The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar
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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar" 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 Sudhir facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar
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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Railways Sudhir, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Railways Sudhir 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Railways Sudhir
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 Sudhir
Strengths The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Railways Sudhir in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Railways Sudhir in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Railways Sudhir is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Railways Sudhir is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Railways Sudhir 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 Horacio Falcao, Claudia Zeisberger, Claudia Gehlen 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
– Railways Sudhir is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Railways Sudhir 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Railways Sudhir has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Railways Sudhir 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Railways Sudhir in the sector have low bargaining power. The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Railways Sudhir to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Railways Sudhir 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Railways Sudhir
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Railways Sudhir does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Railways Sudhir 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 Sudhir in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Railways Sudhir is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Railways Sudhir needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Railways Sudhir to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Railways Sudhir 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. Railways Sudhir 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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 The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Railways Sudhir is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Railways Sudhir products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Railways Sudhir needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Railways Sudhir 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar, is just above the industry average. Railways Sudhir 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar HBR case study mentions - Railways Sudhir 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar, 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar, in the dynamic environment Railways Sudhir has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Railways Sudhir has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Horacio Falcao, Claudia Zeisberger, Claudia Gehlen suggests that, Railways Sudhir 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Railways Sudhir 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar | 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Railways Sudhir to increase its market reach. Railways Sudhir 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Railways Sudhir has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Railways Sudhir to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar case study. Railways Sudhir can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Railways Sudhir can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Railways Sudhir 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Railways Sudhir 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Railways Sudhir to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Railways Sudhir 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar, 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 Railways Sudhir 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 Sudhir to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Railways Sudhir 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. Railways Sudhir 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Railways Sudhir can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Sudhir 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Railways Sudhir 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Railways Sudhir 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Railways Sudhir 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.
Threats The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar are -
Environmental challenges
– Railways Sudhir 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 Sudhir can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Railways Sudhir can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Railways Sudhir
– 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 Sudhir.
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 Sudhir.
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. Railways Sudhir 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Railways Sudhir has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Railways Sudhir 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.
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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar, Railways Sudhir 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 Sudhir 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Railways Sudhir high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Railways Sudhir is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Railways Sudhir needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Railways Sudhir 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Railways Sudhir with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Indian Railways 'Cash Cow' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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' - Over or Extra Loading? (A): Confidential Instructions for Sudhir Kumar 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 Sudhir needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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