Morgan Stanley is a global financial services and investment advisor.

As any other company, it

has to draft its strategies in order to achieve greater results in future. However, as an economist
have provided the remedy for them to land in group of worth trillion dollars like Alphabet
company.

A strategy is a plan of action designed by a company to achieve a long-term or overall aim. Clear
and well-defined strategy is crucial for a business’s success. Without a detailed, designed
strategy, a business can slack through the wilderness. There are a three types of strategies these
include:
1. Business strategy
2. Operational strategy
3. Transformational strategy

1. Business Strategy: Customer Experience

It is focused with how a company will approach the marketplace and asks questions like “Where
do we play?” and “How do we win?” ”Where do we play?” covers questions like:
 Which customer segments will we target?
 Which geographies will we cover?
 What products and services will we bring to market?
“How do we win?” covers questions like:
 How will we position ourselves against our competitors?
 What capabilities will we employ to differentiate us from the competition?
 What unique approaches will we apply to create new markets?

2. Operational Strategy: People & Process

It is primarily focused with accurate translating the customer-centric business strategy into a
cohesive and actionable implementation plan. Operational strategy answers questions like:
 Which capabilities need to be created or enhanced?
 Which processes need improvement or a complete redesign?
 Do we have the people we need, and do they have the right skill base?
 3. Transformational Strategy: Platform Technology
The third strategy type is Transformational, which focuses on how your technology can enable
and transform your organization. I am not talking about automation, I am talking about true
digital business model transformation. It is seen less often as it represents the wholesale
transformation of an entire business or organization. This type of strategy goes beyond normal
business strategy, requiring experienced and highly disruptive changes in people, processes, and
technology.

After explaining and elaborating the types of strategy we will look at SWOT analysis of Mark
Stanley company and my successive advise on how they will have to change operations to be
able to compete with Trillion companies like Alphabet.

SWOT Analysis of Mark Stanley

STRENGTHS:
 Distribution and Reach: The bank has more than 68,000 employees working at Morgan
Stanley’s offices in more than forty countries. It has its reach in three divisions –
Institutional Securities, Wealth Management, and Investment Management.
 Brand Reputation: Morgan Stanley has been in the business of banking since 1935. Also,
with the variety of products and services like its major area which is investment banking,
it is established as a leader in the industry. This helps the corporation to gain a reputation
and get recognized easily.
 Sustainable Approach: They offer sustainable investment products, foster innovative
solutions, and provide actionable insights across sustainability issues.
 Culture of working: One of the top firms that value its people and give its employees
opportunities to use their creativity, innovate every day, and embrace new perspectives
to solve complex problems.
 Automation of Activities: Successful automation of banking activities with a well-
developed IT structure and Infrastructure has made the overall efficiency better.
 Strong Digital Marketing Strategy: With a very strong online presence on every social
media site has built a strong customer relationship. Want to know how social media
works as a strength for Morgan Stanley? Then you must check out the benefits of social
media marketing to get the answer to your query.
 Financial Position: Morgan Stanley has had a strong financial position with
consecutive profits in the past 5 years, with accumulated profit reserves.

WEAKNESSES
 Need to Invest More in New Technologies: According to the country’s scale of expansion
and the geographical areas Morgan Stanley needs to invest more money in technology to
integrate the processes across the board. Currently, the investment in technology is not
on par as per the vision of the company.
 Customer Care: Improper customer service, as well as lack of solving customer queries,
can cause a negative image of the brand. This can either be through mouth publicity or
by any other means.
 Decreasing Market Value: Morgan Stanley is facing decreasing market share as
compared to its competitors JP Morgan.
 Existing market in the US: Even though Morgan Stanley has operations in over 40
countries, they are mainly dependent on US activities. This overreliance on the US
market is also seen as a weakness. If this market experiences a crisis, the effects for the
bank might be enormous.

OPPORTUNITIES
 Expansion to Other Global Markets: The company is planning to expand to more
developing countries as well as European nations too. This serves them as an opportunity
to acquire a new customer base.
 Development of Technology: Since the FinTech industry is growing at a very rapid pace,
there are advancements in technologies too. Using these kinds of technologies can
increase efficiency and decrease cost.
 New Customer Base Through Online Mode: As we saw the bank has a great online
presence and its mobile banking app makes it convenient for the customers to access and
 deal with the bank through any part of the world. The bank can make use of this
opportunity in knowing their customers better and their needs through data analysis.
 New Trends in Consumer Behaviour: With new customers based through online modes,
customers of varied backgrounds will show different behavior which can open up new
markets for Morgan Stanley. It creates a great opportunity for the bank to build new
revenue streams and diversify into new product categories.
 Increasing Income: There has been an increase in average household income along with
an increase in consumer spending following the recession.

THREATS
 Competitor’s Technical Advancements: New technological advancements by a few
competitors within the sector constitute a threat to Morgan Stanley since customers who
are drawn to this new technology may switch to competitors, reducing Morgan Stanley’s
overall market share.
 Pandemic: As the bank provides investment and wealth facilities, financial losses
incurred by companies as well as business owners can cause a threat to the bank in
repayment of loans.
 Increased Marketing Efforts: Due to the rise of digital marketing, there is an increasing
number of promotional messages which are being sent by competitors. It clutters up the
space, which leads to losing out on customers. You must also be well versed with a
variety of digital marketing skills to get ahead of the competition.
 Financial Crisis: The company can face a financial crisis anytime in the future without
its knowledge so to avoid trouble in such times it needs to have a proper financial study
of its company and keep separate provisions for such times.

PROPOSED STRATEGIES TO MORGAN STANLEY COMPANY

Based on weaknesses of the company I would suggest the following strategies to be
amended:
1. As we saw, the company is based largely in American market. To be able to land
into a trillion dollar company like Alphabet they have to serve the global market.
It should however start its branches in all countries in the world.
2. Morgan Stanley company have to advance its technology and cease from using
the out of date ones. This will make their services reach consumers faster and
with ease.
3. Modern marketing skills should be used to attract new clients to the industry. The
easiest way to achieve this is to use social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter,
Google and Instagram.
4. Customer care services should be improved. The main core of the company is
customer care service. Any business depends on this business strategy because the
way the clients or customers are handled determines their satisfaction and
happiness and next time they need the same service they will come back.