Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry
Connecting life insurance policyholders with potential investors (called Life Settlement Providers), Ashar Group plays a pivotal role in the industry. Its current position is however increasingly being challenged by consumer-direct models, led by major providers seeking to shortcut brokers. Ashar faces a strategic dilemma in cooperating --- but also competing --- with these providers. Maintaining a mutually beneficial dynamic with policyholders, downstream intermediaries and other actors thus constitutes a balancing act. The context of this case is an underdeveloped market whose reputation has suffered from broker misconduct. In light of the market's legacy issues and competing business models, this case study explores strategies Ashar may pursue to secure and enhance its market position. Discussions emerging from this case study have the potential to illuminate directions for market transformation.
Authors :: Alexander Braun, Lauren H. Cohen, Christopher Malloy, Jiahua Xu
Swot Analysis of "Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry" written by Alexander Braun, Lauren H. Cohen, Christopher Malloy, Jiahua Xu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ashar Policyholders facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ashar Policyholders, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ashar Policyholders 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 Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ashar Policyholders
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ashar Policyholders
Strengths Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ashar Policyholders in Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ashar Policyholders in the sector have low bargaining power. Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ashar Policyholders to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Ashar Policyholders
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ashar Policyholders does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ashar Policyholders is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry 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
- Ashar Policyholders 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 Ashar Policyholders is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Ashar Policyholders has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ashar Policyholders to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ashar Policyholders has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ashar Policyholders 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ashar Policyholders in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ashar Policyholders is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ashar Policyholders 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 Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Ashar Policyholders 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 Alexander Braun, Lauren H. Cohen, Christopher Malloy, Jiahua Xu 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.
Training and development
– Ashar Policyholders has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Ashar Policyholders is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry 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 Ashar Policyholders 's lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Ashar Policyholders 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ashar Policyholders has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
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 Ashar Policyholders supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ashar Policyholders vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry, is just above the industry average. Ashar Policyholders 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ashar Policyholders 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry 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 Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ashar Policyholders is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Ashar Policyholders 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry, in the dynamic environment Ashar Policyholders has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ashar Policyholders has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ashar Policyholders has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Ashar Policyholders has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry | 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 Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry 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. Ashar Policyholders can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ashar Policyholders 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, Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Ashar Policyholders in the consumer business. Now Ashar Policyholders can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Ashar Policyholders can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting segment. 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Ashar Policyholders 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ashar Policyholders can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ashar Policyholders is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Ashar Policyholders can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ashar Policyholders 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 Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ashar Policyholders to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ashar Policyholders 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ashar Policyholders can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ashar Policyholders operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ashar Policyholders has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ashar Policyholders to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry case study. Ashar Policyholders can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Ashar Policyholders 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. Ashar Policyholders 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 Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry are -
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. Ashar Policyholders 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry, Ashar Policyholders may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ashar Policyholders 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Ashar Policyholders can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Ashar Policyholders
– 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 Ashar Policyholders.
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 Ashar Policyholders.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ashar Policyholders in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ashar Policyholders is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Ashar Policyholders 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.
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 Ashar Policyholders in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Ashar Policyholders 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ashar Policyholders 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 Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry 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 Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry 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 Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry 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 Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry 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 Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry 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 Ashar Policyholders needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.