Simmons First National Corporation SWOT Analysis / Matrix

Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can be used by Simmons First National Corporation managers to do a situational analysis of the company . It is a handy technique to evalauate the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Simmons First National Corporation is facing in its current business environment.

The Simmons First National Corporation is one of the leading organizatations in its industry. Simmons First National Corporation maintains its prominent position in market by carefully analyzing and reviewing the SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis a highly interactive process and requires effective coordination among various departments within the company such as – marketing, finance, operations, management information systems and strategic planning.

Order Now - Simmons First National Corporation SWOT Analysis
Check out- Simmons First National Corporation PESTEL / PEST & Environment Analysis
Article continues after advertisement

The SWOT Analysis framework enables an organization to identify the internal strategic factors such as -strengths and weaknesses, & external strategic factors such as - opportunities and threats. It leads to a 2X2 matrix – also known as SWOT Matrix.

The Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis / Matrix helps the managers of the Simmons First National Corporation to develop four types of strategies:

SO (strengths-opportunities) Strategies
WO (weaknesses-opportunities) Strategies
ST (strengths-threats) Strategies
WT (weaknesses-threats) Strategies

Simmons First National Corporation swot analysis / matrix

SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective

The central purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that a firm can utilize to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Simmons First National Corporation strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Simmons First National Corporation SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Simmons First National Corporation – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading firms in its industry, Simmons First National Corporation has numerous strengths that help it to thrive in the market place. These strengths not only help it to protect the market share in existing markets but also help in penetrating new markets. Based on Fern Fort University extensive research – some of the strengths of Simmons First National Corporation are –

Read - Simmons First National Corporation Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
Article continues after advertisement

Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Simmons First National Corporation has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Simmons First National Corporation just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
Good Returns on Capital Expenditure – Simmons First National Corporation is relatively successful at execution of new projects and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new revenue streams.
High level of customer satisfaction – the company with its dedicated customer relationship management department has able to achieve a high level of customer satisfaction among present customers and good brand equity among the potential customers.
Superb Performance in New Markets – Simmons First National Corporation has built expertise at entering new markets and making success of them. The expansion has helped the organization to build new revenue stream and diversify the economic cycle risk in the markets it operates in.
Strong Free Cash Flow – Simmons First National Corporation has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Simmons First National Corporation products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
Strong distribution network – Over the years Simmons First National Corporation has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.

Weakness of Simmons First National Corporation – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Simmons First National Corporation can improve upon. Strategy is about making choices and weakness are the areas where a firm can improve using SWOT analysis and build on its competitive advantage and strategic positioning.

Article continues after advertisement

The company has not being able to tackle the challenges present by the new entrants in the segment and has lost small market share in the niche categories. Simmons First National Corporation has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
There are gaps in the product range sold by the company. This lack of choice can give a new competitor a foothold in the market.
High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry Simmons First National Corporation has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
Limited success outside core business – Even though Simmons First National Corporation is one of the leading organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product segments with its present culture.
Days inventory is high compare to the competitors – making the company raise more capital to invest in the channel. This can impact the long term growth of Simmons First National Corporation
Need more investment in new technologies. Given the scale of expansion and different geographies the company is planning to expand into, Simmons First National Corporation needs to put more money in technology to integrate the processes across the board. Right now the investment in technologies is not at par with the vision of the company.
The marketing of the products left a lot to be desired. Even though the product is a success in terms of sale but its positioning and unique selling proposition is not clearly defined which can lead to the attacks in this segment from the competitors.

Opportunities for Simmons First National Corporation – External Strategic Factors

Article continues after advertisement

Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Simmons First National Corporation.
Organization’s core competencies can be a success in similar other products field. A comparative example could be - GE healthcare research helped it in developing better Oil drilling machines.
New customers from online channel – Over the past few years the company has invested vast sum of money into the online platform. This investment has opened new sales channel for Simmons First National Corporation. In the next few years the company can leverage this opportunity by knowing its customer better and serving their needs using big data analytics.
The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Simmons First National Corporation to increase its profitability.
Stable free cash flow provides opportunities to invest in adjacent product segments. With more cash in bank the company can invest in new technologies as well as in new products segments. This should open a window of opportunity for Simmons First National Corporation in other product categories.
The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable Simmons First National Corporation to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
New environmental policies – The new opportunities will create a level playing field for all the players in the industry. It represent a great opportunity for Simmons First National Corporation to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Simmons First National Corporation . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.

Threats Simmons First National Corporation Facing - External Strategic Factors

Intense competition – Stable profitability has increased the number of players in the industry over last two years which has put downward pressure on not only profitability but also on overall sales.
New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
Changing consumer buying behavior from online channel could be a threat to the existing physical infrastructure driven supply chain model.
Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and increasing prices in the China can lead to serious pressure on profitability of Simmons First National Corporation
No regular supply of innovative products – Over the years the company has developed numerous products but those are often response to the development by other players. Secondly the supply of new products is not regular thus leading to high and low swings in the sales number over period of time.
Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Simmons First National Corporation in those markets.
Rising raw material can pose a threat to the Simmons First National Corporation profitability.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Simmons First National Corporation

Although the SWOT analysis is widely used as a strategic planning tool, the analysis does have its share of limitations.

Certain capabilities or factors of an organization can be both a strength and weakness at the same time. This is one of the major limitations of SWOT analysis . For example changing environmental regulations can be both a threat to company it can also be an opportunity in a sense that it will enable the company to be on a level playing field or at advantage to competitors if it able to develop the products faster than the competitors.
SWOT does not show how to achieve a competitive advantage, so it must not be an end in itself.
The matrix is only a starting point for a discussion on how proposed strategies could be implemented. It provided an evaluation window but not an implementation plan based on strategic competitiveness of Simmons First National Corporation
SWOT is a static assessment - analysis of status quo with few prospective changes. As circumstances, capabilities, threats, and strategies change, the dynamics of a competitive environment may not be revealed in a single matrix.
SWOT analysis may lead the firm to overemphasize a single internal or external factor in formulating strategies. There are interrelationships among the key internal and external factors that SWOT does not reveal that may be important in devising strategies.

Article continues after advertisement

Weighted SWOT Analysis of Simmons First National Corporation

In light of the above mentioned limitations of the SWOT analysis / matrix, corporate managers decided to provide weightage to each internal strength and weakness of the firm. Organizations also assess the likelihood of events taking place in the coming future and how strong their impact could be on company's performance.

This method is called Weighted SWOT analysis. It is better than doing simplistic SWOT analysis because with Weighted SWOT Analysis Simmons First National Corporation managers can focus on the most critical factors and discount the non-important one. It also solves the long list problem where organizations ends up making a long list but none of the factors deemed too critical.

Limitation of Weighted SWOT analysis of Simmons First National Corporation

This approach also suffers from one major drawback - it focus on individual importance of factor rather than how they are collectively important and impact the business holistically.

Buy Custom Essay and Term Paper on SWOT Analysis / Matrix , Weighted SWOT Analysis of Simmons First National Corporation

Example of Weighted SWOT Analysis

You can email us to get an example document of Weighted SWOT analysis.

SWOT Worksheet & Template

If you like to do your own SWOT analysis or want to make your own Weighted SWOT SWOT matrix then feel free to download Fern Fort University SWOT Analysis Template.

References / Citations & Bibliography

M. E. Porter, Competitive Strategy(New York: Free Press, 1980)
A. D. Chandler, Strategy and Structure (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1962)
O. E. Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies(New York: Free Press, 1975);
L. Wrigley, Divisional Autonomy and Diversification (PhD, Harvard Business School, 1970)
R. E. White, Generic Business Strategies, Organizational Context and Performance: An Empirical Investigation, Strategic Management Journal7 (1986)