Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Non-Standard Finance PLC is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices,
technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Non-Standard Finance PLC
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Non-Standard Finance PLC can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Non-Standard Finance PLC, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Non-Standard Finance PLC 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 Non-Standard Finance PLC can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Non-Standard Finance PLC
2. Improving business portfolio management of Non-Standard Finance PLC
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United Kingdom
4. Making a Consumer Financial Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Non-Standard Finance PLC
Strengths of Non-Standard Finance PLC | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Non-Standard Finance PLC are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Non-Standard Finance PLC is one of the leading players in the Consumer Financial Services industry in United Kingdom. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in United Kingdom. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Non-Standard Finance PLC is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the Consumer Financial Services industry. The technology infrastructure of United Kingdom is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Training and development
– Non-Standard Finance PLC has one of the best training and development program in Financial industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
High brand equity
– Non-Standard Finance PLC has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Non-Standard Finance PLC to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Non-Standard Finance PLC 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.
Learning organization
- Non-Standard Finance PLC 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 Non-Standard Finance PLC is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Non-Standard Finance PLC emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Consumer Financial Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Non-Standard Finance PLC digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Non-Standard Finance PLC 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 Non-Standard Finance PLC in the Financial sector have low bargaining power. Non-Standard Finance PLC has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Non-Standard Finance PLC to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Non-Standard Finance PLC has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Non-Standard Finance PLC staying ahead in the Consumer Financial Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Non-Standard Finance PLC
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Non-Standard Finance PLC does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Non-Standard Finance PLC has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Consumer Financial Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Non-Standard Finance PLC have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Consumer Financial Services
– Non-Standard Finance PLC is one of the leading players in the Consumer Financial Services industry in United Kingdom. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Consumer Financial Services industry in United Kingdom but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Non-Standard Finance PLC in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Non-Standard Finance PLC | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Non-Standard Finance PLC are -
Employees’ less understanding of Non-Standard Finance PLC strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Non-Standard Finance PLC 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.
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 Non-Standard Finance PLC supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Non-Standard Finance PLC is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Non-Standard Finance PLC vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Non-Standard Finance PLC is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Consumer Financial Services industry, but Non-Standard Finance PLC needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Non-Standard Finance PLC to focus more on services in the Consumer Financial Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Non-Standard Finance PLC has high operating costs in the Consumer Financial Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Non-Standard Finance PLC lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring in Consumer Financial Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Non-Standard Finance PLC 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Non-Standard Finance PLC, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Consumer Financial Services industry. 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Non-Standard Finance PLC products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Non-Standard Finance PLC needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on Non-Standard Finance PLC ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Non-Standard Finance PLC still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Consumer Financial Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Non-Standard Finance PLC has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Consumer Financial Services industry, Non-Standard Finance PLC needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Non-Standard Finance PLC needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Consumer Financial Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Non-Standard Finance PLC can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Non-Standard Finance PLC is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Non-Standard Finance PLC is one of the leading players in the Consumer Financial Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Consumer Financial Services industry in last five years.
Non-Standard Finance PLC Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Non-Standard Finance PLC are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Non-Standard Finance PLC 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Non-Standard Finance PLC 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Non-Standard Finance PLC has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Consumer Financial Services industry. This can help Non-Standard Finance PLC to build a more holistic ecosystem for Non-Standard Finance PLC products in the Consumer Financial Services industry by providing – 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 Consumer Financial Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Non-Standard Finance PLC can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Non-Standard Finance PLC has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Consumer Financial Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Non-Standard Finance PLC to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Non-Standard Finance PLC to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Consumer Financial Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Non-Standard Finance PLC 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. Non-Standard Finance PLC 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
– Non-Standard Finance PLC can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Consumer Financial Services 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.
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. Non-Standard Finance PLC can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Non-Standard Finance PLC is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Non-Standard Finance PLC can utilize new technology in the field of Consumer Financial Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Non-Standard Finance PLC can develop new processes and procedures in Consumer Financial Services 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Non-Standard Finance PLC can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Non-Standard Finance PLC operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Consumer Financial Services sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Non-Standard Finance PLC 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 Consumer Financial Services industry.
Loyalty marketing
– Non-Standard Finance PLC 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 Non-Standard Finance PLC External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Non-Standard Finance PLC are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Non-Standard Finance PLC has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Consumer Financial Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Non-Standard Finance PLC needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Consumer Financial Services 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Non-Standard Finance PLC 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.
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 Non-Standard Finance PLC in the Consumer Financial Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Non-Standard Finance PLC needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Consumer Financial Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Non-Standard Finance PLC 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 Non-Standard Finance PLC prominent markets.
Regulatory challenges
– Non-Standard Finance PLC 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 Consumer Financial Services industry regulations.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Consumer Financial Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Non-Standard Finance PLC can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Non-Standard Finance PLC in Consumer Financial Services industry. The Consumer Financial Services 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Consumer Financial Services industry are lowering. It can presents Non-Standard Finance PLC with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Consumer Financial Services sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Non-Standard Finance PLC may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Consumer Financial Services sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Non-Standard Finance PLC 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 Consumer Financial Services industry and other sectors.
Increasing wage structure of Non-Standard Finance PLC
– 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 Non-Standard Finance PLC.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Non-Standard Finance PLC is facing in Consumer Financial Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Non-Standard Finance PLC Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Non-Standard Finance PLC 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 Non-Standard Finance PLC 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 Non-Standard Finance PLC 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 Non-Standard Finance PLC 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 Non-Standard Finance PLC needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
