India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season
The owner and chief executive officer of the India Holiday Bureau (IHB), was besieged by calls from irate travelers seeking an explanation for the poor customer service they had received. It was the peak of the tourist season in India, with international visitors pouring into the country to explore its temples, palaces, hills, beaches and wildlife reserves. IHB had accepted several online hotel-booking requests, but because the hotel did not have sufficient staff to follow through on these requests, several customers were left stranded at the airport without their promised airport transfers. Others had been forced to go without hotel rooms altogether. IHB knew that a lack of accurate forecasting and proper planning was at the root of this problem. How could the owner accurately predict the growth that would continue to overwhelm IHB unless the company prepared for it? Anshul Jain is affiliated with FORE School of Management.
Swot Analysis of "India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season" written by Krishnamurthy Bindumadhavan, Anshul Jain includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ihb Hotel facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions,
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, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ihb Hotel, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ihb Hotel 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ihb Hotel
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 Ihb Hotel
Strengths India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ihb Hotel in India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ihb Hotel is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Ihb Hotel 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 Ihb Hotel is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ihb Hotel 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Ihb Hotel 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 Ihb Hotel in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Ihb Hotel is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ihb Hotel has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ihb Hotel 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ihb Hotel digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ihb Hotel 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ihb Hotel 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Ihb Hotel 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 Krishnamurthy Bindumadhavan, Anshul Jain 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.
High brand equity
– Ihb Hotel has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ihb Hotel to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ihb Hotel to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ihb Hotel to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ihb Hotel 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.
Weaknesses India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ihb Hotel is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ihb Hotel 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ihb Hotel 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season, 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.
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 Ihb Hotel supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ihb Hotel vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season HBR case study mentions - Ihb Hotel 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Ihb Hotel has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ihb Hotel 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season, it seems that the employees of Ihb Hotel 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ihb Hotel is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Ihb Hotel needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ihb Hotel to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ihb Hotel, firm in the HBR case study India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season | 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season are -
Loyalty marketing
– Ihb Hotel 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ihb Hotel to increase its market reach. Ihb Hotel 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.
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. Ihb Hotel 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. Ihb Hotel 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ihb Hotel 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 Ihb Hotel to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Ihb Hotel can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ihb Hotel 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, India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ihb Hotel 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ihb Hotel 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ihb Hotel is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Ihb Hotel 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ihb Hotel has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ihb Hotel to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season case study. Ihb Hotel can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Ihb Hotel 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Ihb Hotel can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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.
Threats India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season are -
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. Ihb Hotel needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Ihb Hotel 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.
Environmental challenges
– Ihb Hotel 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. Ihb Hotel can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ihb Hotel with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Ihb Hotel 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.
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 Ihb Hotel.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ihb Hotel 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ihb Hotel 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season, Ihb Hotel 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 .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ihb Hotel 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ihb Hotel high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
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 Ihb Hotel business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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 Ihb Hotel needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.