Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability
A retail bank is considering a strategy to improve branch performance. Central to the strategy is a recent study of profitability of three retail products: current accounts, credit cards, and mortgages. The strategy involves giving branch managers incentives to sell profitable products. A senior bank manager evaluates the product-profitability-based strategy in the light of recent statistics on major variations in profitability of customers (these statistics are included in the database provided with the case).
Swot Analysis of "Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability" written by Igor Vaysman, Stephen Smyth includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Profitability Branch facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Sales and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Profitability Branch, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Profitability Branch 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 Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Profitability Branch
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 Profitability Branch
Strengths Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Profitability Branch in Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Profitability Branch digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Profitability Branch 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Profitability Branch is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability 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.
Organizational Resilience of Profitability Branch
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Profitability Branch does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Profitability Branch has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Profitability Branch to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Profitability Branch 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 Profitability Branch in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Profitability Branch is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Profitability Branch in the sector have low bargaining power. Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Profitability Branch to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Profitability Branch 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Profitability Branch 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Profitability Branch 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 Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Profitability Branch has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability 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.
Weaknesses Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Profitability Branch 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, Profitability Branch 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. Profitability Branch 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability HBR case study mentions - Profitability Branch 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Profitability Branch 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 - Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Profitability Branch 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.
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 Profitability Branch supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Profitability Branch vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Profitability Branch is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability 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 Profitability Branch has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Profitability Branch 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Profitability Branch products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Profitability Branch needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Profitability Branch is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Profitability Branch needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Profitability Branch to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability | 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 Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Profitability Branch 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Profitability Branch is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability 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 Profitability Branch has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Profitability Branch to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability case study. Profitability Branch can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Profitability Branch can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Profitability Branch 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Profitability Branch 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Profitability Branch 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 Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Profitability Branch to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Profitability Branch 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Profitability Branch 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, Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Profitability Branch 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Profitability Branch can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Profitability Branch 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.
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 Profitability Branch 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.
Threats Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability 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 Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability, Profitability Branch 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
– Profitability Branch 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Profitability Branch 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.
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. Profitability Branch 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Profitability Branch 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Profitability Branch has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Profitability Branch 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.
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.
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 Profitability Branch.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Profitability Branch is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Profitability Branch business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Profitability Branch
– 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 Profitability Branch.
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. Profitability Branch needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Profitability Branch 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability 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 Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability 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 Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability 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 Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability 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 Infinity Bank (A): Retail Branches and Customer Profitability 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 Profitability Branch needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
