Case Study Description of Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst
Prashant Lakhera, senior analyst at Credit Rating Agency Limited (CRA), has been working with Deepak Ghosh, project manager of the Construction Development Board, on a report that needs to be submitted within the next few days. Because Ghosh had been acting inappropriately in front of clients, Lakhera and Gagan Vedi, the other analyst working on the report, were concerned about how this might damage the image of CRA. Shortly before the report was due, Lakhera asked Ghosh for his contribution to the report. Ghosh indicated that he did not care and he walked away from the team. Now Lakhera had to decide what to do about the urgent deadline for the report.
Swot Analysis of "Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst" written by James A. Erskine, Uhnat Kohli includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Lakhera Ghosh facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Conflict, Crisis management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Lakhera Ghosh, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Lakhera Ghosh 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 Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Lakhera Ghosh
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 Lakhera Ghosh
Strengths Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Lakhera Ghosh in Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Lakhera Ghosh is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Lakhera Ghosh 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 Lakhera Ghosh in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Lakhera Ghosh in the sector have low bargaining power. Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Lakhera Ghosh to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Lakhera Ghosh 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.
Organizational Resilience of Lakhera Ghosh
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Lakhera Ghosh does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Lakhera Ghosh 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst 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.
Learning organization
- Lakhera Ghosh 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 Lakhera Ghosh is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Lakhera Ghosh in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Lakhera Ghosh 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 Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst - 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
– Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Lakhera Ghosh to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Lakhera Ghosh to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Lakhera Ghosh has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Lakhera Ghosh to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst are -
Need for greater diversity
– Lakhera Ghosh 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst 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 Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Lakhera Ghosh is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Lakhera Ghosh is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Lakhera Ghosh needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Lakhera Ghosh to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst 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 Lakhera Ghosh 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst HBR case study mentions - Lakhera Ghosh 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Lakhera Ghosh 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 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 Lakhera Ghosh supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Lakhera Ghosh vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, James A. Erskine, Uhnat Kohli suggests that, Lakhera Ghosh 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Lakhera Ghosh 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Lakhera Ghosh is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Lakhera Ghosh, firm in the HBR case study Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst | 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 Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst are -
Manufacturing automation
– Lakhera Ghosh 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Lakhera Ghosh can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Lakhera Ghosh operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Lakhera Ghosh 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 Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Lakhera Ghosh to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Lakhera Ghosh 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Lakhera Ghosh 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, Lakhera Ghosh 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.
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. Lakhera Ghosh can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Lakhera Ghosh to increase its market reach. Lakhera Ghosh 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.
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 Lakhera Ghosh 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Lakhera Ghosh has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Lakhera Ghosh to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst case study. Lakhera Ghosh can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Lakhera Ghosh can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Lakhera Ghosh can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst 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.
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. Lakhera Ghosh 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. Lakhera Ghosh 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.
Threats Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Lakhera Ghosh is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Lakhera Ghosh with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Lakhera Ghosh needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Lakhera Ghosh 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
– Lakhera Ghosh 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.
Environmental challenges
– Lakhera Ghosh 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. Lakhera Ghosh 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 Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst, Lakhera Ghosh 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 .
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Lakhera Ghosh 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 Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst .
Regulatory challenges
– Lakhera Ghosh 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 Lakhera Ghosh
– 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 Lakhera Ghosh.
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 Lakhera Ghosh in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Lakhera Ghosh can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst 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 Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst 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 Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst 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 Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst 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 Prashant Lakhera: Senior Analyst 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 Lakhera Ghosh needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.