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Morgan Stanley (MWD) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Morgan Stanley (Germany)


Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Morgan Stanley is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Morgan Stanley


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Morgan Stanley can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Morgan Stanley, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Morgan Stanley 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 Morgan Stanley can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Morgan Stanley
2. Improving business portfolio management of Morgan Stanley
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Germany
4. Making a Investment Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Morgan Stanley




Strengths of Morgan Stanley | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Morgan Stanley are -

Organizational Resilience of Morgan Stanley

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

High brand equity

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

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Morgan Stanley 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Morgan Stanley is present in almost all the verticals within the Investment Services industry. This has provided Morgan Stanley 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 lead change in Investment Services

– Morgan Stanley is one of the leading players in the Investment Services industry in Germany. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Investment Services industry in Germany but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Morgan Stanley in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Successful track record of launching new products

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

Strong track record of project management in the Investment Services industry

– Morgan Stanley is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Morgan Stanley has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Morgan Stanley staying ahead in the Investment Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Digital Transformation in Investment Services industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Morgan Stanley digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Morgan Stanley 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

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

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Investment Services industry

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

Low bargaining power of suppliers

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



02468ASML Holding Qualcomm Goldman Sachs Bayer Biogen Inc Morgan Stanley
Net Promoter Score



Weaknesses of Morgan Stanley | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Morgan Stanley are -

Aligning sales with marketing

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

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Morgan Stanley has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Investment Services industry over the last five years. Morgan Stanley 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Morgan Stanley 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 Investment Services industry using digital technology.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Morgan Stanley is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Morgan Stanley to provide better information regarding Investment Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Morgan Stanley, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Investment 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Morgan Stanley is just above the Investment Services 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.

Skills based hiring in Investment Services industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Morgan Stanley 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Investment Services industry, Morgan Stanley 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 dependence on Morgan Stanley ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Morgan Stanley still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Investment Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Morgan Stanley has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Investment Services industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in Germany, Morgan Stanley 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 Investment Services industry.

Lack of clear differentiation of Morgan Stanley products

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




Morgan Stanley Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities of Morgan Stanley are -

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Morgan Stanley in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Investment Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Manufacturing automation

– Morgan Stanley can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Investment 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

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

Using analytics as competitive advantage

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

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Investment Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Morgan Stanley 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. Morgan Stanley 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Morgan Stanley can develop new processes and procedures in Investment 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, Morgan Stanley can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Morgan Stanley operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Investment Services sector.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Morgan Stanley to increase its market reach. Morgan Stanley 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Morgan Stanley 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 Investment Services industry.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Morgan Stanley 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Morgan Stanley 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

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

Buying journey improvements

– Morgan Stanley can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Investment 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.




Threats Morgan Stanley External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats of Morgan Stanley are -

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.

Learning curve for new practices

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

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Investment Services industry are lowering. It can presents Morgan Stanley with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Investment Services sector.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Morgan Stanley 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 Investment Services industry.

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. Morgan Stanley 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Morgan Stanley is facing in Investment Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Morgan Stanley 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.

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 Morgan Stanley in the Investment 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 Morgan Stanley.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Morgan Stanley 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 Morgan Stanley prominent markets.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Morgan Stanley in Investment Services industry. The Investment 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Morgan Stanley 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 Investment Services industry and other sectors.

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 Morgan Stanley business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Morgan Stanley Template, Example


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



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