Case Study Description of Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A)
This is Case A in a three case series. In December 2015, the managing director and chief executive officer of Sunitha Nath Boutiques in Bengaluru, discovered that her most trusted employee had abandoned and deceived her. She had recruited the employee as an intern and mentored him during his growth within the organization, eventually promoting him to the post of studio manager with complete power to run the business in her absence. But the employee had quit his job without giving any notice; stolen confidential information, designs, and documents relating to the business; and started his own competing design firm in Bengaluru. One of Sunitha Nath Boutiques's important projects had been terminated by email a little while earlier, and the rumour was that her ex-employee was continuing to work on that project under his new design firm. In this case, the managing director's lawyer helped determine what had transpired, had taken steps to contain any further damage, and preserved relationships with clients and vendors. However, there were other matters to also consider. See Case B and Case C. Nithyananda KV is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli.
Swot Analysis of "Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A)" written by Nithyananda KV includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nath Sunitha facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nath Sunitha, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nath Sunitha 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nath Sunitha
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 Nath Sunitha
Strengths Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nath Sunitha in Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Nath Sunitha 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Nath Sunitha digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Nath Sunitha 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Nath Sunitha 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Nath Sunitha has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Nath Sunitha 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.
Learning organization
- Nath Sunitha 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 Nath Sunitha is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Nath Sunitha has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Nath Sunitha to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Nath Sunitha 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Nath Sunitha in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Nath Sunitha is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Nath Sunitha to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Nath Sunitha to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Nath Sunitha 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Nath Sunitha is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Nath Sunitha 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 - Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Nath Sunitha 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.
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 Nath Sunitha supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Nath Sunitha vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A), 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) 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 Nath Sunitha has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Nath Sunitha 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) HBR case study mentions - Nath Sunitha 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Nath Sunitha, firm in the HBR case study Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A), it seems that the employees of Nath Sunitha 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Nath Sunitha products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Nath Sunitha needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Nath Sunitha is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Nath Sunitha needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Nath Sunitha to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) | 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) are -
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 Nath Sunitha 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
– Nath Sunitha can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Nath Sunitha 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Nath Sunitha can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Nath Sunitha is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) 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.
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 Nath Sunitha in the consumer business. Now Nath Sunitha can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Nath Sunitha has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Nath Sunitha to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) case study. Nath Sunitha can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Nath Sunitha 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Nath Sunitha 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Nath Sunitha 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.
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. Nath Sunitha can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Nath Sunitha 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. Nath Sunitha 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Nath Sunitha 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, Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) are -
Increasing wage structure of Nath Sunitha
– 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 Nath Sunitha.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Nath Sunitha 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Nath Sunitha has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Nath Sunitha 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.
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. Nath Sunitha 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Nath Sunitha with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Nath Sunitha in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Nath Sunitha 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.
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 Nath Sunitha business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Nath Sunitha 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. Nath Sunitha can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A), Nath Sunitha 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Nath Sunitha 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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Nath Sunitha 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (A) 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 Nath Sunitha needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.