Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.: growth strategies for the future
Authors: Singhania Monica 
Published: August 2014

Subject area

The case provides valuable insights on challenges faced by otherwise-protected organisations which are made to face the global onslaught. What happens to an organisation when its own collaborators become competitors overnight? What happens when market leaders refuse to share their technology or dictate their own terms? In addition, this case study looks at the strategy of diversification desired in the business portfolio and the cost of non-diversifications. The case evaluates the environment in which a capital-intensive industry has to operate. It evaluates the combination of all the variables required for undertaking a comprehensive analysis and aims at identifying the best possible level to which the business can be expanded to maximise profits under the known constraints in which the business has to operate.

Study level/applicability

Target audience is corporate executives, students of MBA/postgraduate programme in management in strategic management and/or workshops for understanding the concept of SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, competitor analysis, Porter's Five Forces Model, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix, business environment analysis and growth strategies for future.

Case overview

A combination of global competition and open access in the domestic market is putting pressure on the margins, as new players are likely to move towards gaining market share by bidding aggressively. This is threatening the competitive intensity for Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) in the long-term. Raw materials, such as steel products, that are critical to production process are subject to substantial pricing cyclicality and periodic shortages of supply in India. The margins are thus continuously being impacted by movement in raw material prices, especially steel and copper. How BHEL hopes to sustain its growth story? Whether Chinese competition will kill BHEL? These are some of the pertinent questions the authors will try to answer in this case study.

Expected learning outcomes

Use of SWOT analysis to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to a company and use it as a tool to strategic decision-making. Highlighting the importance of strategic tools such as Porter Model and BCG Matrix within an emerging economy backdrop; to illustrate the alternatives and difficulties/complexities involved in a strategic planning process of growth and cost cutting; and to analyse the financial statements of BHEL.

Social implications

Analysing public sector undertakings (PSUs)/government companies involved in infrastructure build up/projects of strategic nature in the country, their performance, challenges and efficiency in pre-liberalisation era and post-liberalisation era, and identifying how many are visible today, including the reasons for their growth/decline in generating revenues and profits, has multiple social implications especially for an emerging economy like India. A look at the performance trends of such companies over the past years too would help them in their quest by assisting them to get an idea of business and the industry profile in which BHEL is operating.

Supplementary materials

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