Eaton Vance Municipal Income (EVN) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Misc. Financial Services
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Eaton Vance Municipal Income (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Eaton Vance Municipal Income is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Eaton Vance Municipal Income
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Eaton Vance Municipal Income can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Eaton Vance Municipal Income, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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 Eaton Vance Municipal Income can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Eaton Vance Municipal Income
2. Improving business portfolio management of Eaton Vance Municipal Income
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Misc. Financial Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Eaton Vance Municipal Income
Strengths of Eaton Vance Municipal Income | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Eaton Vance Municipal Income are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Eaton Vance Municipal Income comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Misc. Financial Services 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Eaton Vance Municipal Income in the Financial sector have low bargaining power. Eaton Vance Municipal Income has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Eaton Vance Municipal Income to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Misc. Financial Services industry
– Eaton Vance Municipal Income has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Eaton Vance Municipal Income to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Misc. Financial Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Eaton Vance Municipal Income to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Eaton Vance Municipal Income has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Eaton Vance Municipal Income to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Eaton Vance Municipal Income in Misc. Financial Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Misc. Financial Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Eaton Vance Municipal Income digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Eaton Vance Municipal Income has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Eaton Vance Municipal Income is present in almost all the verticals within the Misc. Financial Services industry. This has provided Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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.
Learning organization
- Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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 Eaton Vance Municipal Income is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Eaton Vance Municipal Income emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Eaton Vance Municipal Income has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Eaton Vance Municipal Income has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Eaton Vance Municipal Income staying ahead in the Misc. Financial Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses of Eaton Vance Municipal Income | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Eaton Vance Municipal Income are -
Need for greater diversity
– Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Eaton Vance Municipal Income, in the dynamic environment of Misc. Financial Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Eaton Vance Municipal Income has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ less understanding of Eaton Vance Municipal Income strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Eaton Vance Municipal Income don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High dependence on 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 Eaton Vance Municipal Income supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Eaton Vance Municipal Income is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Eaton Vance Municipal Income vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Eaton Vance Municipal Income has high operating costs in the Misc. Financial Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Eaton Vance Municipal Income lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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 Misc. Financial Services industry using digital technology.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Eaton Vance Municipal Income has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Misc. Financial Services industry over the last five years. Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Eaton Vance Municipal Income has some of the most successful models in the Misc. Financial Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Eaton Vance Municipal Income should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Misc. Financial Services industry, Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Misc. Financial Services industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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 Misc. Financial Services industry.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Eaton Vance Municipal Income, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Misc. Financial Services 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.
Eaton Vance Municipal Income Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Eaton Vance Municipal Income are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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 Eaton Vance Municipal Income to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Eaton Vance Municipal Income can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Misc. Financial Services 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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
– Eaton Vance Municipal Income can develop new processes and procedures in Misc. Financial Services 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 Eaton Vance Municipal Income to increase its market reach. Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Misc. Financial Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Eaton Vance Municipal Income can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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 Eaton Vance Municipal Income to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Eaton Vance Municipal Income can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Eaton Vance Municipal Income operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Misc. Financial Services 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. Eaton Vance Municipal Income can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Eaton Vance Municipal Income in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Misc. Financial Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Eaton Vance Municipal Income has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Misc. Financial Services industry. This can help Eaton Vance Municipal Income to build a more holistic ecosystem for Eaton Vance Municipal Income products in the Misc. Financial Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Eaton Vance Municipal Income is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Eaton Vance Municipal Income can utilize new technology in the field of Misc. Financial Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Misc. Financial Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Eaton Vance Municipal Income in the Misc. Financial Services industry. Now Eaton Vance Municipal Income can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Eaton Vance Municipal Income External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Eaton Vance Municipal Income are -
Regulatory challenges
– Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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 Misc. Financial Services industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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 Misc. Financial Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Eaton Vance Municipal Income can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Eaton Vance Municipal Income has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Misc. Financial Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Eaton Vance Municipal Income needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Misc. Financial Services 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Eaton Vance Municipal Income in Misc. Financial Services industry. The Misc. Financial Services 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Eaton Vance Municipal Income may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Misc. Financial Services 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 Eaton Vance Municipal Income business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Misc. Financial Services industry are lowering. It can presents Eaton Vance Municipal Income with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Misc. Financial Services 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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 Misc. Financial Services industry.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Eaton Vance Municipal Income needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Misc. Financial Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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 Eaton Vance Municipal Income prominent markets.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Eaton Vance Municipal Income Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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 Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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 Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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 Eaton Vance Municipal Income 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 Eaton Vance Municipal Income needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.