Ohio Valley Banc (OVBC) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Ohio Valley Banc (United States)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Ohio Valley Banc is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ohio Valley Banc

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Ohio Valley Banc can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ohio Valley Banc, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ohio Valley Banc 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 Ohio Valley Banc can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Ohio Valley Banc
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ohio Valley Banc
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Regional Banks sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ohio Valley Banc

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Strengths of Ohio Valley Banc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Ohio Valley Banc are -

Low bargaining power of suppliers

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

Ability to recruit top talent

– Ohio Valley Banc is one of the leading players in the Regional Banks 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.

Training and development

– Ohio Valley Banc 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.

Analytics focus

– Ohio Valley Banc 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 Regional Banks 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.

High brand equity

– Ohio Valley Banc has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ohio Valley Banc to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Learning organization

- Ohio Valley Banc 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 Ohio Valley Banc is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Ohio Valley Banc emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Ohio Valley Banc has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Regional Banks industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Ohio Valley Banc have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Digital Transformation in Regional Banks industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ohio Valley Banc digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ohio Valley Banc 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Ohio Valley Banc is one of the most innovative firm in Regional Banks sector.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Ohio Valley Banc 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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Ohio Valley Banc in Regional Banks industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Organizational Resilience of Ohio Valley Banc

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Ohio Valley Banc does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

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Weaknesses of Ohio Valley Banc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Ohio Valley Banc are -

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of United States, Ohio Valley Banc needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Regional Banks industry, Ohio Valley Banc 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.

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Ohio Valley Banc, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Regional Banks industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Ohio Valley Banc needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Regional Banks industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Ohio Valley Banc can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ohio Valley Banc is planning to shift buying processes online.

High dependence on Ohio Valley Banc ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Ohio Valley Banc still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Regional Banks industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Ohio Valley Banc has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at Ohio Valley Banc, in the dynamic environment of Regional Banks industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ohio Valley Banc 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 Ohio Valley Banc is one of the leading players in the Regional Banks industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Regional Banks industry in last five years.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, Ohio Valley Banc has high operating costs in the Regional Banks industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Ohio Valley Banc lucrative customers.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Ohio Valley Banc has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Regional Banks industry over the last five years. Ohio Valley Banc 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Ohio Valley Banc has some of the most successful models in the Regional Banks industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Ohio Valley Banc should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Regional Banks industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Ohio Valley Banc 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 Regional Banks industry.

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Ohio Valley Banc Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Ohio Valley Banc are -

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Ohio Valley Banc has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Regional Banks sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Ohio Valley Banc to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ohio Valley Banc to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ohio Valley Banc to increase its market reach. Ohio Valley Banc 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

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

Loyalty marketing

– Ohio Valley Banc 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.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Regional Banks industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Ohio Valley Banc in the Regional Banks industry. Now Ohio Valley Banc can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ohio Valley Banc 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Ohio Valley Banc 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ohio Valley Banc is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ohio Valley Banc can utilize new technology in the field of Regional Banks industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Ohio Valley Banc 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 Regional Banks industry.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ohio Valley Banc in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Regional Banks industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Regional Banks industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Ohio Valley Banc 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. Ohio Valley Banc 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ohio Valley Banc can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ohio Valley Banc operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Regional Banks sector.

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Threats Ohio Valley Banc External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Ohio Valley Banc are -

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Regional Banks industry are lowering. It can presents Ohio Valley Banc with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Regional Banks sector.

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. Ohio Valley Banc needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Regional Banks industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Increasing wage structure of Ohio Valley Banc

– 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 Ohio Valley Banc.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Ohio Valley Banc has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Regional Banks industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ohio Valley Banc needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Regional Banks 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.

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.

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 Ohio Valley Banc.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Regional Banks industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Ohio Valley Banc can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Regulatory challenges

– Ohio Valley Banc 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 Regional Banks industry regulations.

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 Ohio Valley Banc in the Regional Banks sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Ohio Valley Banc 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 Regional Banks industry.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Ohio Valley Banc may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Regional Banks sector.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Ohio Valley Banc 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 Regional Banks industry and other sectors.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ohio Valley Banc Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Ohio Valley Banc 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 Ohio Valley Banc 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 Ohio Valley Banc 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 Ohio Valley Banc 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 Ohio Valley Banc needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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