SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Mirae Asset Daewoo (South Korea)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Mirae Asset Daewoo is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Mirae Asset Daewoo
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Mirae Asset Daewoo can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mirae Asset Daewoo, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mirae Asset Daewoo 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 Mirae Asset Daewoo can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Mirae Asset Daewoo
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mirae Asset Daewoo
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in South Korea
4. Making a Investment Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Mirae Asset Daewoo
Strengths of Mirae Asset Daewoo | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mirae Asset Daewoo are -
Ability to lead change in Investment Services
– Mirae Asset Daewoo is one of the leading players in the Investment Services industry in South Korea. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Investment Services industry in South Korea but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Mirae Asset Daewoo in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Mirae Asset Daewoo is present in almost all the verticals within the Investment Services industry. This has provided Mirae Asset Daewoo 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Mirae Asset Daewoo has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Mirae Asset Daewoo staying ahead in the Investment Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Investment Services industry
– Mirae Asset Daewoo has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mirae Asset Daewoo to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Investment Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mirae Asset Daewoo to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Mirae Asset Daewoo comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Investment Services 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Investment Services industry
– Mirae Asset Daewoo is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Mirae Asset Daewoo 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.
High brand equity
– Mirae Asset Daewoo has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Mirae Asset Daewoo to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Mirae Asset Daewoo has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Investment Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Mirae Asset Daewoo have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mirae Asset Daewoo in the Financial sector have low bargaining power. Mirae Asset Daewoo has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mirae Asset Daewoo to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Mirae Asset Daewoo
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Mirae Asset Daewoo does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Mirae Asset Daewoo 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 Investment Services industry. The technology infrastructure of South Korea 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.
Weaknesses of Mirae Asset Daewoo | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Mirae Asset Daewoo are -
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Mirae Asset Daewoo, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Investment 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Mirae Asset Daewoo has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Investment Services 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 Mirae Asset Daewoo products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mirae Asset Daewoo needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Mirae Asset Daewoo is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Mirae Asset Daewoo to provide better information regarding Investment Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ less understanding of Mirae Asset Daewoo strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Mirae Asset Daewoo 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Mirae Asset Daewoo has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High dependence on 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 Mirae Asset Daewoo supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Mirae Asset Daewoo is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Mirae Asset Daewoo vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Investment Services industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in South Korea, Mirae Asset Daewoo 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 Investment Services industry.
High dependence on Mirae Asset Daewoo ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Mirae Asset Daewoo still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Investment Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Mirae Asset Daewoo has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Investment Services industry, Mirae Asset Daewoo 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Mirae Asset Daewoo is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Investment Services industry, but Mirae Asset Daewoo needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Mirae Asset Daewoo to focus more on services in the Investment Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Mirae Asset Daewoo Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Mirae Asset Daewoo are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Mirae Asset Daewoo 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 Investment Services industry.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Mirae Asset Daewoo is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Mirae Asset Daewoo can utilize new technology in the field of Investment Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, 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, Mirae Asset Daewoo can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mirae Asset Daewoo operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Investment Services sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Mirae Asset Daewoo 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, Mirae Asset Daewoo 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 Mirae Asset Daewoo to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mirae Asset Daewoo 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Mirae Asset Daewoo 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Mirae Asset Daewoo to increase its market reach. Mirae Asset Daewoo 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Mirae Asset Daewoo 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Investment Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Mirae Asset Daewoo can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Mirae Asset Daewoo can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Investment 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. Mirae Asset Daewoo can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Mirae Asset Daewoo 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.
Threats Mirae Asset Daewoo External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Mirae Asset Daewoo are -
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. Mirae Asset Daewoo needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Investment Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Mirae Asset Daewoo 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
– Mirae Asset Daewoo has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Investment Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Mirae Asset Daewoo needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Investment 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Mirae Asset Daewoo 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 Investment Services industry.
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 Mirae Asset Daewoo in the Investment Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Investment Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Mirae Asset Daewoo can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Mirae Asset Daewoo business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mirae Asset Daewoo 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 Mirae Asset Daewoo prominent markets.
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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Investment Services industry are lowering. It can presents Mirae Asset Daewoo with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Investment Services sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Mirae Asset Daewoo 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 Investment Services industry and other sectors.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mirae Asset Daewoo in Investment Services industry. The Investment 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Mirae Asset Daewoo Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Mirae Asset Daewoo 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 Mirae Asset Daewoo 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 Mirae Asset Daewoo 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 Mirae Asset Daewoo 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 Mirae Asset Daewoo needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.