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Midland States Bancorp, Inc. SWOT Analysis / Matrix
Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers
SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can be used by Midland States Bancorp, Inc. managers to do a situational analysis of the firm . It is an important technique to evalauate the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Midland States Bancorp, Inc. is facing in its current business environment.
The Midland States Bancorp, Inc. is one of the leading companies in its industry. Midland States Bancorp, Inc. maintains its prominent position in market by critically analyzing and reviewing the SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis an immensenly interactive process and requires effective coordination among various departments within the organization such as – marketing, finance, operations, management information systems and strategic planning.
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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 enables the managers of the Midland States Bancorp, Inc. to develop four types of strategies:
- SO (strengths-opportunities) Strategies
- WO (weaknesses-opportunities) Strategies
- ST (strengths-threats) Strategies
- WT (weaknesses-threats) Strategies
SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective
The central purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that an organization can utilize to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Midland States Bancorp, Inc. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.
Step by Step Guide to Midland States Bancorp, Inc. SWOT Analysis
Strengths of Midland States Bancorp, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors
As one of the leading organizations in its industry, Midland States Bancorp, Inc. 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 Midland States Bancorp, Inc. are –
Read - Midland States Bancorp, Inc. Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
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- Superb Performance in New Markets – Midland States Bancorp, Inc. 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.
- 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.
- Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
- Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.
- Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
- Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Midland States Bancorp, Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Midland States Bancorp, Inc. 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 – Midland States Bancorp, Inc. is relatively successful at execution of new projects and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new revenue streams.
- Strong Free Cash Flow – Midland States Bancorp, Inc. has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
Weakness of Midland States Bancorp, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors
Weakness are the areas where Midland States Bancorp, Inc. 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.
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- Financial planning is not done properly and efficiently. The current asset ratio and liquid asset ratios suggest that the company can use the cash more efficiently than what it is doing at present.
- 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.
- 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. Midland States Bancorp, Inc. has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
- Need more investment in new technologies. Given the scale of expansion and different geographies the company is planning to expand into, Midland States Bancorp, Inc. 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.
- Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though Midland States Bancorp, Inc. is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.
- High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry Midland States Bancorp, Inc. has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
- Not very good at product demand forecasting leading to higher rate of missed opportunities compare to its competitors. One of the reason why the days inventory is high compare to its competitors is that Midland States Bancorp, Inc. is not very good at demand forecasting thus end up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in channel.
Opportunities for Midland States Bancorp, Inc. – External Strategic Factors
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- Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for Midland States Bancorp, Inc. to capture new customers and increase its market share.
- Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Midland States Bancorp, Inc..
- 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.
- The new technology provides an opportunity to Midland States Bancorp, Inc. to practices differentiated pricing strategy in the new market. It will enable the firm to maintain its loyal customers with great service and lure new customers through other value oriented propositions.
- Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided Midland States Bancorp, Inc. an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.
- Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Midland States Bancorp, Inc.’s products thus providing an opportunity to the company - either to boost its profitability or pass on the benefits to the customers to gain market share.
- 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 Midland States Bancorp, Inc. to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
- The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Midland States Bancorp, Inc. to increase its profitability.
Threats Midland States Bancorp, Inc. Facing - External Strategic Factors
- Changing consumer buying behavior from online channel could be a threat to the existing physical infrastructure driven supply chain model.
- New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
- Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to Midland States Bancorp, Inc.’s product especially in the emerging markets and low income markets.
- Liability laws in different countries are different and Midland States Bancorp, Inc. may be exposed to various liability claims given change in policies in those markets.
- As the company is operating in numerous countries it is exposed to currency fluctuations especially given the volatile political climate in number of markets across the world.
- The company can face lawsuits in various markets given - different laws and continuous fluctuations regarding product standards in those markets.
- Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Midland States Bancorp, Inc. in those markets.
- Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and increasing prices in the China can lead to serious pressure on profitability of Midland States Bancorp, Inc.
Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Midland States Bancorp, Inc.
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 Midland States Bancorp, Inc.
- 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.
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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Midland States Bancorp, Inc.
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 Midland States Bancorp, Inc. 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 Midland States Bancorp, Inc.
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.
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Example of Weighted SWOT Analysis
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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)
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