Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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 Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry
The work of CMG Life Services provides a window into the life settlement industry, showing the difficulties that one young company faces in trying to solve a market failure. This case uses CMG's strategic dilemma to both illuminate the mechanics of a small, inefficient market and show how the success or failure of a market can sometimes depend on more than intrinsic value. The case lays out disagreement about the future of the industry, and even within the industry as key players differ on the most promising path forward. Ultimately, the promise of the life-settlement market for both insurance policy holders and investors may not be realized, and the case lays out the strategic impasse and key factors that will dictate its resolution.
Swot Analysis of "Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry" written by Lauren H. Cohen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cmg Life facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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 Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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 Cmg Life, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cmg Life 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 Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cmg Life
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 Cmg Life
Strengths Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cmg Life in Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cmg Life has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cmg Life 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Cmg Life 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Cmg Life is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cmg Life digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cmg Life 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Cmg Life in the sector have low bargaining power. Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cmg Life to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Cmg Life is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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.
Training and development
– Cmg Life has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Cmg Life 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 Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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.
Learning organization
- Cmg Life 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 Cmg Life is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cmg Life to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cmg Life to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Cmg Life has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Weaknesses Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cmg Life 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Cmg Life 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. Cmg Life 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Cmg Life 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Cmg Life, firm in the HBR case study Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Cmg Life 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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 Cmg Life has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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 Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cmg Life is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
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 Cmg Life supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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 Cmg Life vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Cmg Life products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Cmg Life needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Cmg Life 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 Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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 Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Cmg Life can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cmg Life 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cmg Life 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.
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. Cmg Life can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Cmg Life 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 Cmg Life to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cmg Life to increase its market reach. Cmg Life 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Cmg Life 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 Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cmg Life to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Cmg Life 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Cmg Life 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Manufacturing automation
– Cmg Life 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cmg Life in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Cmg Life 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Cmg Life 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.
Threats Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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 Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry are -
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 Cmg Life in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cmg Life 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 Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Cmg Life with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cmg Life 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Cmg Life has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cmg Life needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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.
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. Cmg Life needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Cmg Life can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Cmg Life 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cmg Life 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and the Life Settlement Industry, Cmg Life 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 .
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 Cmg Life business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Cmg Life is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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 Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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 Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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 Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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 Seeking Alpha in the Afterlife: CMG Life Services and 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 Cmg Life needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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