshita Singh is affiliated with Management Development Institute. Debi S. Saini is affiliated with Management Development Institute, Gurgaon.
Swot Analysis of "Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes" written by Harshita Singh, Debi S. Saini includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cranes Tesco facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cranes Tesco, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cranes Tesco 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 Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cranes Tesco
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 Cranes Tesco
Strengths Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cranes Tesco in Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Cranes Tesco has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cranes Tesco to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Cranes Tesco 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 Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes - 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 Leadership & Managing People field
– Cranes Tesco 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 Cranes Tesco in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Cranes Tesco
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Cranes Tesco 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 Cranes Tesco 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cranes Tesco to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cranes Tesco to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Cranes Tesco is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Harshita Singh, Debi S. Saini can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Learning organization
- Cranes Tesco 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 Cranes Tesco is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cranes Tesco has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cranes Tesco 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Cranes Tesco is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Cranes Tesco is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes are -
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 Cranes Tesco supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cranes Tesco vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes HBR case study mentions - Cranes Tesco 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes 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 Cranes Tesco 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Cranes Tesco, firm in the HBR case study Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes, it seems that the employees of Cranes Tesco 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes, in the dynamic environment Cranes Tesco has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Cranes Tesco has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Cranes Tesco products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Cranes Tesco needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes 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 Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cranes Tesco is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cranes Tesco 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Harshita Singh, Debi S. Saini suggests that, Cranes Tesco 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes 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 Cranes Tesco has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes | 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 Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes 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. Cranes Tesco can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Cranes Tesco 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 Cranes Tesco to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Cranes Tesco 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, Cranes Tesco 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 Cranes Tesco can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Cranes Tesco can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Cranes Tesco 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cranes Tesco is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cranes Tesco 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, Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cranes Tesco 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
– Cranes Tesco 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Cranes Tesco has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Cranes Tesco to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes case study. Cranes Tesco can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Cranes Tesco 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 Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes 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. Cranes Tesco can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cranes Tesco in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cranes Tesco 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 Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes .
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. Cranes Tesco 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.
Environmental challenges
– Cranes Tesco 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. Cranes Tesco can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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 Cranes Tesco business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Cranes Tesco
– 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 Cranes Tesco.
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 Cranes Tesco.
Regulatory challenges
– Cranes Tesco 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cranes Tesco 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.
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.
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. Cranes Tesco needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Cranes Tesco 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 Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes 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 Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes 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 Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes 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 Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes 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 Industrial Unrest at Tesco Cranes 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 Cranes Tesco needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
