Community Financial Corp (TCFC) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Community Financial Corp (United States)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Community Financial Corp is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Community Financial Corp

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Community Financial Corp can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Community Financial Corp, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Community Financial Corp 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Community Financial Corp can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Community Financial Corp
2. Improving business portfolio management of Community Financial Corp
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Regional Banks sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Community Financial Corp

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Strengths of Community Financial Corp | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Community Financial Corp are -

Innovation driven organization

– Community Financial Corp is one of the most innovative firm in Regional Banks sector.

Digital Transformation in Regional Banks industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Community Financial Corp digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Community Financial Corp has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Community Financial Corp has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Regional Banks industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Community Financial Corp have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Analytics focus

– Community Financial Corp 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 Regional Banks 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Community Financial Corp in the Financial sector have low bargaining power. Community Financial Corp has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Community Financial Corp to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Community Financial Corp in Regional Banks industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Organizational Resilience of Community Financial Corp

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Community Financial Corp does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Community Financial Corp has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Community Financial Corp 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Regional Banks industry

– Community Financial Corp has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Community Financial Corp to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Regional Banks industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Community Financial Corp to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Ability to lead change in Regional Banks

– Community Financial Corp is one of the leading players in the Regional Banks industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Regional Banks industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Community Financial Corp in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

High brand equity

– Community Financial Corp has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Community Financial Corp to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Learning organization

- Community Financial Corp 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 Community Financial Corp is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Community Financial Corp emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

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Weaknesses of Community Financial Corp | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Community Financial Corp are -

Employees’ less understanding of Community Financial Corp strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Community Financial Corp don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Community Financial Corp has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Regional Banks industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Community Financial Corp needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Regional Banks industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Community Financial Corp can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Community Financial Corp is planning to shift buying processes online.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Community Financial Corp is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Regional Banks industry, but Community Financial Corp needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Community Financial Corp to focus more on services in the Regional Banks industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, Community Financial Corp has high operating costs in the Regional Banks industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Community Financial Corp lucrative customers.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Regional Banks industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Community Financial Corp 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 Regional Banks industry.

Skills based hiring in Regional Banks industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Community Financial Corp 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 dependence on existing supply chain

– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Community Financial Corp supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Community Financial Corp is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Community Financial Corp vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Need for greater diversity

– Community Financial Corp 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.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Community Financial Corp is one of the leading players in the Regional Banks industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Regional Banks industry in last five years.

Lack of clear differentiation of Community Financial Corp products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Community Financial Corp needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

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Community Financial Corp Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Community Financial Corp are -

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Community Financial Corp 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 Community Financial Corp to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Community Financial Corp can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Community Financial Corp 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Community Financial Corp has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Regional Banks sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Community Financial Corp to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Community Financial Corp to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Community Financial Corp in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Regional Banks industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Regional Banks industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Community Financial Corp 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. Community Financial Corp 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Community Financial Corp to increase its market reach. Community Financial Corp 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Community Financial Corp can develop new processes and procedures in Regional Banks 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.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Regional Banks industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Community Financial Corp in the Regional Banks industry. Now Community Financial Corp can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Community Financial Corp has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Regional Banks industry. This can help Community Financial Corp to build a more holistic ecosystem for Community Financial Corp products in the Regional Banks industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Community Financial Corp 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Community Financial Corp 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Community Financial Corp is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Community Financial Corp can utilize new technology in the field of Regional Banks industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

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Threats Community Financial Corp External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Community Financial Corp are -

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Community Financial Corp in Regional Banks industry. The Regional Banks 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.

Regulatory challenges

– Community Financial Corp 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 Regional Banks industry regulations.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Community Financial Corp 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 Regional Banks 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 Regional Banks industry are lowering. It can presents Community Financial Corp with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Regional Banks sector.

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 Community Financial Corp business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Community Financial Corp may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Regional Banks sector.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Community Financial Corp has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Regional Banks industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Community Financial Corp needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Regional Banks 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.

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. Community Financial Corp needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Regional Banks industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

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. Community Financial Corp will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Community Financial Corp 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.

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.

Increasing wage structure of Community Financial Corp

– 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 Community Financial Corp.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Community Financial Corp Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Community Financial Corp 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 Community Financial Corp 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 Community Financial Corp 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 Community Financial Corp 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 Community Financial Corp needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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