Western Asset Invest Grade Defined (IGI) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Misc. Financial Services
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Western Asset Invest Grade Defined (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Western Asset Invest Grade Defined is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Western Asset Invest Grade Defined can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Western Asset Invest Grade Defined, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined
2. Improving business portfolio management of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined
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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined
Strengths of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined are -
Innovation driven organization
– Western Asset Invest Grade Defined is one of the most innovative firm in Misc. Financial Services sector.
Analytics focus
– Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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 Misc. Financial Services 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Misc. Financial Services industry
– Western Asset Invest Grade Defined is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Western Asset Invest Grade Defined has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Western Asset Invest Grade Defined to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Western Asset Invest Grade Defined emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined in Misc. Financial Services 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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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)
– Western Asset Invest Grade Defined has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Western Asset Invest Grade Defined staying ahead in the Misc. Financial Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Western Asset Invest Grade Defined is present in almost all the verticals within the Misc. Financial Services industry. This has provided Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
Organizational Resilience of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Western Asset Invest Grade Defined does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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 lead change in Misc. Financial Services
– Western Asset Invest Grade Defined is one of the leading players in the Misc. Financial Services industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Misc. Financial Services industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Western Asset Invest Grade Defined in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Western Asset Invest Grade Defined has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the Misc. Financial Services industry using digital technology.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Western Asset Invest Grade Defined has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Misc. Financial Services industry over the last five years. Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Western Asset Invest Grade Defined has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Western Asset Invest Grade Defined, in the dynamic environment of Misc. Financial Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Western Asset Invest Grade Defined has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Misc. Financial Services industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Western Asset Invest Grade Defined is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the Misc. Financial Services industry.
High dependence on Western Asset Invest Grade Defined ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Misc. Financial Services industry, but Western Asset Invest Grade Defined needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Western Asset Invest Grade Defined to focus more on services in the Misc. Financial Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Western Asset Invest Grade Defined is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Western Asset Invest Grade Defined vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Misc. Financial Services industry, Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Western Asset Invest Grade Defined is planning to shift buying processes online.
Western Asset Invest Grade Defined Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Western Asset Invest Grade Defined is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Misc. Financial Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Western Asset Invest Grade Defined can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Western Asset Invest Grade Defined to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined in the Misc. Financial Services industry. Now Western Asset Invest Grade Defined can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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. Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Western Asset Invest Grade Defined to increase its market reach. Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
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. Western Asset Invest Grade Defined can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Western Asset Invest Grade Defined External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Western Asset Invest Grade Defined has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Misc. Financial Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
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.
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. Western Asset Invest Grade Defined needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Misc. Financial Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
Environmental challenges
– Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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. Western Asset Invest Grade Defined can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Misc. Financial Services industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Misc. Financial Services industry are lowering. It can presents Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Western Asset Invest Grade Defined is facing in Misc. Financial Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined in the Misc. Financial Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined.
Increasing wage structure of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined
– 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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Western Asset Invest Grade Defined Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined 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 Western Asset Invest Grade Defined needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.