SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Muench. Rueckvers. (Germany)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Muench. Rueckvers. is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Muench. Rueckvers.
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Muench. Rueckvers. can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Muench. Rueckvers., and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Muench. Rueckvers. 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 Muench. Rueckvers. can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Muench. Rueckvers.
2. Improving business portfolio management of Muench. Rueckvers.
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Germany
4. Making a Insurance (Life) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Muench. Rueckvers.
Strengths of Muench. Rueckvers. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Muench. Rueckvers. are -
High brand equity
– Muench. Rueckvers. has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Muench. Rueckvers. to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Insurance (Life) industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Muench. Rueckvers. digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Muench. Rueckvers. 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Insurance (Life) industry
– Muench. Rueckvers. is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Muench. Rueckvers. 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.
Analytics focus
– Muench. Rueckvers. 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 Insurance (Life) industry. The technology infrastructure of Germany 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Muench. Rueckvers. is one of the most innovative firm in Insurance (Life) sector.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Muench. Rueckvers. in the Financial sector have low bargaining power. Muench. Rueckvers. has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Muench. Rueckvers. to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Muench. Rueckvers. 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.
Learning organization
- Muench. Rueckvers. 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 Muench. Rueckvers. is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Muench. Rueckvers. emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Muench. Rueckvers. comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Insurance (Life) 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Muench. Rueckvers. has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Insurance (Life) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Muench. Rueckvers. have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Muench. Rueckvers. has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Muench. Rueckvers. 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.
Weaknesses of Muench. Rueckvers. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Muench. Rueckvers. are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Muench. Rueckvers. needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Insurance (Life) industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Muench. Rueckvers. can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Muench. Rueckvers. is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on Muench. Rueckvers. ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Muench. Rueckvers. still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Insurance (Life) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Muench. Rueckvers. has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Muench. Rueckvers. has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Insurance (Life) industry over the last five years. Muench. Rueckvers. 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Muench. Rueckvers. is one of the leading players in the Insurance (Life) industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Insurance (Life) industry in last five years.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Muench. Rueckvers. has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Insurance (Life) industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Germany, Muench. Rueckvers. 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 Insurance (Life) industry.
Employees’ less understanding of Muench. Rueckvers. strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Muench. Rueckvers. 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Muench. Rueckvers. has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High dependence on 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 Muench. Rueckvers. supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Muench. Rueckvers. is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Muench. Rueckvers. vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Insurance (Life) industry, Muench. Rueckvers. 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Muench. Rueckvers. has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Insurance (Life) industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Muench. Rueckvers. Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Muench. Rueckvers. are -
Loyalty marketing
– Muench. Rueckvers. 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Muench. Rueckvers. in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Insurance (Life) industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Insurance (Life) industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Muench. Rueckvers. can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Muench. Rueckvers. 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
– Muench. Rueckvers. 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Muench. Rueckvers. can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Insurance (Life) 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Muench. Rueckvers. has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Insurance (Life) sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Muench. Rueckvers. to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Muench. Rueckvers. 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 Muench. Rueckvers. has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Insurance (Life) industry. This can help Muench. Rueckvers. to build a more holistic ecosystem for Muench. Rueckvers. products in the Insurance (Life) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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, Muench. Rueckvers. can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Muench. Rueckvers. operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Insurance (Life) sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Insurance (Life) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Muench. Rueckvers. 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. Muench. Rueckvers. 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Muench. Rueckvers. 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 Muench. Rueckvers. 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Muench. Rueckvers. 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 Muench. Rueckvers. to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Muench. Rueckvers. External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Muench. Rueckvers. are -
Regulatory challenges
– Muench. Rueckvers. 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 Insurance (Life) industry regulations.
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.
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. Muench. Rueckvers. needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Insurance (Life) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Muench. Rueckvers. 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 Insurance (Life) industry.
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 Muench. Rueckvers..
Consumer confidence and its impact on Muench. Rueckvers. 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 Insurance (Life) industry and other sectors.
Increasing wage structure of Muench. Rueckvers.
– 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 Muench. Rueckvers..
Environmental challenges
– Muench. Rueckvers. 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. Muench. Rueckvers. can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Insurance (Life) industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Muench. Rueckvers. has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Insurance (Life) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Muench. Rueckvers. needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Insurance (Life) 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Muench. Rueckvers. 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Muench. Rueckvers. is facing in Insurance (Life) sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Muench. Rueckvers. in the Insurance (Life) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Insurance (Life) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Muench. Rueckvers. can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Muench. Rueckvers. Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Muench. Rueckvers. 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 Muench. Rueckvers. 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 Muench. Rueckvers. 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 Muench. Rueckvers. 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 Muench. Rueckvers. needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
