Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC (IPB) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC
2. Improving business portfolio management of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC
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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC
Strengths of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in industry
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC is one of the most innovative firm in sector.
Strong track record of project management in the industry
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC in the sector have low bargaining power. Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
Skills based hiring in industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC is just above the 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.
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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners in industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC, in the dynamic environment of industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the industry, but Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC to focus more on services in the industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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, Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC can utilize new technology in the field of industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC in the industry. Now Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in industry. This can help Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC to build a more holistic ecosystem for Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC products in the industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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. Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
Threats Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC are -
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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC in the 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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC.
Environmental challenges
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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. Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC is facing in sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC
– 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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC prominent markets.
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. Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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.
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. Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC needs to understand the core reasons impacting the industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC 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 Merrill Lynch Depositor Inc IC needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
