Morgan Stanley Bank AG (MSBR34) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
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Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Morgan Stanley Bank AG (Brazil)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Morgan Stanley Bank AG is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Morgan Stanley Bank AG
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Morgan Stanley Bank AG can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Morgan Stanley Bank AG, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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 Morgan Stanley Bank AG can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Morgan Stanley Bank AG
2. Improving business portfolio management of Morgan Stanley Bank AG
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Brazil
4. Making a NA sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Morgan Stanley Bank AG
Strengths of Morgan Stanley Bank AG | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Morgan Stanley Bank AG are -
Innovation driven organization
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG is one of the most innovative firm in NA sector.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in NA industry
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Morgan Stanley Bank AG to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the NA industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Morgan Stanley Bank AG to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management in the NA industry
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG is one of the leading players in the NA industry in Brazil. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Brazil. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG has one of the best training and development program in NA 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG is present in almost all the verticals within the NA industry. This has provided Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Morgan Stanley Bank AG in NA industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Morgan Stanley Bank AG to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Morgan Stanley Bank AG staying ahead in the NA industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in NA industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Morgan Stanley Bank AG digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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.
Organizational Resilience of Morgan Stanley Bank AG
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Morgan Stanley Bank AG does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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.
Weaknesses of Morgan Stanley Bank AG | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Morgan Stanley Bank AG are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Morgan Stanley Bank AG is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Morgan Stanley Bank AG to provide better information regarding NA products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners in NA industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Brazil, Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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 NA industry.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Morgan Stanley Bank AG is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the NA industry, but Morgan Stanley Bank AG needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Morgan Stanley Bank AG to focus more on services in the NA industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Morgan Stanley Bank AG has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Morgan Stanley Bank AG, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact NA 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Morgan Stanley Bank AG strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Morgan Stanley Bank AG has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the NA industry over the last five years. Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Morgan Stanley Bank AG has high operating costs in the NA industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Morgan Stanley Bank AG lucrative customers.
High dependence on Morgan Stanley Bank AG ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Morgan Stanley Bank AG still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in NA industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Morgan Stanley Bank AG has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Morgan Stanley Bank AG needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the NA industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Morgan Stanley Bank AG can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Morgan Stanley Bank AG is planning to shift buying processes online.
Morgan Stanley Bank AG Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Morgan Stanley Bank AG are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Morgan Stanley Bank AG is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Morgan Stanley Bank AG can utilize new technology in the field of NA industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in NA industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Morgan Stanley Bank AG can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Morgan Stanley Bank AG to increase its market reach. Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in NA sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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 Morgan Stanley Bank AG to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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 NA industry.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Morgan Stanley Bank AG can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Morgan Stanley Bank AG operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in NA 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 Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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.
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. Morgan Stanley Bank AG can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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 Morgan Stanley Bank AG to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Morgan Stanley Bank AG in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the NA industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the NA industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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. Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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.
Threats Morgan Stanley Bank AG External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Morgan Stanley Bank AG are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Morgan Stanley Bank AG may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of NA sector.
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 Morgan Stanley Bank AG.
Increasing wage structure of Morgan Stanley Bank AG
– 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 Morgan Stanley Bank AG.
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 Morgan Stanley Bank AG in the NA sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the NA industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Morgan Stanley Bank AG needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the NA 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
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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 NA industry and other sectors.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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 NA industry.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in NA industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Morgan Stanley Bank AG can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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 Morgan Stanley Bank AG prominent markets.
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. Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Morgan Stanley Bank AG is facing in NA sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Morgan Stanley Bank AG Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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 Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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 Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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 Morgan Stanley Bank AG 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 Morgan Stanley Bank AG needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.