East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM
In 2010, when India opened up its defence sector to private manufacturers, Armada India set up a factory in West Bengal. However, the factory faced issues of low productivity, delivery delays, and high rejection rates. A quirky new general manager of maintenance applied Buddhist philosophy to his human resource management practices. The workers, who until then had felt unimportant, now felt happy and engaged as they adopted the manager's ideas, which appealed to their local psyche. Strong results were seen in terms of improved production, productivity, and morale. However, senior managers had significant global expansion plans and were wary of this general manager's unorthodox management style. They hired a highly qualified, U.S.-educated human resource (HR) executive who scoffed at the "unsophisticated" practices of the manager and sought to change them, despite their success. What was the manager to do? Was the new HR executive justified in trying to impose more traditional business methods? Sangeeta Goel is affiliated with Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, India.
Swot Analysis of "East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM" written by Sangeeta Goel includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Armada Hr facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Managing people, Manufacturing and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Armada Hr, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Armada Hr 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 East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Armada Hr
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 Armada Hr
Strengths East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Armada Hr in East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Armada Hr has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM 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.
High brand equity
– Armada Hr has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Armada Hr to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Armada Hr in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Armada Hr is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Armada Hr in the sector have low bargaining power. East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Armada Hr to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Armada Hr 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 East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Armada Hr 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Armada Hr has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Armada Hr 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.
Analytics focus
– Armada Hr 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 Sangeeta Goel 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM 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.
Organizational Resilience of Armada Hr
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Armada Hr does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Armada Hr to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Armada Hr to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Armada Hr 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 Armada Hr 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 - East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Armada Hr 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM 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 East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Armada Hr is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM, is just above the industry average. Armada Hr needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High 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 Armada Hr supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Armada Hr vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Armada Hr 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM 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 Armada Hr 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM, in the dynamic environment Armada Hr has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Armada Hr has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM HBR case study mentions - Armada Hr 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
– Armada Hr 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.
Opportunities East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM | 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 East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM are -
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. Armada Hr can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Armada Hr 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Armada Hr 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Armada Hr 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, East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Armada Hr 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.
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. Armada Hr can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Armada Hr 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 Armada Hr to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Armada Hr 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. Armada Hr 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Armada Hr 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
– Armada Hr 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 East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Armada Hr to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Armada Hr is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Armada Hr 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
– Armada Hr 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.
Threats East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM are -
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 Armada Hr business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Armada Hr 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Armada Hr 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 East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM, Armada Hr 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Armada Hr 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. Armada Hr can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Armada Hr can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Armada Hr 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.
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. Armada Hr needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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 Armada Hr.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Armada Hr 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Armada Hr 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM 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 East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM 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 East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM 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 East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM 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 East versus West: Armada India's Ingenious Approach to HRM 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 Armada Hr needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
