SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Prudential Pennsylvania (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Prudential Pennsylvania is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Prudential Pennsylvania
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Prudential Pennsylvania can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Prudential Pennsylvania, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Prudential Pennsylvania 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 Prudential Pennsylvania can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Prudential Pennsylvania
2. Improving business portfolio management of Prudential Pennsylvania
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 Prudential Pennsylvania
Strengths of Prudential Pennsylvania | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Prudential Pennsylvania are -
High brand equity
– Prudential Pennsylvania has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Prudential Pennsylvania to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Prudential Pennsylvania has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Prudential Pennsylvania 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 Prudential Pennsylvania have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Prudential Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Prudential Pennsylvania emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Prudential Pennsylvania in the Financial sector have low bargaining power. Prudential Pennsylvania has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Prudential Pennsylvania to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Regional Banks industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Prudential Pennsylvania digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Training and development
– Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Analytics focus
– Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Prudential Pennsylvania has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Prudential Pennsylvania staying ahead in the Regional Banks industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Regional Banks industry
– Prudential Pennsylvania has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Prudential Pennsylvania to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Regional Banks industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Prudential Pennsylvania to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Prudential Pennsylvania comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Regional Banks 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.
Weaknesses of Prudential Pennsylvania | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Prudential Pennsylvania are -
High bargaining power of channel partners in Regional Banks industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Prudential Pennsylvania is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Regional Banks industry, but Prudential Pennsylvania needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Prudential Pennsylvania to focus more on services in the Regional Banks industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Regional Banks industry, Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Prudential Pennsylvania 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. Prudential Pennsylvania should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring in Regional Banks industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Prudential Pennsylvania is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Prudential Pennsylvania to provide better information regarding Regional Banks products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Prudential Pennsylvania, 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Prudential Pennsylvania has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Regional Banks industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Prudential Pennsylvania 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 Prudential Pennsylvania can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Prudential Pennsylvania is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Prudential Pennsylvania 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 Regional Banks industry using digital technology.
Prudential Pennsylvania Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Prudential Pennsylvania are -
Loyalty marketing
– Prudential Pennsylvania 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 Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Prudential Pennsylvania can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Regional Banks 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Prudential Pennsylvania can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Regional Banks 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Prudential Pennsylvania can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Prudential Pennsylvania 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 Prudential Pennsylvania to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Prudential Pennsylvania to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Prudential Pennsylvania can develop new processes and procedures in Regional Banks 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.
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 Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Prudential Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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 Regional Banks industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Prudential Pennsylvania can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Prudential Pennsylvania in the Regional Banks industry. Now Prudential Pennsylvania can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Prudential Pennsylvania External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Prudential Pennsylvania 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 Prudential Pennsylvania prominent markets.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Regional Banks industry are lowering. It can presents Prudential Pennsylvania with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Regional Banks sector.
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 Pennsylvania business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Prudential Pennsylvania has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Regional Banks industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Prudential Pennsylvania 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.
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. Prudential Pennsylvania 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
– Prudential Pennsylvania 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 Prudential Pennsylvania in the Regional Banks sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Prudential Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Regional Banks industry.
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. Prudential Pennsylvania needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Regional Banks industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Prudential Pennsylvania Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Prudential Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
