Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref (AGO_pb) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Insurance (Prop. & Casualty)
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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 Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref
2. Improving business portfolio management of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref
Strengths of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref are -
Innovation driven organization
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref is one of the most innovative firm in Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) sector.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref is one of the leading players in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry in United States. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in United States. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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 Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry. The technology infrastructure of United States 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref in the Financial sector have low bargaining power. Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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 Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref is present in almost all the verticals within the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry. This has provided Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref are -
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry over the last five years. Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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.
High dependence on Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref has some of the most successful models in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring in Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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 Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref, in the dynamic environment of Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref is one of the leading players in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry in last five years.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref is planning to shift buying processes online.
Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref are -
Loyalty marketing
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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. Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref can develop new processes and procedures in Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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 Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref to increase its market reach. Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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 Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) sector.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Threats Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref
– 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 Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) sector.
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.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry are lowering. It can presents Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) sector.
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 Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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. Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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.
Environmental challenges
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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. Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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 Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) 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.
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 Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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 Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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 Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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 Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref 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 Assured Guaranty Muni Hold Pb Pref needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.