US Financial 15 Split (FTU) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Misc. Financial Services
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for US Financial 15 Split (Canada)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , US Financial 15 Split is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of US Financial 15 Split
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that US Financial 15 Split can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the US Financial 15 Split, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which US Financial 15 Split 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 US Financial 15 Split can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of US Financial 15 Split
2. Improving business portfolio management of US Financial 15 Split
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Canada
4. Making a Misc. Financial Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of US Financial 15 Split
Strengths of US Financial 15 Split | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of US Financial 15 Split are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that US Financial 15 Split 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.
Organizational Resilience of US Financial 15 Split
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing US Financial 15 Split does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of US Financial 15 Split 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.
Innovation driven organization
– US Financial 15 Split is one of the most innovative firm in Misc. Financial Services sector.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of US Financial 15 Split in Misc. Financial Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Misc. Financial Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For US Financial 15 Split digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. US Financial 15 Split 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.
Learning organization
- US Financial 15 Split 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 US Financial 15 Split is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at US Financial 15 Split emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– US Financial 15 Split has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled US Financial 15 Split to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– US Financial 15 Split 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– US Financial 15 Split has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – US Financial 15 Split 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the US Financial 15 Split 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– US Financial 15 Split 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 US Financial 15 Split have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses of US Financial 15 Split | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of US Financial 15 Split are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, US Financial 15 Split 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. US Financial 15 Split 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.
High dependence on US Financial 15 Split ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of US Financial 15 Split 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 US Financial 15 Split has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– US Financial 15 Split 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at US Financial 15 Split, in the dynamic environment of Misc. Financial Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. US Financial 15 Split has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As US Financial 15 Split 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Canada, US Financial 15 Split needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that US Financial 15 Split 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 US Financial 15 Split can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as US Financial 15 Split is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, US Financial 15 Split is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help US Financial 15 Split 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of US Financial 15 Split is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Misc. Financial Services industry, but US Financial 15 Split needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help US Financial 15 Split to focus more on services in the Misc. Financial Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though US Financial 15 Split 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. US Financial 15 Split should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of US Financial 15 Split, 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.
US Financial 15 Split Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of US Financial 15 Split are -
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. US Financial 15 Split 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. US Financial 15 Split 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
– US Financial 15 Split 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, US Financial 15 Split 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.
Manufacturing automation
– US Financial 15 Split 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.
Buying journey improvements
– US Financial 15 Split can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Misc. Financial Services 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at US Financial 15 Split 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, US Financial 15 Split 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 US Financial 15 Split to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– US Financial 15 Split 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 US Financial 15 Split to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help US Financial 15 Split to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of US Financial 15 Split has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Misc. Financial Services industry. This can help US Financial 15 Split to build a more holistic ecosystem for US Financial 15 Split products in the Misc. Financial Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. US Financial 15 Split can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– US Financial 15 Split can develop new processes and procedures in Misc. Financial Services 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, US Financial 15 Split can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that US Financial 15 Split operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Misc. Financial Services sector.
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 US Financial 15 Split in the Misc. Financial Services industry. Now US Financial 15 Split can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats US Financial 15 Split External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of US Financial 15 Split are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– US Financial 15 Split high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, US Financial 15 Split 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 US Financial 15 Split prominent markets.
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 US Financial 15 Split business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– US Financial 15 Split has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Misc. Financial Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, US Financial 15 Split needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Misc. Financial Services sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that US Financial 15 Split is facing in Misc. Financial Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of US Financial 15 Split
– 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 US Financial 15 Split.
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. US Financial 15 Split needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Misc. Financial Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for US Financial 15 Split 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.
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. US Financial 15 Split can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. US Financial 15 Split 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.
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 US Financial 15 Split.
Consumer confidence and its impact on US Financial 15 Split 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, US Financial 15 Split 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of US Financial 15 Split Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at US Financial 15 Split 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 US Financial 15 Split 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 US Financial 15 Split 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 US Financial 15 Split 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 US Financial 15 Split needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.