Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , CIB Marine Bancshares is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions,
there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of CIB Marine Bancshares
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that CIB Marine Bancshares can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the CIB Marine Bancshares, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which CIB Marine Bancshares 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 CIB Marine Bancshares can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of CIB Marine Bancshares
2. Improving business portfolio management of CIB Marine Bancshares
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Regional Banks sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of CIB Marine Bancshares
Strengths of CIB Marine Bancshares | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of CIB Marine Bancshares are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Regional Banks industry
– CIB Marine Bancshares has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled CIB Marine Bancshares to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Regional Banks industry. The sustainable margins have also helped CIB Marine Bancshares to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management in the Regional Banks industry
– CIB Marine Bancshares is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of CIB Marine Bancshares in the Financial sector have low bargaining power. CIB Marine Bancshares has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps CIB Marine Bancshares to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- CIB Marine Bancshares 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 CIB Marine Bancshares is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at CIB Marine Bancshares emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of CIB Marine Bancshares in Regional Banks industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– CIB Marine Bancshares is one of the most innovative firm in Regional Banks sector.
Successful track record of launching new products
– CIB Marine Bancshares has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. CIB Marine Bancshares 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the CIB Marine Bancshares 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.
Analytics focus
– CIB Marine Bancshares 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 Regional Banks 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of CIB Marine Bancshares comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Regional Banks 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.
Digital Transformation in Regional Banks industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For CIB Marine Bancshares digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. CIB Marine Bancshares 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– CIB Marine Bancshares is one of the leading players in the Regional Banks 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.
Weaknesses of CIB Marine Bancshares | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of CIB Marine Bancshares are -
High bargaining power of channel partners in Regional Banks industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, CIB Marine Bancshares 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 Regional Banks industry.
High dependence on CIB Marine Bancshares ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of CIB Marine Bancshares still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Regional Banks industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though CIB Marine Bancshares has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though CIB Marine Bancshares has some of the most successful models in the Regional Banks industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. CIB Marine Bancshares should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of CIB Marine Bancshares is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Regional Banks industry, but CIB Marine Bancshares needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help CIB Marine Bancshares to focus more on services in the Regional Banks industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of CIB Marine Bancshares products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, CIB Marine Bancshares needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 CIB Marine Bancshares supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, CIB Marine Bancshares is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left CIB Marine Bancshares vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of CIB Marine Bancshares is just above the Regional Banks 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As CIB Marine Bancshares is one of the leading players in the Regional Banks industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Regional Banks industry in last five years.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of CIB Marine Bancshares, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Regional Banks 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, CIB Marine Bancshares has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Regional Banks industry over the last five years. CIB Marine Bancshares 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at CIB Marine Bancshares, in the dynamic environment of Regional Banks industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. CIB Marine Bancshares has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
CIB Marine Bancshares Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of CIB Marine Bancshares are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for CIB Marine Bancshares in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Regional Banks industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, CIB Marine Bancshares is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. CIB Marine Bancshares can utilize new technology in the field of Regional Banks industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at CIB Marine Bancshares 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 Regional Banks industry.
Manufacturing automation
– CIB Marine Bancshares can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Regional Banks 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects CIB Marine Bancshares can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– CIB Marine Bancshares has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Regional Banks sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled CIB Marine Bancshares to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help CIB Marine Bancshares to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of CIB Marine Bancshares has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Regional Banks industry. This can help CIB Marine Bancshares to build a more holistic ecosystem for CIB Marine Bancshares products in the Regional Banks industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– CIB Marine Bancshares 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for CIB Marine Bancshares 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 CIB Marine Bancshares 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, CIB Marine Bancshares can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that CIB Marine Bancshares operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Regional Banks sector.
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. CIB Marine Bancshares can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, CIB Marine Bancshares 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Regional Banks industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for CIB Marine Bancshares in the Regional Banks industry. Now CIB Marine Bancshares can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats CIB Marine Bancshares External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of CIB Marine Bancshares are -
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 CIB Marine Bancshares.
Regulatory challenges
– CIB Marine Bancshares needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Regional Banks industry regulations.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, CIB Marine Bancshares may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Regional Banks sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– CIB Marine Bancshares has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Regional Banks industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, CIB Marine Bancshares needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Regional Banks 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
– CIB Marine Bancshares 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Regional Banks industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. CIB Marine Bancshares can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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. CIB Marine Bancshares 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.
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 CIB Marine Bancshares in the Regional Banks sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 CIB Marine Bancshares business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– CIB Marine Bancshares 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 Regional Banks industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for CIB Marine Bancshares in Regional Banks industry. The Regional Banks 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, CIB Marine Bancshares 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 CIB Marine Bancshares prominent markets.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of CIB Marine Bancshares Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at CIB Marine Bancshares 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 CIB Marine Bancshares 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 CIB Marine Bancshares 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 CIB Marine Bancshares 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 CIB Marine Bancshares needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.