IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship
In 1999, IBM India became a wholly owned subsidiary of IBM Corporation and established a presence in 14 cities across the country. True to its integrated philosophy of corporate citizenship, as the parent company expanded business operations to growth markets around the world, it rolled out citizenship initiatives in those markets. In 2011, IBM International Foundation awarded a grant of US$100,000 to IBM India for Smarter Villages, an India-specific project whose goal was to bring rural Indian villages to technological parity with cities by setting up supply chains and introducing micro financing and other services to create opportunities for an increase in farmer incomes. IBM India management hoped that, if successful, the project could be embedded in the organizational fabric of the global company and thus would reflect its own responsible leadership. The question was whether it would be possible to inculcate a spirit of stakeholder engagement and inspire volunteerism among the company's young workforce.
Swot Analysis of "IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship" written by Vidhi Chaudhri, Asha Kaul includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ibm Citizenship facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Organizational culture, Social responsibility and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption,
wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ibm Citizenship, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ibm Citizenship 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 IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ibm Citizenship
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 Ibm Citizenship
Strengths IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ibm Citizenship in IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ibm Citizenship 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ibm Citizenship 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 IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Ibm Citizenship
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ibm Citizenship does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ibm Citizenship is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ibm Citizenship 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ibm Citizenship has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ibm Citizenship 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Ibm Citizenship is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Ibm Citizenship has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ibm Citizenship to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Ibm Citizenship is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Ibm Citizenship 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 Ibm Citizenship in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Ibm Citizenship 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 Ibm Citizenship is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship, in the dynamic environment Ibm Citizenship has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ibm Citizenship has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship 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 Ibm Citizenship has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship, is just above the industry average. Ibm Citizenship 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship 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 Ibm Citizenship 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Vidhi Chaudhri, Asha Kaul suggests that, Ibm Citizenship 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, Ibm Citizenship 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 Ibm Citizenship supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ibm Citizenship vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ibm Citizenship, firm in the HBR case study IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ibm Citizenship 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Ibm Citizenship 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. Ibm Citizenship even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship HBR case study mentions - Ibm Citizenship 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.
Opportunities IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship | 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 IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ibm Citizenship can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ibm Citizenship 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.
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. Ibm Citizenship 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. Ibm Citizenship 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. Ibm Citizenship 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 Ibm Citizenship can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ibm Citizenship 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, IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ibm Citizenship 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ibm Citizenship 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 Ibm Citizenship in the consumer business. Now Ibm Citizenship can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Ibm Citizenship can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ibm Citizenship is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ibm Citizenship can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ibm Citizenship operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Ibm Citizenship 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.
Threats IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship are -
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ibm Citizenship 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Ibm Citizenship 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ibm Citizenship 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.
Increasing wage structure of Ibm Citizenship
– 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 Ibm Citizenship.
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 Ibm Citizenship in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline 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. Ibm Citizenship needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Ibm Citizenship 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. Ibm Citizenship 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 IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship, Ibm Citizenship 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 .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ibm Citizenship has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ibm Citizenship 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ibm Citizenship 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.
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 Ibm Citizenship business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship 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 IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship 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 IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship 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 IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship 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 IBM India: Localizing a Global Model of Corporate Citizenship 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 Ibm Citizenship needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.