Blue Dart Express (BLDT) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Air Courier
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Blue Dart Express (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Blue Dart Express is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Blue Dart Express
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Blue Dart Express can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Blue Dart Express, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Blue Dart Express 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 Blue Dart Express can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Blue Dart Express
2. Improving business portfolio management of Blue Dart Express
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a Air Courier sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Blue Dart Express
Strengths of Blue Dart Express | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Blue Dart Express are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Air Courier industry
– Blue Dart Express has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Blue Dart Express to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Air Courier industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Blue Dart Express to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Blue Dart Express in the Transportation sector have low bargaining power. Blue Dart Express has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Blue Dart Express to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Air Courier industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Blue Dart Express digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Blue Dart Express has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
High brand equity
– Blue Dart Express has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Blue Dart Express to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Blue Dart Express is present in almost all the verticals within the Air Courier industry. This has provided Blue Dart Express 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Blue Dart Express has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Blue Dart Express 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
– Blue Dart Express is one of the most innovative firm in Air Courier sector.
Learning organization
- Blue Dart Express 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 Blue Dart Express is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Blue Dart Express emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Blue Dart Express in Air Courier industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Blue Dart Express 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 Air Courier industry. The technology infrastructure of India is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Organizational Resilience of Blue Dart Express
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Blue Dart Express does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Blue Dart Express has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Air Courier industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Blue Dart Express have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses of Blue Dart Express | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Blue Dart Express 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 Blue Dart Express supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Blue Dart Express is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Blue Dart Express vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Blue Dart Express is just above the Air Courier industry average. It 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 dependence on Blue Dart Express ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Blue Dart Express still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Air Courier industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Blue Dart Express has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Air Courier industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in India, Blue Dart Express 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 Air Courier industry.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Blue Dart Express is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Blue Dart Express to provide better information regarding Air Courier products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Blue Dart Express has high operating costs in the Air Courier industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Blue Dart Express lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of India, Blue Dart Express needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Blue Dart Express, in the dynamic environment of Air Courier industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Blue Dart Express has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Blue Dart Express has some of the most successful models in the Air Courier industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Blue Dart Express should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Blue Dart Express is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Air Courier industry, but Blue Dart Express needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Blue Dart Express to focus more on services in the Air Courier industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Blue Dart Express has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Air Courier industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Blue Dart Express Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Blue Dart Express are -
Manufacturing automation
– Blue Dart Express can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Air Courier sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Blue Dart Express has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Air Courier sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Blue Dart Express to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Blue Dart Express to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Air Courier industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Blue Dart Express 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. Blue Dart Express 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Blue Dart Express to increase its market reach. Blue Dart Express 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Air Courier industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Blue Dart Express in the Air Courier industry. Now Blue Dart Express can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Blue Dart Express in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Air Courier industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Blue Dart Express can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Blue Dart Express operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Air Courier sector.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Air Courier industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Blue Dart Express can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Blue Dart Express can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Air Courier industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It 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.
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 Blue Dart Express 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Blue Dart Express 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Blue Dart Express 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 Blue Dart Express to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Blue Dart Express has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Air Courier industry. This can help Blue Dart Express to build a more holistic ecosystem for Blue Dart Express products in the Air Courier industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Blue Dart Express External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Blue Dart Express are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Blue Dart Express may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Air Courier sector.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Air Courier industry are lowering. It can presents Blue Dart Express with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Air Courier sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Blue Dart Express 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 Blue Dart Express prominent markets.
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.
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.
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. Blue Dart Express needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Air Courier industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Blue Dart Express 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 Air Courier industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Air Courier industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Blue Dart Express can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Blue Dart Express 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. Blue Dart Express can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Air Courier industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Blue Dart Express 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.
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 Blue Dart Express business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Blue Dart Express has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Air Courier industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Blue Dart Express needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Air Courier 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Blue Dart Express is facing in Air Courier sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Blue Dart Express Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Blue Dart Express 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 Blue Dart Express 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 Blue Dart Express 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 Blue Dart Express 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 Blue Dart Express needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
