Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome
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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome
Strengths of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome in the Financial sector have low bargaining power. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Learning organization
- Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Misc. Financial Services industry
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Misc. Financial Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome in Misc. Financial Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome is present in almost all the verticals within the Misc. Financial Services industry. This has provided Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome staying ahead in the Misc. Financial Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome are -
High dependence on Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Misc. Financial Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Misc. Financial Services industry over the last five years. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome, in the dynamic environment of Misc. Financial Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 Misc. Financial Services industry using digital technology.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Misc. Financial Services industry, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Skills based hiring in Misc. Financial Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Misc. Financial Services industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 Misc. Financial Services industry.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome are -
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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome in the Misc. Financial Services industry. Now Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Misc. Financial Services industry. This can help Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome to build a more holistic ecosystem for Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome products in the Misc. Financial Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
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. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome to increase its market reach. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Misc. Financial Services sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
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. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Misc. Financial Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
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. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Misc. Financial Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome in the Misc. Financial Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome is facing in Misc. Financial Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Misc. Financial Services industry are lowering. It can presents Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Misc. Financial Services sector.
Environmental challenges
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Misc. Financial Services industry.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
