The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar
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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar" 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 Sudhir facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar
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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Railways Sudhir, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Railways Sudhir 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Railways Sudhir
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 Sudhir
Strengths The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Railways Sudhir in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Railways Sudhir 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Railways Sudhir is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Railways Sudhir is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Railways Sudhir in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Railways Sudhir 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Railways Sudhir 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 The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Railways Sudhir to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Railways Sudhir to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Railways Sudhir has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Railways Sudhir 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Railways Sudhir 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Railways Sudhir 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 Sudhir in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Railways Sudhir 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 Railways Sudhir is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Railways Sudhir digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Railways Sudhir 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.
Weaknesses The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Railways Sudhir 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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 Railways Sudhir 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Railways Sudhir is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Railways Sudhir needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Railways Sudhir 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, Railways Sudhir 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Railways Sudhir products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Railways Sudhir needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar, in the dynamic environment Railways Sudhir has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Railways Sudhir 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 The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Railways Sudhir is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Railways Sudhir 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Railways Sudhir 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 Sudhir 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar HBR case study mentions - Railways Sudhir 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.
Opportunities The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar | 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar are -
Buying journey improvements
– Railways Sudhir can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Railways Sudhir 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Railways Sudhir 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Railways Sudhir is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Railways Sudhir 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Sudhir can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Railways Sudhir 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Railways Sudhir 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 Railways Sudhir to increase its market reach. Railways Sudhir 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Railways Sudhir 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 Sudhir to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Railways Sudhir 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.
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 Sudhir can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Railways Sudhir can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Railways Sudhir operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Threats The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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 Railways Sudhir business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Railways Sudhir in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Railways Sudhir 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 Sudhir 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.
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.
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. Railways Sudhir 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Railways Sudhir 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.
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. Railways Sudhir can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Railways Sudhir 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 The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar .
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. Railways Sudhir 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 wage structure of Railways Sudhir
– 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 Sudhir.
Environmental challenges
– Railways Sudhir 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 Sudhir can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar, Railways Sudhir 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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 Sudhir needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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