Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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 Financial Inc ELKS 1 can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1
2. Improving business portfolio management of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1
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 Financial Inc ELKS 1
Strengths of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 are -
Ability to lead change in
– Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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 Financial Inc ELKS 1 in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Strong track record of project management in the industry
– Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 has one of the best training and development program in 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in industry
– Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 in the sector have low bargaining power. Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 are -
High bargaining power of channel partners in industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the industry, Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
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 Financial Inc ELKS 1 supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring in industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1, in the dynamic environment of industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 has some of the most successful models in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 to increase its market reach. Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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. Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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 Financial Inc ELKS 1 to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Financial Inc ELKS 1 can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in sector.
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 Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
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. Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Threats Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Environmental challenges
– Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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 Financial Inc ELKS 1 can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the industry.
Increasing wage structure of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1
– 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 Financial Inc ELKS 1.
Regulatory challenges
– Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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 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 Financial Inc ELKS 1 in the sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 in industry. The industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to industry are lowering. It can presents Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
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 Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
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 Financial Inc ELKS 1 needs to understand the core reasons impacting the industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Prudential Financial Inc ELKS 1 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 Financial Inc ELKS 1 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 Financial Inc ELKS 1 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 Financial Inc ELKS 1 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 Financial Inc ELKS 1 needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.