Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Gabelli Utility Trust Pref is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , technology disruption, wage bills are increasing,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Gabelli Utility Trust Pref can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Gabelli Utility Trust Pref, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref
2. Improving business portfolio management of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref
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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref
Strengths of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Gabelli Utility Trust Pref is one of the leading players in the 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.
Digital Transformation in industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Gabelli Utility Trust Pref digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Training and development
– Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref in the sector have low bargaining power. Gabelli Utility Trust Pref has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Gabelli Utility Trust Pref to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Gabelli Utility Trust Pref has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in industry
– Gabelli Utility Trust Pref has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Gabelli Utility Trust Pref to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Gabelli Utility Trust Pref to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Gabelli Utility Trust Pref emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Gabelli Utility Trust Pref has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Gabelli Utility Trust Pref staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Gabelli Utility Trust Pref has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Weaknesses of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref are -
High dependence on Gabelli Utility Trust Pref ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Gabelli Utility Trust Pref has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Gabelli Utility Trust Pref needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the industry, but Gabelli Utility Trust Pref needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Gabelli Utility Trust Pref to focus more on services in the industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring in industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the industry, Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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 industry using digital technology.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Gabelli Utility Trust Pref is one of the leading players in the industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
High bargaining power of channel partners in industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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 industry.
Need for greater diversity
– Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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. Gabelli Utility Trust Pref should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Gabelli Utility Trust Pref is planning to shift buying processes online.
Gabelli Utility Trust Pref Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref are -
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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref in the industry. Now Gabelli Utility Trust Pref can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
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. Gabelli Utility Trust Pref can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in industry. This can help Gabelli Utility Trust Pref to build a more holistic ecosystem for Gabelli Utility Trust Pref products in the industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Gabelli Utility Trust Pref can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Gabelli Utility Trust Pref to increase its market reach. Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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. Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Threats Gabelli Utility Trust Pref External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref prominent markets.
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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Environmental challenges
– Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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. Gabelli Utility Trust Pref can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the industry.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Gabelli Utility Trust Pref is facing in sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Gabelli Utility Trust Pref has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
Increasing wage structure of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref
– 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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref.
Regulatory challenges
– Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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.
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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref in the sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Gabelli Utility Trust Pref Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref 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 Gabelli Utility Trust Pref needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
