Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, 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 -
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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Training and development
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Innovation driven organization
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome is one of the most innovative firm in Misc. Financial Services sector.
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.
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.
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 -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Misc. Financial Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome is planning to shift buying processes online.
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.
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.
Need for greater diversity
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome has some of the most successful models in the Misc. Financial Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Misc. Financial Services industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Misc. Financial Services 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.
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 -
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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Misc. Financial Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Misc. Financial Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Misc. Financial Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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.
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.
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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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.
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.
Manufacturing automation
– Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Misc. Financial Services sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome 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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome prominent markets.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Misc. Financial Services sector.
Increasing wage structure of Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome
– 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 Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferredome.
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.