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Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A)


In 2005, Ganesh Natarajan, CEO of Zensar, a Pune, India-based software company, and his senior management team are considering consolidating staff and resources at the firms. Natarajan proposes an additional, possible controversial business unit to the proposed new structure. The additional unit would explore new markets for the firm's promising innovation-Solution BluePrint (SBP). While he knew that some on his team would resist his proposal, he was eager to get the new technology into the field, and felt he had the right manager to lead the proposed group. Natarajan felt sure a group dedicated to SBP led by one of the firm's most respected technologists would help spur adoption.

Authors :: Michael L. Tushman, David Kiron

Topics :: Leadership & Managing People

Tags :: Innovation, IT, Leadership, Organizational culture, Organizational structure, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A)" written by Michael L. Tushman, David Kiron includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Natarajan Sbp facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Innovation, IT, Leadership, Organizational culture, Organizational structure and Leadership & Managing People.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A)


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Natarajan Sbp, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Natarajan Sbp 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 Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Natarajan Sbp
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 Natarajan Sbp




Strengths Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Natarajan Sbp in Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -

Strong track record of project management

– Natarajan Sbp is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Natarajan Sbp 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 Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Training and development

– Natarajan Sbp has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Natarajan Sbp is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Natarajan Sbp digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Natarajan Sbp 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Natarajan Sbp in the sector have low bargaining power. Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Natarajan Sbp to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field

– Natarajan Sbp 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 Natarajan Sbp in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Learning organization

- Natarajan Sbp 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 Natarajan Sbp is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Analytics focus

– Natarajan Sbp 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 Michael L. Tushman, David Kiron 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Natarajan Sbp is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) 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.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Natarajan Sbp has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Natarajan Sbp 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) 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.






Weaknesses Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) are -

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Natarajan Sbp is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Natarajan Sbp 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.

Need for greater diversity

– Natarajan Sbp 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Natarajan Sbp 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.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Natarajan Sbp 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. Natarajan Sbp 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) HBR case study mentions - Natarajan Sbp 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Natarajan Sbp 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Natarajan Sbp has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Natarajan Sbp 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.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) 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 Natarajan Sbp has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Lack of clear differentiation of Natarajan Sbp products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Natarajan Sbp needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.




Opportunities Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) | 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 Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) are -

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Natarajan Sbp to increase its market reach. Natarajan Sbp 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Natarajan Sbp can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Natarajan Sbp 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 Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Natarajan Sbp to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Loyalty marketing

– Natarajan Sbp 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Natarajan Sbp 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Natarajan Sbp can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Natarajan Sbp can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Natarajan Sbp is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) 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.

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. Natarajan Sbp can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Natarajan Sbp 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, Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Natarajan Sbp 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 Natarajan Sbp to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Natarajan Sbp 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Natarajan Sbp 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 Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) are -

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. Natarajan Sbp can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Instability in the European markets

– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Natarajan Sbp 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.

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.

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 Natarajan Sbp in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Natarajan Sbp 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Natarajan Sbp is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Regulatory challenges

– Natarajan Sbp 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.

Environmental challenges

– Natarajan Sbp 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. Natarajan Sbp can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Natarajan Sbp 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.

Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc

– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.

Capital market disruption

– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Natarajan Sbp.

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 Natarajan Sbp business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Increasing wage structure of Natarajan Sbp

– 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 Natarajan Sbp.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) 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 Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) 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 Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) 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 Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) 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 Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (A) 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 Natarajan Sbp needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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