The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik
Supplement to case IN1231. This two-party case is designed to teach negotiation within the context of turnaround management, stakeholder management, change management or public sector negotiation. The negotiation between Sudhir Kumar, Officer on Special Duty to the Minister of Railways, and Gaurav Malik, Chief Engineer, is about how to maximise revenues for the ailing Indian Railways, notably by increasing rolling stock axle loads without compromising safety. The case emphasizes the tension between commercial gains and social needs, but also lends itself to discussions about safety, corruption, government and business in India.
Swot Analysis of "The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik" written by Horacio Falcao, Claudia Zeisberger, Claudia Gehlen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Railways Malik facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Crisis management, Ethics, Influence, Negotiations and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Railways Malik, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Railways Malik 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 The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Railways Malik
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 Railways Malik
Strengths The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Railways Malik in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Railways Malik is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Railways Malik in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Railways Malik
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Railways Malik 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
– The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Railways Malik to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Railways Malik to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Railways Malik 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
– Railways Malik has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Railways Malik 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.
Training and development
– Railways Malik has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Railways Malik has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Railways Malik is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Railways Malik has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Railways Malik to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Railways Malik digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Railways Malik 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Railways Malik is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik 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.
Weaknesses The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik, it seems that the employees of Railways Malik 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Railways Malik 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Railways Malik, firm in the HBR case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Railways Malik has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Railways Malik 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 - The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Railways Malik 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Horacio Falcao, Claudia Zeisberger, Claudia Gehlen suggests that, Railways Malik 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik 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 The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Railways Malik is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik, in the dynamic environment Railways Malik has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Railways Malik has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Railways Malik is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Railways Malik 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.
Opportunities The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik | 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 The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Railways Malik 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Railways Malik can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Railways Malik 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 Railways Malik 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 Railways Malik to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Railways Malik 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Railways Malik 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.
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. Railways Malik can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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. Railways Malik 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. Railways Malik can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Railways Malik 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, The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Railways Malik 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 The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Railways Malik to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Railways Malik in the consumer business. Now Railways Malik can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Railways Malik can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Railways Malik 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.
Threats The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Railways Malik 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Railways Malik 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Railways Malik 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.
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 Railways Malik.
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 Railways Malik 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Railways Malik is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik, Railways Malik 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
– Railways Malik 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. Railways Malik can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Railways Malik with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Railways Malik has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Railways Malik 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Railways Malik 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.
Increasing wage structure of Railways Malik
– 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 Railways Malik.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik 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 The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik 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 The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik 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 The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik 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 The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik 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 Railways Malik needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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