QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS
The case describes the situation of over a hundred years old, family-owned, and male-managed business group - Qadri-Group (QG). QG was facing challenges in family's interplay with the group's business. Meanwhile QG also foresaw several new business opportunities and challenges in domestic and international markets that required greater focus and harmony among the family members and group companies. QG's Board of Directors (BoD) felt that a unanimously formulated Family Constitution was needed to manage the increasing complexity in the family and ownership, as the group ventured out to benefit from the emerging business landscape. Rizwan, a third generation family member of the BoD, initiated and advocated the idea of developing a family constitution as soon as possible to address the complex and lingering matters that the family faced. Rizwan appreciated that the challenges related to involvement of the family's fourth generation in the business and ownership would complicate the situation in subsequent years, during which more challenges related to QG business were also anticipated. He took on the responsibility to provide suggestions on how to govern increased family complexity (in terms of diversity of educational backgrounds, allocation of incentives to family members according to their profiles, involvement of daughters and their in-laws in QG's business etc.) and business complexity. Rizwan Qadri hoped that his suggestions related to the formulation of the family constitution would help address the following issues: 1. clarity on the issue of employment of daughters and daughters-in-law in the business 2. involvement of in-laws (unrelated by blood) in the family business 3. compensation for family members; competitive and merit based career planning Also he had to give suggestions for the process to be followed for arriving at a mutually agreed family constitution.
Authors :: Muhammad Shakeel Sadiq Jajja, Syed Zahoor Hassan
Swot Analysis of "QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS" written by Muhammad Shakeel Sadiq Jajja, Syed Zahoor Hassan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Family Qg facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Managing people and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing,
there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Family Qg, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Family Qg 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 QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Family Qg
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 Family Qg
Strengths QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Family Qg in QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Family Qg in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Family Qg has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Family Qg to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Family Qg 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Family Qg to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Family Qg to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Family Qg 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 QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– Family Qg is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Family Qg in the sector have low bargaining power. QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Family Qg to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Family Qg 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 Family Qg is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Family Qg is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS 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 Family Qg 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Family Qg has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Family Qg 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.
Weaknesses QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Family Qg is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Family Qg needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Family Qg to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Family Qg 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS, in the dynamic environment Family Qg has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Family Qg has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS 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 QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Family Qg is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Family Qg products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Family Qg needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS 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 Family Qg 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS, 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Family Qg 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Family Qg 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 - QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS, it seems that the employees of Family Qg 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Family Qg 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.
Opportunities QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS | 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 QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Family Qg 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Family Qg 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 Family Qg to increase its market reach. Family Qg 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Family Qg 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Family Qg 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.
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 Family Qg in the consumer business. Now Family Qg can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Family Qg 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Family Qg 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 QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Family Qg to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Family Qg 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Family Qg 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Family Qg 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 Family Qg to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Family Qg can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Manufacturing automation
– Family Qg 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.
Threats QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS are -
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.
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
– Family Qg 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. Family Qg can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Family Qg 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Family Qg 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.
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. Family Qg 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 Family Qg with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Family Qg business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Family Qg 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.
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. Family Qg 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 Family Qg in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Family Qg
– 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 Family Qg.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Family Qg has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Family Qg 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS 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 QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS 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 QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS 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 QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS 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 QADRI-GROUP: SUSTAINING BEYOND THE FIRST 100 YEARS 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 Family Qg needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.