Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. SWOT Analysis / Matrix

Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers

SWOT analysis is a vital strategic planning tool that can be used by Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. managers to do a situational analysis of the organization . It is a useful technique to analyze the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. is facing in its current business environment.

The Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. is one of the leading companies in its industry. Eastern Virginia Bankshares, 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 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 Eastern Virginia Bankshares, 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 a company can utilize to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading firms in its industry, Eastern Virginia Bankshares, 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 Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. are –

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• Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
• Strong Free Cash Flow – Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
• Superb Performance in New Markets – Eastern Virginia Bankshares, 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.
• Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.
• Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
• Strong distribution network – Over the years Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
• 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.
• Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.

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Weakness of Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Eastern Virginia Bankshares, 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.

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• 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.
• Organization structure is only compatible with present business model thus limiting expansion in adjacent product segments.
• 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.
• The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. are below the industry average.
• 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 Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc.
• Limited success outside core business – Even though Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. is one of the leading organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product segments with its present culture.
• 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.

Opportunities for Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. – External Strategic Factors

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• 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 Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
• The new technology provides an opportunity to Eastern Virginia Bankshares, 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.
• Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc..
• The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. to increase its profitability.
• Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Eastern Virginia Bankshares, 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.
• 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 Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. in other product categories.
• Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. to capture new customers and increase its market share.
• New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.

Threats Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. Facing - External Strategic Factors

• Rising raw material can pose a threat to the Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. profitability.
• 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.
• New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
• Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc.’s product especially in the emerging markets and low income markets.
• Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc.   in those markets.
• New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
• Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.
• The demand of the highly profitable products is seasonal in nature and any unlikely event during the peak season may impact the profitability of the company in short to medium term.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Eastern Virginia Bankshares, 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 Eastern Virginia Bankshares, 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 Eastern Virginia Bankshares, 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 Eastern Virginia Bankshares, 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 Eastern Virginia Bankshares, 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)