Crawford&Co (CRDa) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Insurance (Miscellaneous)
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Crawford&Co (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Crawford&Co is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Crawford&Co can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Crawford&Co, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Crawford&Co 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 Crawford&Co can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Crawford&Co
2. Improving business portfolio management of Crawford&Co
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Insurance (Miscellaneous) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Crawford&Co
Strengths of Crawford&Co | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Crawford&Co are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry
– Crawford&Co has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Crawford&Co to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Crawford&Co to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Crawford&Co digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Crawford&Co 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
– Crawford&Co is one of the leading players in the Insurance (Miscellaneous) 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Crawford&Co in the Financial sector have low bargaining power. Crawford&Co has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Crawford&Co to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Crawford&Co 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 (Miscellaneous) 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.
Training and development
– Crawford&Co 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.
Learning organization
- Crawford&Co 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 Crawford&Co is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Crawford&Co emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Crawford&Co
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Crawford&Co does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Crawford&Co has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Crawford&Co staying ahead in the Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Crawford&Co 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Crawford&Co has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Crawford&Co have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Crawford&Co has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Crawford&Co to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses of Crawford&Co | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Crawford&Co are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Crawford&Co is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry, but Crawford&Co needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Crawford&Co to focus more on services in the Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Crawford&Co 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 (Miscellaneous) industry over the last five years. Crawford&Co 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Crawford&Co needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Crawford&Co can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Crawford&Co is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Crawford&Co has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry using digital technology.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Crawford&Co has some of the most successful models in the Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Crawford&Co should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ less understanding of Crawford&Co strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Crawford&Co 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Crawford&Co products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Crawford&Co needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Crawford&Co 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 Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry, Crawford&Co 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Crawford&Co, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Insurance (Miscellaneous) 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Crawford&Co is just above the Insurance (Miscellaneous) 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.
Crawford&Co Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Crawford&Co are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Crawford&Co is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Crawford&Co can utilize new technology in the field of Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Crawford&Co has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Insurance (Miscellaneous) sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Crawford&Co to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Crawford&Co to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Crawford&Co 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Crawford&Co 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. Crawford&Co 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Crawford&Co 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 Crawford&Co to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Crawford&Co 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 Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry.
Buying journey improvements
– Crawford&Co can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Insurance (Miscellaneous) 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Crawford&Co 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Crawford&Co can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Crawford&Co can develop new processes and procedures in Insurance (Miscellaneous) 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Crawford&Co to increase its market reach. Crawford&Co 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Crawford&Co 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Crawford&Co has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry. This can help Crawford&Co to build a more holistic ecosystem for Crawford&Co products in the Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Crawford&Co External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Crawford&Co 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 Crawford&Co.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Crawford&Co 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 Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry and other sectors.
Environmental challenges
– Crawford&Co 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. Crawford&Co can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Crawford&Co 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 Crawford&Co 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. Crawford&Co 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 Crawford&Co is facing in Insurance (Miscellaneous) sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Crawford&Co business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Crawford&Co
– 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 Crawford&Co.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Crawford&Co can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Crawford&Co 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 (Miscellaneous) industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry are lowering. It can presents Crawford&Co with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Insurance (Miscellaneous) sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Crawford&Co 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 Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Crawford&Co has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Insurance (Miscellaneous) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Crawford&Co needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Insurance (Miscellaneous) 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Crawford&Co Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Crawford&Co 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 Crawford&Co 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 Crawford&Co 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 Crawford&Co 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 Crawford&Co needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.