SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Cattolica Assicurazioni (Italy)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Cattolica Assicurazioni is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cattolica Assicurazioni
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Cattolica Assicurazioni can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cattolica Assicurazioni, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cattolica Assicurazioni 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 Cattolica Assicurazioni can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Cattolica Assicurazioni
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cattolica Assicurazioni
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Italy
4. Making a Insurance (Life) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Cattolica Assicurazioni
Strengths of Cattolica Assicurazioni | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cattolica Assicurazioni are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Cattolica Assicurazioni in the Financial sector have low bargaining power. Cattolica Assicurazioni has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cattolica Assicurazioni to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Cattolica Assicurazioni has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cattolica Assicurazioni to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Insurance (Life) industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cattolica Assicurazioni digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cattolica Assicurazioni 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cattolica Assicurazioni in Insurance (Life) industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Cattolica Assicurazioni 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 Cattolica Assicurazioni is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Cattolica Assicurazioni emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Cattolica Assicurazioni has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Cattolica Assicurazioni staying ahead in the Insurance (Life) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Cattolica Assicurazioni is present in almost all the verticals within the Insurance (Life) industry. This has provided Cattolica Assicurazioni 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cattolica Assicurazioni has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Insurance (Life) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Cattolica Assicurazioni have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Insurance (Life) industry
– Cattolica Assicurazioni has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cattolica Assicurazioni to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Insurance (Life) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cattolica Assicurazioni to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Cattolica Assicurazioni comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Insurance (Life) 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Cattolica Assicurazioni is one of the leading players in the Insurance (Life) industry in Italy. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Italy. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Insurance (Life)
– Cattolica Assicurazioni is one of the leading players in the Insurance (Life) industry in Italy. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Insurance (Life) industry in Italy but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Cattolica Assicurazioni in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Cattolica Assicurazioni | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Cattolica Assicurazioni are -
High dependence on Cattolica Assicurazioni ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Cattolica Assicurazioni still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Insurance (Life) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Cattolica Assicurazioni has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring in Insurance (Life) industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cattolica Assicurazioni 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Cattolica Assicurazioni has some of the most successful models in the Insurance (Life) industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Cattolica Assicurazioni should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Cattolica Assicurazioni needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Insurance (Life) industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Cattolica Assicurazioni can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cattolica Assicurazioni is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Cattolica Assicurazioni has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Insurance (Life) industry over the last five years. Cattolica Assicurazioni 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Cattolica Assicurazioni strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Cattolica Assicurazioni don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Cattolica Assicurazioni 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 Insurance (Life) industry using digital technology.
Need for greater diversity
– Cattolica Assicurazioni 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Cattolica Assicurazioni is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Insurance (Life) industry, but Cattolica Assicurazioni needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Cattolica Assicurazioni to focus more on services in the Insurance (Life) industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Cattolica Assicurazioni is just above the Insurance (Life) 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 bargaining power of channel partners in Insurance (Life) industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Italy, Cattolica Assicurazioni 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 Insurance (Life) industry.
Cattolica Assicurazioni Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Cattolica Assicurazioni are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Cattolica Assicurazioni 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 Cattolica Assicurazioni to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Cattolica Assicurazioni can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Insurance (Life) 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cattolica Assicurazioni in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Insurance (Life) industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Developing new processes and practices
– Cattolica Assicurazioni can develop new processes and procedures in Insurance (Life) industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Cattolica Assicurazioni can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Insurance (Life) 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Insurance (Life) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Cattolica Assicurazioni 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. Cattolica Assicurazioni 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Cattolica Assicurazioni has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Insurance (Life) industry. This can help Cattolica Assicurazioni to build a more holistic ecosystem for Cattolica Assicurazioni products in the Insurance (Life) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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 Cattolica Assicurazioni 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
– Cattolica Assicurazioni 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.
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. Cattolica Assicurazioni can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cattolica Assicurazioni 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Cattolica Assicurazioni has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Insurance (Life) sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Cattolica Assicurazioni to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cattolica Assicurazioni to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Insurance (Life) industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Cattolica Assicurazioni can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Cattolica Assicurazioni External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Cattolica Assicurazioni are -
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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Cattolica Assicurazioni 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cattolica Assicurazioni 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 Cattolica Assicurazioni prominent markets.
Increasing wage structure of Cattolica Assicurazioni
– 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 Cattolica Assicurazioni.
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. Cattolica Assicurazioni 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cattolica Assicurazioni in Insurance (Life) industry. The Insurance (Life) 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.
Environmental challenges
– Cattolica Assicurazioni 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. Cattolica Assicurazioni can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Insurance (Life) industry.
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 Cattolica Assicurazioni.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Cattolica Assicurazioni is facing in Insurance (Life) 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 Cattolica Assicurazioni business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Cattolica Assicurazioni has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Insurance (Life) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cattolica Assicurazioni needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Insurance (Life) 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Cattolica Assicurazioni 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 Insurance (Life) industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cattolica Assicurazioni Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Cattolica Assicurazioni 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 Cattolica Assicurazioni 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 Cattolica Assicurazioni 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 Cattolica Assicurazioni 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 Cattolica Assicurazioni needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
