Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. SWOT Analysis / Matrix

Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers

SWOT analysis is a vital strategic planning tool that can be used by Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. managers to do a situational analysis of the company . It is a useful technique to map out the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. is facing in its current business environment.

The Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. is one of the leading companies in its industry. Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. 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 - Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. SWOT Analysis
Check out- Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. PESTEL / PEST & Environment Analysis
Article continues after advertisement

The SWOT Analysis framework facilitates 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 called SWOT Matrix.

The Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis / Matrix enables the managers of the Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. to develop four types of strategies:

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

Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. swot analysis / matrix

SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective

The main purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that a company can utilize to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading firms in its industry, Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. has numerous strengths that enable 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 Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. are –

Read - Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
Article continues after advertisement

Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Washington Trust 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 – Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. is relatively successful at execution of new projects and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new revenue streams.
Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
Successful track record of integrating complimentary firms through mergers & acquisition. It has successfully integrated number of technology companies in the past few years to streamline its operations and to build a reliable supply chain.
Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
Highly skilled workforce through successful training and learning programs. Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. is investing huge resources in training and development of its employees resulting in a workforce that is not only highly skilled but also motivated to achieve more.
Strong distribution network – Over the years Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.

Weakness of Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. can improve upon. Strategy is about making choices and weakness are the areas where an organization 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. Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
Organization structure is only compatible with present business model thus limiting expansion in adjacent product segments.
Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.
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.
Investment in Research and Development is below the fastest growing players in the industry. Even though Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. is spending above the industry average on Research and Development, it has not been able to compete with the leading players in the industry in terms of innovation. It has come across as a mature firm looking forward to bring out products based on tested features in the market.
Limited success outside core business – Even though Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. is one of the leading organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product segments with its present culture.
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 Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. – External Strategic Factors

Article continues after advertisement

Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Washington Trust 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 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 Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc.. In the next few years the company can leverage this opportunity by knowing its customer better and serving their needs using big data analytics.
New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. products by the state as well as federal government contractors.
Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. to capture new customers and increase its market share.
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 market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. to increase its profitability.

Threats Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. Facing - External Strategic Factors

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.
The company can face lawsuits in various markets given - different laws and continuous fluctuations regarding product standards in those markets.
Changing consumer buying behavior from online channel could be a threat to the existing physical infrastructure driven supply chain model.
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.
Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and increasing prices in the China can lead to serious pressure on profitability of Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc.
Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.
Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. in those markets.
Rising raw material can pose a threat to the Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. profitability.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Washington Trust 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 Washington Trust 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.

Article continues after advertisement

Weighted SWOT Analysis of Washington Trust 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 Washington Trust 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 Washington Trust 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.

Buy Custom Essay and Term Paper on SWOT Analysis / Matrix , Weighted SWOT Analysis of Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc.

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)