Case Study Description of Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C)
This is Case C in a three-case series. In December 2015, the managing director and chief executive officer of Sunitha Nath Boutiques in Bengaluru, discovered that her most trusted employee had abandoned and deceived her. She had recruited the employee as an intern and mentored him during his growth within the organization, eventually promoting him to the post of studio manager with complete power to run the business in her absence. But the employee had quit his job without giving any notice; stolen confidential information, designs, and documents relating to the business; and started his own competing design firm in Bengaluru. One of Sunitha Nath Boutiques's important projects had been terminated by email a little while earlier, and the rumour was that her ex-employee was continuing to work on that project under his new design firm. In this case, the managing director and her lawyer reviewed the nature of confidential information and trade secrets. They also explored what intellectual property rights the managing director had and how she might prevent her ex-employee and others from misappropriating or stealing that information. See Case A and Case B. Nithyananda KV is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli.
Swot Analysis of "Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C)" written by Nithyananda KV includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nath Sunitha facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nath Sunitha, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nath Sunitha 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nath Sunitha
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 Nath Sunitha
Strengths Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nath Sunitha in Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Nath Sunitha has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Nath Sunitha 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.
Analytics focus
– Nath Sunitha 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 Nithyananda KV 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Nath Sunitha is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Nath Sunitha in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Nath Sunitha to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Nath Sunitha to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Nath Sunitha digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Nath Sunitha 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Nath Sunitha 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Nath Sunitha 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Nath Sunitha is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Nath Sunitha in the sector have low bargaining power. Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Nath Sunitha to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Nath Sunitha
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Nath Sunitha does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) are -
Need for greater diversity
– Nath Sunitha has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Nath Sunitha 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Nath Sunitha 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. Nath Sunitha 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Nithyananda KV suggests that, Nath Sunitha 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Nath Sunitha 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 - Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Nath Sunitha 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 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 Nath Sunitha supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Nath Sunitha vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Nath Sunitha 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 strategic competitive environment developments
– As Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) HBR case study mentions - Nath Sunitha 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C), is just above the industry average. Nath Sunitha needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Opportunities Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) | 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Nath Sunitha 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Nath Sunitha 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Nath Sunitha to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Nath Sunitha 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.
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. Nath Sunitha 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. Nath Sunitha 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. Nath Sunitha 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Nath Sunitha 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Nath Sunitha can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Nath Sunitha 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.
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 Nath Sunitha in the consumer business. Now Nath Sunitha can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Nath Sunitha 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, Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Nath Sunitha can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Nath Sunitha operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Nath Sunitha to increase its market reach. Nath Sunitha 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.
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. Nath Sunitha can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) are -
Environmental challenges
– Nath Sunitha 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. Nath Sunitha can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Nath Sunitha 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 Nath Sunitha 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C), Nath Sunitha 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– Nath Sunitha 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.
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. Nath Sunitha needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Nath Sunitha 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 Nath Sunitha
– 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 Nath Sunitha.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Nath Sunitha has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Nath Sunitha 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.
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 Nath Sunitha business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Nath Sunitha with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Nath Sunitha in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) 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 Sunitha Nath Boutiques: Intellectual Property Rights (C) 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 Nath Sunitha needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
