STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur (GJT) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur
2. Improving business portfolio management of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur
Strengths of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur are -
Training and development
– STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur has one of the best training and development program in 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 lead change in
– STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur is one of the leading players in the industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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.
Learning organization
- STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management in the industry
– STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the 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 STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur in the sector have low bargaining power. STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur is one of the most innovative firm in sector.
Analytics focus
– STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 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.
High brand equity
– STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the industry, STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the 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 STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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.
Employees’ less understanding of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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.
Skills based hiring in industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur has high operating costs in the industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur lucrative customers.
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 STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur has some of the most successful models in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 industry.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Leveraging digital technologies
– STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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
– STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur can develop new processes and procedures in 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur in the industry. Now STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur can improve the customer journey of consumers in the 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.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Threats STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur in the sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 industry and other sectors.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur prominent markets.
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
– STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 industry.
Increasing wage structure of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur
– 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 STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur.
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. STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur needs to understand the core reasons impacting the industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 industry regulations.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur in industry. The 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur 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 STRATS SM Trust for Allstate Secur needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.