Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal (NAD) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Misc. Financial Services
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal
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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal
Strengths of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Misc. Financial Services 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal is one of the most innovative firm in Misc. Financial Services sector.
Ability to lead change in Misc. Financial Services
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal in the Financial sector have low bargaining power. Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal is present in almost all the verticals within the Misc. Financial Services industry. This has provided Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Misc. Financial Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Misc. Financial Services industry
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Misc. Financial Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal are -
Skills based hiring in Misc. Financial Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal, in the dynamic environment of Misc. Financial Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal is one of the leading players in the Misc. Financial Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Misc. Financial Services industry in last five years.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal has some of the most successful models in the Misc. Financial Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal has high operating costs in the Misc. Financial Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal to provide better information regarding Misc. Financial Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal are -
Manufacturing automation
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Misc. Financial Services 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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. Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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, Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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.
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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal in the Misc. Financial Services industry. Now Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal to increase its market reach. Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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.
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. Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Misc. Financial Services 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Misc. Financial Services industry.
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. Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal are -
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 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Misc. Financial Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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.
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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal.
Environmental challenges
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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. Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Misc. Financial Services industry.
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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal in the Misc. Financial Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Misc. Financial Services industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Misc. Financial Services industry and other sectors.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal prominent markets.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Misc. Financial Services industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal 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 Nuveen Dividend Advantage Municipal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.