Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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 AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR
2. Improving business portfolio management of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR
Strengths of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR is one of the leading players in the industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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 AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in industry
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the industry. The sustainable margins have also helped AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR has one of the best training and development program in 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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 AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management in the industry
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR is just above the 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the industry, AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR is one of the leading players in the industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the industry, but AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR to focus more on services in the industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring in industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR, in the dynamic environment of industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ less understanding of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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 AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR is planning to shift buying processes online.
AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR can utilize new technology in the field of industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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 AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in industry. This can help AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR to build a more holistic ecosystem for AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR products in the industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR can develop new processes and procedures in 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, AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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. AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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 industry.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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 AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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 AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR prominent markets.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR in industry. The 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.
Increasing wage structure of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR
– 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 AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR is facing in sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the 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.
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. AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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.
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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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 industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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 industry and other sectors.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to industry are lowering. It can presents AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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. AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the 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 AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR in the sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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 AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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 AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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 AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR 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 AmTrust Financial Services Pk ADR needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.