Case Study Description of Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth
Jaipur Rugs Company Private Limited, a family-owned business, was founded with the twin goals of leading a thriving export business and helping artisan weavers to live with dignity and keep their heritage alive. In 2015, this company was the largest exporter of hand-knotted carpets from India and faced two dilemmas: Should the company focus exclusively on hand-knotted carpets, as preferred by the founder and some family members, or should it focus on tufted carpets, which also provided a considerable share of the company's total revenue and had increased the company's sales? Also, because of the number of recent departures by non-family members from the management team, a balance was needed in terms of the family's values and those of the hired professionals that were brought into the company. Many initiatives had been introduced at the company, but would they be sufficiently helpful to achieve the company's goals? Margie Parikh is affiliated with B. K. School of Business Management.
Swot Analysis of "Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth" written by Margie Parikh includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Carpets Knotted facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Gender, International business, Leadership transitions, Manufacturing, Negotiations, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Carpets Knotted, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Carpets Knotted 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 Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Carpets Knotted
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 Carpets Knotted
Strengths Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Carpets Knotted in Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Carpets Knotted 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.
Organizational Resilience of Carpets Knotted
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Carpets Knotted does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Carpets Knotted has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Carpets Knotted to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Carpets Knotted is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Carpets Knotted in the sector have low bargaining power. Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Carpets Knotted to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Carpets Knotted is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Carpets Knotted is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Carpets Knotted digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Carpets Knotted 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Carpets Knotted is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Carpets Knotted 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.
Analytics focus
– Carpets Knotted 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 Margie Parikh 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.
Weaknesses Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth are -
Need for greater diversity
– Carpets Knotted 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Margie Parikh suggests that, Carpets Knotted 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Carpets Knotted, firm in the HBR case study Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth, in the dynamic environment Carpets Knotted has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Carpets Knotted 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 Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth HBR case study mentions - Carpets Knotted 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth, 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Carpets Knotted products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Carpets Knotted needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Carpets Knotted has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Carpets Knotted even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Carpets Knotted is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Carpets Knotted needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Carpets Knotted to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Carpets Knotted 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Carpets Knotted has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Opportunities Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth | 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 Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Carpets Knotted 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 Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Carpets Knotted 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
– Carpets Knotted can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Carpets Knotted 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Carpets Knotted 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Carpets Knotted 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.
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. Carpets Knotted 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. Carpets Knotted 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.
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 Carpets Knotted 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.
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. Carpets Knotted can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Carpets Knotted has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Carpets Knotted to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth case study. Carpets Knotted can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Carpets Knotted can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Carpets Knotted operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Carpets Knotted is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Carpets Knotted can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Carpets Knotted to increase its market reach. Carpets Knotted 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.
Threats Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Carpets Knotted 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Carpets Knotted 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 Carpets Knotted in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Carpets Knotted needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Carpets Knotted 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. Carpets Knotted can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Carpets Knotted 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.
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. Carpets Knotted 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Carpets Knotted 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 Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth .
Regulatory challenges
– Carpets Knotted needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Carpets Knotted
– 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 Carpets Knotted.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth, Carpets Knotted 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 .
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 Carpets Knotted business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Carpets Knotted 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 Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth 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 Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth 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 Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth 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 Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth 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 Jaipur Rugs: Balancing Goals And Organizational Growth 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 Carpets Knotted needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
