Wells Fargo
Managers at each level of the organization use a type of SWOT analysis to identify strategies that will best position the company to achieve its mission and goals. The first step in a SWOT analysis is to identify an organization’s strengths and weaknesses that characterize the present state of the company. The next step requires managers to identify potential opportunities and threats in the environment that affect the organization in the present or possibly in the future. When the SWOT analysis is complete, managers begin developing strategies. These strategies should allow the company to attain its goals by taking advantage of opportunities, countering threats, building strengths, and correcting organizational weaknesses.
Use the company and SWOT analysis you selected in Week 1 for this assignment.
Congratulations! You’ve been hired as a manager and have been asked to analyze the current status of your new company.
Review your company’s SWOT analysis and other available sources to evaluate the strategic needs of the organization within a changing global environment. Use the Wk 2 Apply Worksheet for your evaluation.
Note: This type of information is often found in the company’s annual report.
Submit your assignment.
Wells Fargo & Company
Razia Dean
University of Phoenix
MGT/526
Dr. G
March 14, 2020
Wells Fargo & Company
Companies Reviewed for the SWOT Analyses
The companies reviewed for the business SWOT analyses include
- Walmart Inc
- Wells Fargo & Company
- Target Corporation
Name of the Company Selected
The company selected to form the basis of this analysis is the Wells Fargo & Company.
Industry
Wells Fargo & Company belongs to three distinct industries, including:
- Banking
- Financial Services
- Insurance
Brief History
The birth and development of Wells Fargo & Company trace its origins from Henry Wells and William Fargo, who were the principal founders in 1852. The primary purpose of the company was to serve the West offering financial transactions and delivery services. The company bought gold, during which there was a gold rush, and in turn sold paper bank drafts that equaled the quality of the gold as well as making the fastest deliveries using diverse transportation and shipping mean of transport such as telegraph, steamships, and railroads (WFC, 2020). Over time, Wells Fargo explored its expansion strategy and opened more offices in new cities such as Colorado and Nebraska and the mining cites of Idaho and Montana. During the bloom of the economy in the 19th century, the company gained a trustable reputation built on trust and responsibility of its customer’s money and deliveries that resulted in opening and acquiring related companies. Wells Fargo had a huge and remarkable milestone that made upon its fame and developing a corporate symbol in 1888.
The company expanded its geographic locations of operations and spatial influence, with over 2,500 networks operating in 25 states. By the end of the 20th century, the company was working in over 10,000 locations and with diversified functions, which is the second remarkable milestone in its history and development. In the contemporary world, Fargo Wells expands its features across three industries, serves a large area in the West, adopts the digital economy to provide online services, and uses the slogans “Ocean-to-Ocean,” and “over-the-Seas to shape and influence its expansion strategy.
Milestones of the Company’s History
- Gaining a trustable reputation built on trust and responsibility of its customer’s money and deliveries that resulted in opening and acquiring related companies.
- Increased spatial influence, whereby it operates in over 10,000 locations and with diversified function, by the end of the 20 century.
- Extensive and diversification of functions across the three industries of banking, financial services, and insurance, as well as diversified operations of both online and brick and mortar stores.
- Increasing the customer base through the exploitation of new niches and tapping untapped markets.
Resources
The analysis of Well Fargo’s operations both in the past and currently will be conducted through the utilization of three primary resources.
- The Wells Fargo’s website for credibility, reliability, and authenticity of the
information, which must be to date.
https://www.wellsfargo.com/about/corporate/history/
- The University of Phoenix Library, which can provide scholarly journals to
offer knowledge on theories and models that relate and explain the
phenomenon of the company’s practical operations and theoretical perspectives.
https://library.phoenix.edu/home.
- Business-related publications and articles such as The Wall Street Journal to
provide insightful analyses and critiques on the development and strategies.
Business Opportunity
According to the SWOT analysis conducted, Wells Fargo has a unique opportunity worth
exploiting involves the diversification and differentiation of its products through the integration
of new technology. It will be inclusive to even PWDs as well as provide a large customer base
with attractive features that would yield more benefits (Ensign, 2020). Hence, maintaining or
maximizing its competitive advantage and reputation that has been soiled by fraud scandals.
Management Function
To effectively implement and exploit the new opportunity, the management should
develop an effective and comprehensive plan that will enable the organization, leadership, and
control of the latest products, technology, and reputation building. They should include in the
plan effective strategies through the opportunity that will align with the goals and objectives of
maximizing customer experiences, satisfaction, corporate growth through product diversification
and differentiation, and, most importantly, a regained reputation and image.
Wk. 2 – Apply: Organizational Analysis
Part 1: Organization Information
Organization
Wells Fargo & Company is one of America’s largest providers of financial services. The company provides financial services to institutions, businesses, and individuals, offering a wide range of services (About Wells Fargo, n.d.). The services provided by the company include commercial, corporate, retail banking, wholesale banking, consumer finance, insurance, equipment leasing, securities brokerage, mortgage banking, investment banking, investment advisory, trust services, data processing, venture capital investment, and agricultural financial services. Wells Fargo & Company serves its clients and customers through a large network of offices, banking locations, and distribution channels such as the internet. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and has a business presence across Asia, North America, the UAE, and Europe. As a result of the wide range of services offered by the company, it belongs to three different industries: banking, financial services, and insurance.
Mission and Vision
| Mission | “The reason we wake up in the morning is to help our customers succeed financially and to satisfy their financial needs, and the result is that we make money. It’s never the other way around” (About Wells Fargo, n.d.). |
| Vision | “We want to satisfy our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. This unites us around a simple premise: Customers can be better served when they have a relationship with a trusted provider that knows them well, provides reliable guidance, and can serve their full range of financial needs” (About Wells Fargo, n.d.). |
Organizational Initiatives
- Enhancing risk management: To support this initiative, the management of the company continues to find new ways of improving the organization’s risk management programs. The main goal of this initiative is to enable the company to remain an industry leader in market, credit, and liquidity risk management. Over the last few years, Wells Fargo & Company has been implementing plans to build and improve its compliance and operational risk management systems to levels that match its business, strategies, and organizational structure. Management-level governance committee oversight, structures, controls, and monitoring continue to be enhanced to achieve this organizational initiative.
- Meeting regulatory expectations: With changes in government and industry regulations, the company strives to satisfy all the regulatory expectations and the requirements of the regulators in its three industries. Wells Fargo & Company continues to enhance its risk and reporting systems to match the heightened regulatory expectations for financial institutions and the achievement of its industry leadership in risk management goals. The company also engages in open and frequent communication with all regulators about its progress and what needs to be improved to meet new regulatory expectations.
Organizational Plans
| Type of Plan | Description | Type of Manager |
| Strategic Plan | Strategic planning involves the identification of the existing opportunities and challenges, development of options that can be taken to address them, assessment of the risks and trade-offs of each option, and the making of decisions on which options to take, in the form of a three-year strategic plan (Wells Fargo & Company, 2019). | Top-level Managers. |
| Capital Management Plan | Capital management planning involves a comprehensive Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP) that assesses the company’s capital adequacy in relation to its risk appetite and risk profile (Wells Fargo & Company, 2019). Exposure to risk is assessed and the capital resources available to cushion the company from potential losses identified. | Capital Planning Manager. |
| Recovery Plan | Recovery planning identifies any triggers and options available for response to various internal and external stress eventualities to restore the company to financial strength and viability within the shortest possible time (Wells Fargo & Company, 2019). It includes the identification of warning signs that indicate impending stress scenarios, the company’s legal entity structure, options that the organization can undertake to restore viability and financial strength, and the responsibilities of all leaders and the board during such scenarios and response. | Top- and Mid-level Managers. |
SWOT Analysis
There are various factors within the external environment of an organization that impacts its strategy.
| Internal Factors | Strengths
· Strong market position in the United States. · Strong growth in interest income. Weaknesses · Lawsuits and penalties that impose additional costs on the company. |
| External Factors | Opportunities
· Services diversification and differentiation. · Positive outlook for the United States retail lending industry. · Positive outlook for global investment banking and brokerage industry (MarketLine, 2019). Threats · Competitive pressure. · Cybersecurity risks. · Increased regulatory challenges (MarketLine, 2019). |
Part 2: Evaluation
The company’s mission and vision are very effective in motivating its employees and instilling hope in other stakeholders. The mission and vision also meet the current needs of the company. The SWOT analysis identifies the various opportunities that the company should take advantage of, to improve its performance and overcome the threats that it faces. According to the SWOT analysis, Wells Fargo has a unique opportunity worth exploiting involves the diversification and differentiation of its products through the integration of new technology. While the company has a competitive advantage in the United States market, as a result of its wide service offering and good reputation, the company has been facing various fraud scandals and lawsuits. To overcome the damage done to its reputation, the management should develop an effective and comprehensive plan that will enable the organization to take advantage of the latest technology and diversify operations to reach a wider, more diverse market. This will ensure that the company maximizes customer experiences and satisfaction, realize corporate growth through product diversification and differentiation, and regain its reputation and image.
References
About Wells Fargo. (n.d.). https://www.wellsfargo.com/about/
MarketLine. (2019, October 10). Wells Fargo & Company – Strategy, SWOT and Corporate Finance Report. https://store.marketline.com/report/ml2731259sa–wells-fargo-company-strategy-swot-and-corporate-finance-report-3/
Wells Fargo & Company. (2019, February 27). Wells Fargo & Company 2018 Annual Report. https://www08.wellsfargomedia.com/assets/pdf/about/investor-relations/annual-reports/2018-annual-report.pdf
