SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Banca Intermobiliare (Italy)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Banca Intermobiliare is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Banca Intermobiliare
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Banca Intermobiliare can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Banca Intermobiliare, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Banca Intermobiliare 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 Banca Intermobiliare can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Banca Intermobiliare
2. Improving business portfolio management of Banca Intermobiliare
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Italy
4. Making a Regional Banks sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Banca Intermobiliare
Strengths of Banca Intermobiliare | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Banca Intermobiliare are -
High brand equity
– Banca Intermobiliare has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Banca Intermobiliare to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Banca Intermobiliare has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Banca Intermobiliare 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Banca Intermobiliare 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.
Ability to lead change in Regional Banks
– Banca Intermobiliare is one of the leading players in the Regional Banks industry in Italy. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Regional Banks industry in Italy but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Banca Intermobiliare in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Banca Intermobiliare 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Regional Banks industry
– Banca Intermobiliare has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Banca Intermobiliare to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Regional Banks industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Banca Intermobiliare to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Banca Intermobiliare comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Regional Banks 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.
Learning organization
- Banca Intermobiliare 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 Banca Intermobiliare is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Banca Intermobiliare emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Regional Banks industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Banca Intermobiliare digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Banca Intermobiliare 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Regional Banks industry
– Banca Intermobiliare is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Banca Intermobiliare is present in almost all the verticals within the Regional Banks industry. This has provided Banca Intermobiliare 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.
Organizational Resilience of Banca Intermobiliare
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Banca Intermobiliare does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses of Banca Intermobiliare | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Banca Intermobiliare are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Regional Banks industry, Banca Intermobiliare 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Regional Banks industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Italy, Banca Intermobiliare 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 Regional Banks industry.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Banca Intermobiliare needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Regional Banks industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Banca Intermobiliare can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Banca Intermobiliare is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Banca Intermobiliare 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 Regional Banks industry using digital technology.
Need for greater diversity
– Banca Intermobiliare 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Banca Intermobiliare strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Banca Intermobiliare 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Banca Intermobiliare has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Regional Banks industry over the last five years. Banca Intermobiliare 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Banca Intermobiliare is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Regional Banks industry, but Banca Intermobiliare needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Banca Intermobiliare to focus more on services in the Regional Banks industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Banca Intermobiliare products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Banca Intermobiliare needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 Banca Intermobiliare supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Banca Intermobiliare is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Banca Intermobiliare vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Italy, Banca Intermobiliare needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Banca Intermobiliare Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Banca Intermobiliare are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Banca Intermobiliare 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Banca Intermobiliare is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Banca Intermobiliare can utilize new technology in the field of Regional Banks industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Banca Intermobiliare can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Banca Intermobiliare 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 Banca Intermobiliare to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Banca Intermobiliare to increase its market reach. Banca Intermobiliare 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Regional Banks industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Banca Intermobiliare can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Regional Banks industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Banca Intermobiliare 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. Banca Intermobiliare 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Banca Intermobiliare can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Regional Banks 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Banca Intermobiliare 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Banca Intermobiliare 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Banca Intermobiliare in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Regional Banks industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Banca Intermobiliare 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 Banca Intermobiliare to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Banca Intermobiliare has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Regional Banks sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Banca Intermobiliare to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Banca Intermobiliare to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Banca Intermobiliare External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Banca Intermobiliare 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Banca Intermobiliare 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 Regional Banks industry and other sectors.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Banca Intermobiliare 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 Banca Intermobiliare prominent markets.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Regional Banks industry are lowering. It can presents Banca Intermobiliare with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Regional Banks sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Regional Banks industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Banca Intermobiliare can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Banca Intermobiliare in the Regional Banks sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Banca Intermobiliare business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Banca Intermobiliare 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.
Increasing wage structure of Banca Intermobiliare
– 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 Banca Intermobiliare.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Banca Intermobiliare may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Regional Banks sector.
Environmental challenges
– Banca Intermobiliare 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. Banca Intermobiliare can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Regional Banks industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Banca Intermobiliare has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Regional Banks industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Banca Intermobiliare needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Regional Banks 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Banca Intermobiliare Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Banca Intermobiliare 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 Banca Intermobiliare 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 Banca Intermobiliare 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 Banca Intermobiliare 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 Banca Intermobiliare needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
