Case Study Description of Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL
This two-part case revolves around a mandate given by Ganesh Purandare, head of the financial services business unit at SDL, a growing software development company, to Mohua Sen, head of recruitment for the division, whereby he asks her to reduce recruitment times. For SDL, each lateral hire is done against a billable opportunity. Hence, timely or early fulfilment is critical not only to ensuring project deliverables but also for addressing the immediate billability question. Part B: The case describes the implementation of the solution as applied by Mohua Sen in a pilot project in her division. Challenges emerge regarding acceptance of this process and the effective implementation across the organization. This aspect builds on the gaps which exist between knowing and doing, how to understand and address key stakeholder concerns and how to bring about change in organizations.
Swot Analysis of "Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL" written by Debolina Dutta includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sdl Mohua facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Change management, Talent management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices,
there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sdl Mohua, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sdl Mohua 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 Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sdl Mohua
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 Sdl Mohua
Strengths Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sdl Mohua in Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Sdl Mohua 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 Debolina Dutta 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Sdl Mohua is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Sdl Mohua 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 Sdl Mohua in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Sdl Mohua is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Sdl Mohua in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sdl Mohua 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Sdl Mohua 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 Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Sdl Mohua 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 Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Sdl Mohua to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Sdl Mohua to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sdl Mohua 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.
Training and development
– Sdl Mohua has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Sdl Mohua 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 Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Sdl Mohua has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL, in the dynamic environment Sdl Mohua has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Sdl Mohua has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Sdl Mohua 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 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 Sdl Mohua supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sdl Mohua vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Sdl Mohua 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Sdl Mohua is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Sdl Mohua needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Sdl Mohua to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sdl Mohua products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sdl Mohua 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 Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL 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 Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Sdl Mohua is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL, is just above the industry average. Sdl Mohua 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL 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 Sdl Mohua has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Sdl Mohua, firm in the HBR case study Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL | 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 Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sdl Mohua 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Sdl Mohua 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Sdl Mohua 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 Sdl Mohua to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Sdl Mohua 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, Sdl Mohua can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Sdl Mohua operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Sdl Mohua can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Sdl Mohua 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Sdl Mohua 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Sdl Mohua can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Sdl Mohua 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 Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Sdl Mohua to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sdl Mohua 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.
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. Sdl Mohua can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Sdl Mohua to increase its market reach. Sdl Mohua 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.
Threats Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sdl Mohua 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 Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL .
Environmental challenges
– Sdl Mohua 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. Sdl Mohua can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Increasing wage structure of Sdl Mohua
– 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 Sdl Mohua.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sdl Mohua is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sdl Mohua 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sdl Mohua 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.
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 Sdl Mohua business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL, Sdl Mohua 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Sdl Mohua 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
– Sdl Mohua has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sdl Mohua 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.
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 Sdl Mohua in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Sdl Mohua 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL 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 Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL 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 Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL 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 Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL 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 Recruiting Faster: (B) Change Management at SDL 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 Sdl Mohua needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
