Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System
In June 2014, Chartered Speed Private Limited, the contract provider for the much acclaimed Bus Rapid Transit System of Ahmedabad, India, would like to improve customer service in order to position itself strongly during upcoming contract renewal talks with Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited, the municipal body responsible for the system. Buses arrive at the company's workshops during the night for daily repairs and leave the next morning for their scheduled runs. However, given time and resource constraints, bus departures may either be delayed or buses may have to leave the workshop without the scheduled repair operations. Moreover, there is a long list of deficiencies with the buses or drivers and of incidents, such as accidents or breakdowns, that can result in financial penalties to the company. How should maintenance activities be designed to minimize the penalty losses and guarantee high customer service levels? Authors are affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.
Swot Analysis of "Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System" written by Debjit Roy, John Joy, Vaibhav Malhotra includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ahmedabad Buses facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Time management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ahmedabad Buses, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ahmedabad Buses 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 Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ahmedabad Buses
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 Ahmedabad Buses
Strengths Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ahmedabad Buses in Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ahmedabad Buses 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 Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ahmedabad Buses to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ahmedabad Buses to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ahmedabad Buses is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ahmedabad Buses in the sector have low bargaining power. Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ahmedabad Buses to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Ahmedabad Buses
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ahmedabad Buses does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ahmedabad Buses 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 Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System - 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 recruit top talent
– Ahmedabad Buses is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ahmedabad Buses 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 Ahmedabad Buses 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ahmedabad Buses digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ahmedabad Buses 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.
High brand equity
– Ahmedabad Buses has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ahmedabad Buses to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System 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 Ahmedabad Buses has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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 Ahmedabad Buses supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ahmedabad Buses vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Ahmedabad Buses 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 - Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Debjit Roy, John Joy, Vaibhav Malhotra suggests that, Ahmedabad Buses 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ahmedabad Buses 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ahmedabad Buses 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System, it seems that the employees of Ahmedabad Buses 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System 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 Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ahmedabad Buses is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System, is just above the industry average. Ahmedabad Buses 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System 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 Ahmedabad Buses 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ahmedabad Buses is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System | 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 Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System are -
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. Ahmedabad Buses can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ahmedabad Buses 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ahmedabad Buses 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Ahmedabad Buses can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System 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.
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 Ahmedabad Buses in the consumer business. Now Ahmedabad Buses can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Ahmedabad Buses to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ahmedabad Buses 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 Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ahmedabad Buses to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ahmedabad Buses 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 Ahmedabad Buses to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Ahmedabad Buses 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. Ahmedabad Buses 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ahmedabad Buses 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ahmedabad Buses can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Ahmedabad Buses 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ahmedabad Buses 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.
Threats Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ahmedabad Buses with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System, Ahmedabad Buses 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 .
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ahmedabad Buses 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 Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ahmedabad Buses 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ahmedabad Buses is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Ahmedabad Buses can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ahmedabad Buses 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.
Environmental challenges
– Ahmedabad Buses 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. Ahmedabad Buses can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Ahmedabad Buses needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Ahmedabad Buses 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Ahmedabad Buses
– 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 Ahmedabad Buses.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System 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 Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System 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 Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System 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 Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System 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 Chartered Speed and the Bus Rapid Transit System 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 Ahmedabad Buses needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.