India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season
The owner and chief executive officer of the India Holiday Bureau (IHB), was besieged by calls from irate travelers seeking an explanation for the poor customer service they had received. It was the peak of the tourist season in India, with international visitors pouring into the country to explore its temples, palaces, hills, beaches and wildlife reserves. IHB had accepted several online hotel-booking requests, but because the hotel did not have sufficient staff to follow through on these requests, several customers were left stranded at the airport without their promised airport transfers. Others had been forced to go without hotel rooms altogether. IHB knew that a lack of accurate forecasting and proper planning was at the root of this problem. How could the owner accurately predict the growth that would continue to overwhelm IHB unless the company prepared for it? Anshul Jain is affiliated with FORE School of Management.
Swot Analysis of "India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season" written by Krishnamurthy Bindumadhavan, Anshul Jain includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ihb Hotel facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ihb Hotel, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ihb Hotel 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ihb Hotel
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 Ihb Hotel
Strengths India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ihb Hotel in India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ihb Hotel has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ihb Hotel 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ihb Hotel is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Organizational Resilience of Ihb Hotel
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ihb Hotel does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ihb Hotel in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Ihb Hotel 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 Ihb Hotel in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ihb Hotel to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ihb Hotel to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ihb Hotel 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Ihb Hotel is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Ihb Hotel has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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.
Analytics focus
– Ihb Hotel 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 Krishnamurthy Bindumadhavan, Anshul Jain 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ihb Hotel in the sector have low bargaining power. India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ihb Hotel to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Ihb Hotel products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ihb Hotel needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ihb Hotel is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ihb Hotel has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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 Ihb Hotel 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ihb Hotel is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ihb Hotel 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season, is just above the industry average. Ihb Hotel 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.
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 Ihb Hotel supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ihb Hotel vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Krishnamurthy Bindumadhavan, Anshul Jain suggests that, Ihb Hotel 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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 Ihb Hotel has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season, 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.
Opportunities India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season | 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ihb Hotel is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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.
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 Ihb Hotel 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ihb Hotel 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Ihb Hotel 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.
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. Ihb Hotel 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. Ihb Hotel 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ihb Hotel to increase its market reach. Ihb Hotel 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.
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 Ihb Hotel in the consumer business. Now Ihb Hotel can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ihb Hotel 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Ihb Hotel 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.
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. Ihb Hotel 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, Ihb Hotel 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, India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ihb Hotel 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ihb Hotel can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season are -
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. Ihb Hotel 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.
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. Ihb Hotel needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Ihb Hotel can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ihb Hotel has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ihb Hotel 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ihb Hotel with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Ihb Hotel
– 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 Ihb Hotel.
Environmental challenges
– Ihb Hotel 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. Ihb Hotel can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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 Ihb Hotel in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline 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 Ihb Hotel.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ihb Hotel demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season, Ihb Hotel may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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 India Holiday Bureau: Planning for the Tourist Season 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 Ihb Hotel needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
