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Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return (FLC) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return (United States)


Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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 Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return
2. Improving business portfolio management of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return
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 Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return




Strengths of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return are -

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Misc. Financial Services industry

– Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Misc. Financial Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.

Organizational Resilience of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return in Misc. Financial Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return in the Financial sector have low bargaining power. Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Strong track record of project management in the Misc. Financial Services industry

– Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Diverse revenue streams

– Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return is present in almost all the verticals within the Misc. Financial Services industry. This has provided Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return is one of the most innovative firm in Misc. Financial Services sector.

Training and development

– Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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

- Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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 Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Digital Transformation in Misc. Financial Services industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.






Weaknesses of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return are -

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return, in the dynamic environment of Misc. Financial Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of United States, Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return is one of the leading players in the Misc. Financial Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Misc. Financial Services industry in last five years.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Misc. Financial Services industry, Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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 dependence on Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Misc. Financial Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Employees’ less understanding of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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 cash cycle compare to competitors

Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Misc. Financial Services industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Misc. Financial Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return is planning to shift buying processes online.

Lack of clear differentiation of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Misc. Financial Services industry, but Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return to focus more on services in the Misc. Financial Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.




Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return are -

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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 Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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 Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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 Misc. Financial Services industry.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Misc. Financial Services sector.

Buying journey improvements

– Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.

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. Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Misc. Financial Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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. Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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

– Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Misc. Financial Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Loyalty marketing

– Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.

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 Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return in the Misc. Financial Services industry. Now Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.




Threats Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return are -

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Misc. Financial Services industry are lowering. It can presents Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.

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. Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.

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 Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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. Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Misc. Financial Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Increasing wage structure of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return

– 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 Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return.

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 Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return.

Regulatory challenges

– Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Misc. Financial Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.

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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.

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 Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return in the Misc. Financial Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Environmental challenges

– Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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. Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Misc. Financial Services industry.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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 Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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 Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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 Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return 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 Flaherty & Crumrine Total Return needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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