SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR (STI_pa) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization,
increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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 SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR
2. Improving business portfolio management of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR
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 SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR
Strengths of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in industry
– SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the industry. The sustainable margins have also helped SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR in the sector have low bargaining power. SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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 SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in
– SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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 SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR is one of the leading players in the industry in United States. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in United States. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the 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.
Strong track record of project management in the industry
– SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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.
Weaknesses of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR, in the dynamic environment of industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the industry, but SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR to focus more on services in the industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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 industry using digital technology.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR is just above the industry average. It needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High dependence on SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the industry, SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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 bargaining power of channel partners in industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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.
SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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 industry.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR to increase its market reach. SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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.
Loyalty marketing
– SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in industry. This can help SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR to build a more holistic ecosystem for SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR products in the industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR in the industry. Now SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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. SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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
– SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR can utilize new technology in the field of industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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 SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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.
Threats SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR are -
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 SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the industry.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to industry are lowering. It can presents SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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 SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR prominent markets.
Consumer confidence and its impact on SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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.
Increasing wage structure of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR
– 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 SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR.
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. SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR is facing in sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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. SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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 SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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 SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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 SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR 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 SunTrust Banks Inc Pa ADR needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.