Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity
Supplement to Air Deccan (A): Changing the Face of Indian Aviation, product #907A01. By November 2005 Air Deccan, India's first low cost airline, had been in business for two years. During this time, the airline had grown rapidly, adding both planes and passengers at breakneck speed. Using low fares as its central strength, it had caused huge, unconventional changes in the Indian domestic airline industry. Not satisfied, however, the founder and chief executive officer wondered how to adapt to the future and sustain Air Deccan's tremendous initial success. The case can be used to engage students in the following issues: the entry and positioning of a new brand in a somewhat oligopolistic industry; targeting low income and under-served segments; low-cost, low-price strategies; entrepreneurial start-ups in emerging markets and marketing strategy in high growth SMEs.
Swot Analysis of "Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity" written by Srinivas Sridharan, Chandra Sekhar Ramasastry includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Deccan Air facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy, Pricing and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity casestudy better are - – technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Deccan Air, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Deccan Air 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 Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Deccan Air
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 Deccan Air
Strengths Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Deccan Air in Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity 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 Deccan Air 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Deccan Air 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 Deccan Air in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Deccan Air 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 Srinivas Sridharan, Chandra Sekhar Ramasastry 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Deccan Air in the sector have low bargaining power. Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Deccan Air to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Deccan Air in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Deccan Air is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity 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
– Deccan Air has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Deccan Air to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Deccan Air
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Deccan Air does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Deccan Air 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 Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Deccan Air 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 Deccan Air is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Deccan Air 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 Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity are -
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 Deccan Air supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Deccan Air vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity, is just above the industry average. Deccan Air 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity, it seems that the employees of Deccan Air 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Deccan Air products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Deccan Air needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Deccan Air 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 - Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity 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 Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity 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 Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Deccan Air is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Deccan Air is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Deccan Air needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Deccan Air to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Deccan Air, firm in the HBR case study Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Deccan Air 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity HBR case study mentions - Deccan Air 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Deccan Air is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity | 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 Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Deccan Air 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Deccan Air 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Deccan Air can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Deccan Air operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Deccan Air is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Deccan Air has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Deccan Air to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity case study. Deccan Air can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Deccan Air 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Deccan Air 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Deccan Air 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Deccan Air to increase its market reach. Deccan Air 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.
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. Deccan Air 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. Deccan Air 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.
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. Deccan Air can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Deccan Air 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 Deccan Air can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity, Deccan Air 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 .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Deccan Air 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.
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 Deccan Air.
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 Deccan Air business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Deccan Air with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Deccan Air needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Deccan Air 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. Deccan Air can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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.
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 Deccan Air in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Deccan Air 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Deccan Air 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 Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Deccan Air 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Deccan Air 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity 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 Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity 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 Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity 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 Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity 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 Air Deccan (B): From Creating Change to Changing Creativity 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 Deccan Air needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.