Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant"
The national head of sales for consumer business for one of India's largest paint companies was anxious and concerned about the plummeting levels of employee engagement at his company. He was also aware of an increasing number of complaints about employee's attitudes and their approach towards both work and the organization from people in senior management. As a seasoned business manager, he knew that he needed to understand and address the gaps between the employee's expectations and the needs of the organization.
Swot Analysis of "Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant"" written by Upasna A. Agarwal, Rajen Gupta includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Employee's Paints facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Negotiations and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing energy prices, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant"
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Employee's Paints, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Employee's Paints 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 Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Employee's Paints
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 Employee's Paints
Strengths Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Employee's Paints in Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Employee's Paints is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Employee's Paints 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 Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Employee's Paints has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" 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
– Employee's Paints 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 Upasna A. Agarwal, Rajen Gupta 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Employee's Paints has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Employee's Paints 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Employee's Paints 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 Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Employee's Paints to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Employee's Paints to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Employee's Paints has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Employee's Paints to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Employee's Paints is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Employee's Paints is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Employee's Paints is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" HBR case study mentions - Employee's Paints 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Employee's Paints 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 to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Employee's Paints is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High 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 Employee's Paints supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant", it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Employee's Paints vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Employee's Paints, firm in the HBR case study Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Employee's Paints products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Employee's Paints needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Employee's Paints 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 - Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" 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 Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Employee's Paints is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Employee's Paints is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Employee's Paints needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Employee's Paints to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Employee's Paints 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. Employee's Paints 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
Employee's Paints 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.
Opportunities Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" | 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 Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" are -
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. Employee's Paints can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Employee's Paints 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Employee's Paints 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Employee's Paints 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Employee's Paints 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 Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Employee's Paints to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Employee's Paints 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Employee's Paints to increase its market reach. Employee's Paints will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Employee's Paints can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Employee's Paints operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Employee's Paints 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Employee's Paints has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Employee's Paints to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" case study. Employee's Paints can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Employee's Paints 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Employee's Paints can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Employee's Paints in the consumer business. Now Employee's Paints can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" are -
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Employee's Paints 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.
Environmental challenges
– Employee's Paints 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. Employee's Paints can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Employee's Paints has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Employee's Paints 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Employee's Paints 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Employee's Paints 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.
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. Employee's Paints 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Employee's Paints with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Employee's Paints in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Employee's Paints is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Employee's Paints 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.
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 Employee's Paints.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" 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 Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" 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 Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" 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 Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" 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 Asian Paints: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Employee "Engage-meant" 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 Employee's Paints needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
