The First of Long Island (FLIC) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Regional Banks
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for The First of Long Island (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , The First of Long Island is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The First of Long Island
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that The First of Long Island can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the The First of Long Island, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which The First of Long Island 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 The First of Long Island can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of The First of Long Island
2. Improving business portfolio management of The First of Long Island
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 The First of Long Island
Strengths of The First of Long Island | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of The First of Long Island are -
Ability to lead change in Regional Banks
– The First of Long Island is one of the leading players in the Regional Banks industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Regional Banks industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled The First of Long Island in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the The First of Long Island 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– The First of Long Island has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – The First of Long Island staying ahead in the Regional Banks industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Regional Banks industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For The First of Long Island digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. The First of Long Island 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of The First of Long Island in Regional Banks industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– The First of Long Island is one of the most innovative firm in Regional Banks sector.
Highly skilled collaborators
– The First of Long Island has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Regional Banks industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of The First of Long Island have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– The First of Long Island has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled The First of Long Island to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of The First of Long Island 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– The First of Long Island is present in almost all the verticals within the Regional Banks industry. This has provided The First of Long Island 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.
Training and development
– The First of Long Island 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– The First of Long Island 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 The First of Long Island | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The First of Long Island are -
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 The First of Long Island supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, The First of Long Island is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left The First of Long Island vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of The First of Long Island is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Regional Banks industry, but The First of Long Island needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help The First of Long Island to focus more on services in the Regional Banks industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, The First of Long Island 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 Regional Banks industry using digital technology.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that The First of Long Island needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Regional Banks industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at The First of Long Island can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as The First of Long Island is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of The First of Long Island 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.
Need for greater diversity
– The First of Long Island 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Regional Banks industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, The First of Long Island 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of The First of Long Island, 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though The First of Long Island 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. The First of Long Island should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of The First of Long Island products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, The First of Long Island needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at The First of Long Island, in the dynamic environment of Regional Banks industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. The First of Long Island has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
The First of Long Island Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of The First of Long Island are -
Developing new processes and practices
– The First of Long Island can develop new processes and procedures in Regional Banks 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects The First of Long Island can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help The First of Long Island to increase its market reach. The First of Long Island 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of The First of Long Island has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Regional Banks industry. This can help The First of Long Island to build a more holistic ecosystem for The First of Long Island products in the Regional Banks industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– The First of Long Island can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Regional Banks 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Regional Banks industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. The First of Long Island 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. The First of Long Island 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 The First of Long Island 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, The First of Long Island 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, The First of Long Island can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that The First of Long Island operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Regional Banks sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, The First of Long Island is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The First of Long Island 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 The First of Long Island 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for The First of Long Island 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 The First of Long Island to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for The First of Long Island 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.
Threats The First of Long Island External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of The First of Long Island are -
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.
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 The First of Long Island business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– The First of Long Island 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.
Increasing wage structure of The First of Long Island
– 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 The First of Long Island.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Regional Banks industry are lowering. It can presents The First of Long Island with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Regional Banks sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that The First of Long Island is facing in Regional Banks sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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. The First of Long Island needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Regional Banks industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on The First of Long Island 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 Regional Banks industry and other sectors.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– The First of Long Island 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.
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 The First of Long Island in the Regional Banks sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– The First of Long Island has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Regional Banks industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, The First of Long Island 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.
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 The First of Long Island.
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. The First of Long Island can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The First of Long Island Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at The First of Long Island 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 The First of Long Island 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 The First of Long Island 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 The First of Long Island 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 The First of Long Island needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.