The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik
Supplement to case IN1231. This two-party case is designed to teach negotiation within the context of turnaround management, stakeholder management, change management or public sector negotiation. The negotiation between Sudhir Kumar, Officer on Special Duty to the Minister of Railways, and Gaurav Malik, Chief Engineer, is about how to maximise revenues for the ailing Indian Railways, notably by increasing rolling stock axle loads without compromising safety. The case emphasizes the tension between commercial gains and social needs, but also lends itself to discussions about safety, corruption, government and business in India.
Swot Analysis of "The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik" written by Horacio Falcao, Claudia Zeisberger, Claudia Gehlen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Railways Malik facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Crisis management, Ethics, Influence, Negotiations and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik casestudy better are - – technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Railways Malik, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Railways Malik operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Railways Malik
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Railways Malik
Strengths The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Railways Malik in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Railways Malik has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Railways Malik is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Railways Malik 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' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik - 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' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Railways Malik to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Railways Malik to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Railways Malik
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Railways Malik does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Railways Malik 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Railways Malik digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Railways Malik has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Diverse revenue streams
– Railways Malik is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Railways Malik is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Railways Malik in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Railways Malik 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 Malik is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Railways Malik has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Weaknesses The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Railways Malik is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Railways Malik needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Railways Malik to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Railways Malik 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Horacio Falcao, Claudia Zeisberger, Claudia Gehlen suggests that, Railways Malik is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Railways Malik has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Railways Malik has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Railways Malik has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Railways Malik, firm in the HBR case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Railways Malik has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Railways Malik is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik 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 Malik 's lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Railways Malik has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Opportunities The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Railways Malik can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Railways Malik can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
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 Railways Malik 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Railways Malik has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Railways Malik to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Railways Malik can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Railways Malik to increase its market reach. Railways Malik 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.
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 Malik can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Railways Malik operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Railways Malik 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Railways Malik can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Railways Malik 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Railways Malik to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Railways Malik to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Railways Malik is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Railways Malik can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Threats The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik are -
Increasing wage structure of Railways Malik
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Railways Malik.
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 Malik in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Railways Malik needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Railways Malik can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik, Railways Malik may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Regulatory challenges
– Railways Malik 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Railways Malik is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Railways Malik with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Railways Malik can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Railways Malik business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Railways Malik in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Railways Malik.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Railways Malik needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
Feel free to connect with us if you need business research.
You can download Excel Template of Case Study Solution & Analysis of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Profits or Safety? (B): Confidential Instructions for Gaurav Malik
