Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds
Sitara was a village in India whose local governing body had 15 members headed by the gram-pradhan. In 2011, the gram-pradhan had approved a project for renovation of a large village pond as per the directives of the central government's MNREGA scheme. However, on starting the excavation work at the project site, it was found that the area was extremely marshy. Manual labourers turned up at the site everyday but declined to work in life-threatening conditions. MNREGA prohibited the use of machines except in the case of extraordinary circumstances without exactly defining what such circumstances might be. Thus, the gram-pradhan was forced to pay labour fees for no work. The case is set at this juncture, where a solution must be found. Part A illustrates how the Indian style of management that relies on competencies such as jugaad (creative improvisation), innovation, and resourcefulness leads to talent management and capability-building even at the bottom of the pyramid. Part B brings forth the trade-off between the management practice of jugaad and management through "systematic innovation." Part C sheds light on the public policy approach of examining the whole situation. The case also explores the competencies needed for the effective functioning of social and commercial institutions in the Indian context.
Swot Analysis of "Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds" written by Neha Paliwal Sharma, Jyotsna Bhatnagar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Gram Pradhan facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Organizational culture and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Gram Pradhan, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Gram Pradhan 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 Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Gram Pradhan
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 Gram Pradhan
Strengths Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Gram Pradhan in Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Gram Pradhan is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Gram Pradhan is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Gram Pradhan 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 Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Gram Pradhan 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Gram Pradhan in the sector have low bargaining power. Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Gram Pradhan to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Gram Pradhan
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Gram Pradhan does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Gram Pradhan to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Gram Pradhan to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Gram Pradhan is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds 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.
Learning organization
- Gram Pradhan 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 Gram Pradhan is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Gram Pradhan 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 Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Gram Pradhan has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Gram Pradhan 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.
Weaknesses Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Neha Paliwal Sharma, Jyotsna Bhatnagar suggests that, Gram Pradhan 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds 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 Gram Pradhan 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Gram Pradhan is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Gram Pradhan needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Gram Pradhan to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Gram Pradhan 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. Gram Pradhan even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Gram Pradhan 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Gram Pradhan 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Gram Pradhan 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Gram Pradhan 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 - Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds, it seems that the employees of Gram Pradhan don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Need for greater diversity
– Gram Pradhan 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds HBR case study mentions - Gram Pradhan 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 Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds | 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 Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Gram Pradhan 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Gram Pradhan can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Gram Pradhan operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Gram Pradhan to increase its market reach. Gram Pradhan 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 Gram Pradhan has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Gram Pradhan to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds case study. Gram Pradhan can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Gram Pradhan can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Gram Pradhan 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, Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Gram Pradhan 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.
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 Gram Pradhan in the consumer business. Now Gram Pradhan can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Gram Pradhan 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 Gram Pradhan to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Gram Pradhan 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Gram Pradhan 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 Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Gram Pradhan to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Gram Pradhan 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.
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. Gram Pradhan 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. Gram Pradhan 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.
Threats Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds are -
Increasing wage structure of Gram Pradhan
– 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 Gram Pradhan.
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 Gram Pradhan in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Gram Pradhan 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.
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. Gram Pradhan needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Gram Pradhan 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. Gram Pradhan 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 Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds, Gram Pradhan 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
– Gram Pradhan has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Gram Pradhan 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.
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 Gram Pradhan.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Gram Pradhan can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds .
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. Gram Pradhan 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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Gram Pradhan 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Gram Pradhan 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds 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 Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds 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 Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds 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 Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds 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 Sitara: Indian Management Style - Capturing Hearts and Minds 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 Gram Pradhan needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
