Case Study Description of Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green
Shree Balaji Alumnicast Pvt. Ltd. (SBA) was a successful Indian metal recycling company and a pioneer in creating sustainable customer value through its closed-loop supply chain. In 2009, its biggest customer demanded a 15 per cent price reduction on alloys and threatened to withdraw its entire business if SBA failed to meet its demand within a given time frame. This customer contributed a significant share of SBA's revenue and was thus indispensable. SBA could not simultaneously offer a price discount and retain its margins, which were already declining, through its current business and manufacturing practices. The company needed to rethink its strategy in order to maintain its growth trajectory, and find a better way of managing costs. Ashutosh Dash is affiliated with Management Development Institute.
Swot Analysis of "Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green" written by Jitendar Khatri Bittoo, Ashutosh Dash includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sba Alumnicast facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy, Decision making, Entrepreneurship, International business, Manufacturing, Sustainability and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sba Alumnicast, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sba Alumnicast 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 Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sba Alumnicast
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 Sba Alumnicast
Strengths Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sba Alumnicast in Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Sba Alumnicast is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sba Alumnicast 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 Sba Alumnicast digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Sba Alumnicast 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Sba Alumnicast to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Sba Alumnicast to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Sba Alumnicast has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Sba Alumnicast has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Sba Alumnicast 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sba Alumnicast 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.
High brand equity
– Sba Alumnicast has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Sba Alumnicast to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sba Alumnicast in the sector have low bargaining power. Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sba Alumnicast to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Sba Alumnicast 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 Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green - 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
– Sba Alumnicast is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green HBR case study mentions - Sba Alumnicast takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
High 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 Sba Alumnicast supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sba Alumnicast vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Sba Alumnicast is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jitendar Khatri Bittoo, Ashutosh Dash suggests that, Sba Alumnicast is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green 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 Sba Alumnicast 's lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Sba Alumnicast has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Sba Alumnicast is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Sba Alumnicast needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Sba Alumnicast to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green, it seems that the employees of Sba Alumnicast 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Sba Alumnicast 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green 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 Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Sba Alumnicast is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green, is just above the industry average. Sba Alumnicast 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.
Opportunities Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green | 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 Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sba Alumnicast 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Sba Alumnicast to increase its market reach. Sba Alumnicast 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Sba Alumnicast can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Sba Alumnicast operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Sba Alumnicast 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 Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Sba Alumnicast to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Sba Alumnicast 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Sba Alumnicast 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Sba Alumnicast can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Sba Alumnicast 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.
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 Sba Alumnicast in the consumer business. Now Sba Alumnicast can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sba Alumnicast 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.
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. Sba Alumnicast 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. Sba Alumnicast 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.
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. Sba Alumnicast can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Sba Alumnicast 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, Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green, 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 Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Sba Alumnicast 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.
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 Sba Alumnicast in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Sba Alumnicast 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. Sba Alumnicast can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Sba Alumnicast 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Sba Alumnicast 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 Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green, Sba Alumnicast 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.
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 Sba Alumnicast.
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. Sba Alumnicast needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sba Alumnicast 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
– Sba Alumnicast has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sba Alumnicast 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.
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 Sba Alumnicast business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green 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 Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green 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 Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green 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 Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green 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 Shree Balaji Alumnicast: Going Green 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 Sba Alumnicast needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.