Prudential Short Duration HY Closed (ISD) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Prudential Short Duration HY Closed (United States)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Prudential Short Duration HY Closed is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Prudential Short Duration HY Closed can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Prudential Short Duration HY Closed, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed
2. Improving business portfolio management of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed
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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed

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Strengths of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed are -

High brand equity

– Prudential Short Duration HY Closed has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Prudential Short Duration HY Closed to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Analytics focus

– Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Strong track record of project management in the industry

– Prudential Short Duration HY Closed is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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 lead change in

– Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Learning organization

- Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Prudential Short Duration HY Closed emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Prudential Short Duration HY Closed has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Prudential Short Duration HY Closed staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed in the sector have low bargaining power. Prudential Short Duration HY Closed has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Prudential Short Duration HY Closed to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Digital Transformation in industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Prudential Short Duration HY Closed digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

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Weaknesses of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed are -

Employees’ less understanding of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of United States, Prudential Short Duration HY Closed needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Skills based hiring in industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Prudential Short Duration HY Closed needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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. Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the industry, Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Prudential Short Duration HY Closed is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Prudential Short Duration HY Closed vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

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Prudential Short Duration HY Closed Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed are -

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Prudential Short Duration HY Closed is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Prudential Short Duration HY Closed to increase its market reach. Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed in the industry. Now Prudential Short Duration HY Closed can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

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. Prudential Short Duration HY Closed can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Prudential Short Duration HY Closed can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Prudential Short Duration HY Closed can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Prudential Short Duration HY Closed operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in sector.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Prudential Short Duration HY Closed to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Buying journey improvements

– Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

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Threats Prudential Short Duration HY Closed External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed are -

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.

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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed in the sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Instability in the European markets

– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Prudential Short Duration HY Closed will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.

Increasing wage structure of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed

– 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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed.

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.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Prudential Short Duration HY Closed has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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.

Environmental challenges

– Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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. Prudential Short Duration HY Closed can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the industry.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to industry are lowering. It can presents Prudential Short Duration HY Closed with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Prudential Short Duration HY Closed Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed 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 Prudential Short Duration HY Closed needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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