Complete SWOT Analysis of Manulife – A Canadian Multinational Insurance Company

Updated on: Mar 17, 2022
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In the previous article, we did an elaborative SWOT analysis of TD bank – A Canadian multinational banking and financial services. This time, we will tackle the SWOT Analysis of Manulife – A Canadian Multinational Insurance Company.

Manulife Financial Firm (also known as Financière Manuvie in Quebec) is a Canadian multinational insurance and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto. In Canada and Asia, the corporation is known as “Manulife,” while in the United States, it is known as “John Hancock Financial.”

In India, according to Manulife CEO Roy Gori, it will become a significant element of the Asia business. Manulife launched a joint venture with Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, an Indian company with over 6 million consumers, last week.

Manulife’s marketing strategy is to become global while keeping things simple. The company had the best marketing plans to cater to everyone possible. If you’re interested in learning more about digital marketing but don’t know where to start, Karan Shah, our CEO and Founder of IIDE, presents a free Masterclass on Digital Marketing 101.

In this blog, we will look at the SWOT analysis of Manulife but before that let’s know some facts about the company.

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About Manulife

SWOT Analysis of Manulife - Manulife Main

Manulife is Canada’s largest insurance company and the world’s 28th largest fund manager by global institutional assets under management (AUM). Manulife Bank of Canada is Manulife’s completely owned subsidiary.

On June 23, 1887, Manulife was established by an Act of Parliament as “The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company.” Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s prime minister and the company’s first president, was among its corporate and political backers.

Manufacturers Life building in Toronto, Ontario, c.1929. As Manufacturers Life expanded internationally and worked to diversify its business, it decided to change its name to better represent a wider range of products and services. The name was changed to Manulife Financial in 1990.

Quick Stats on Manulife
Founder Sir John A. MacDonald
Year Founded 1887
Origin Canada
No. of Employees 34,000+
Company Type Public
Market Cap CA$38.42 Billion (2022)
Annual Revenue CA$39.0 Billion (2018)
Net Income/ Profit CA$5.9 Billion (2020)

 

Products & Services by Manulife

The company has over 28 million customers and branches all over the world that offer a diverse range of insurance products and services:

  • Commercial Banking
  • Insurance
  • Investments
  • Mutual Funds
  • Real Estate
  • Securities
  • Underwriting
  • Commercial Mortgages
  • Asset Management


Competitors of Manulife

As it offers services all across the world, Manulife faces a lot of competition. The following are some of Manulife’s competitors:

  • Swiss Re 
  • Aflac
  • Prudential Financial
  • The Great-West Life Assurance Company
  • Canada Life Limited


Now that we understand the company’s core business, let’s delve into the SWOT analysis of Manulife.


SWOT Analysis of Manulife

A SWOT analysis determines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of an employer. It is a confirmed control paradigm that permits Manulife to benchmark its enterprise and overall performance towards that of its competition and the enterprise as a whole.

This is a tremendous device for figuring out in which the enterprise is doing well, in which it’s miles failing, growing countermeasures, and figuring out how the enterprise can grow.

To higher apprehend the SWOT Analysis of Manulife, check with the infographics photo below

SWOT Analysis of Manulife - SWOT Infographics of Manulife

Now first let’s start with the strengths of the employer from the SWOT analysis of Manulife.

Strengths of Manulife

  • Tried & Trusted: Manulife has been in the game for almost 135 years, making it one of the most trusted companies in the insurance sector. It has been consistent in providing quality services to its diverse clientele across America and Canada. 
  • Worldwide Presence: Manulife has a presence in the United States and Canada and has its worldwide headquarters and corporate offices. Till now, the company insured more than 26 million people worldwide.
  • Highly Skilled Workforce: Successful training and learning programmes have resulted in a highly competent workforce. They are not just highly skilled but also driven to achieve greater success.
  • Affordable Insurance: Manulife insurance company is the market leader and serves the people in the United States and Canada with insurance that is low in rates but with superior benefits.
  • Financial Position: Manulife has a very strong financial position in the market with consecutive profits over the years along with accumulated profit reserves which can be utilised for future expenditures or marketing activities.
  • High Level of Customer Satisfaction: Manulife has gained the trust of more than a million clients and has a very strong customer relationship management team through which they keep their current customers very satisfied and also enjoy a good brand equity status among potential customers.
  • Strong Supplier Community: It has built a culture among suppliers where the suppliers not only promote the company’s services but also invest in training the consulting team to explain to the client how he/she can extract the maximum benefits out of the insurance services.


Weaknesses of Manulife

Weaknesses are the areas Manulife can work upon. Some of Manulife’s weaknesses are:

  • Research & Development: Manulife has a good share of expenditure on the research and development department but it is spending way less than a few of the players within the industry which have benefitted as a result of their innovative products.
  • Diversity in the Workforce: The local workers contribute to the majority of the workforce at Manulife making it difficult for outsiders to adjust and hence resulting in the loss of talent.
  • Need for Investment in Technology: Manulife does not spend much on new technologies. Given the scope of the company’s expansion and the various locations into which it aspires to expand, Manulife must invest more in technology to integrate processes.
  • Low Market Share: Although the company has a significant presence in the United States and Japan, the insurance company is not known to many people due to the company’s low share in the international market.


Opportunities for Manulife
 

Opportunities are uncontrollable external circumstances that a person may be able to take advantage of. These external factors could give the company an advantage in the marketplace. Opportunities for Manulife are:

  • Possibilities in the Online World: Clients’ increasing acceptance of online services will allow Manulife Group to offer innovative services to customers in the Insurance (Life) market.
  • Social Media: Over the years the number of active users on social media channels has increased and with this Manulife can make use of its social media handles to promote its products, interact with customers and even provide after-sale services.

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  • Future of Insurance Company: Global life premium insurance growth is predicted to rebound to 3% with increased risk awareness owing to COVID-19 and global economic recovery set to accelerate the demand for life insurance products. 
  • Future Trends: The next 10 years will see the insurance industry moving from traditional to more customer-centric products. In the post-pandemic era, due to personalised services, the products are given based on information collected from external sources and devices.
  • Shift From Protection To Prevention: There is a general trend toward risk prevention rather than risk mitigation, which indicates that insurance companies should concentrate on risk prevention rather than risk mitigation.


Threats to Manulife

Threats are those factors that have the potential to provide harm to the organisation in any form. The threats of Manulife are as follows:

  • Gig Economy: Most organised companies across the world offer group insurance. Various online-based and reputed companies like Fiverr, Amazon Mechanical Turk, and others have entered the ‘freelancer’ population who work without any formal company allegiance. This has resulted in an enormous loss for the insurance companies.
  • Competition: With the growth of potential competitors in the market of Cigna, Humana, some clients may incline towards other companies which would create obstruction in growth.
  • Changes in Government: Because fiscal and monetary factors vary with each new government, tactics must be altered correspondingly. This results in a slew of issues.


This ends our complete SWOT analysis of Manulife. Let us conclude our learning below.
 

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To Conclude

Manulife is a well-known insurance brand with a significant global presence. In the SWOT analysis of Manulife, we observed that the company is heavily reliant and enjoys strong brand recognition and trust with its customers. It has a strong distribution network and has reached across all the markets it serves, but suffers from an increasing number of suppliers in the same space and better R&D efforts by its competitors.

Also, one point not to miss out on is that Manulife is in line with its marketing effort. It has created a customer base for itself by tapping into the digital era and creating a social media presence on several platforms. If you are interested in learning digital marketing, don’t forget to check out IIDE’s 3 Month Advanced Digital Marketing Course.

We hope this blog on the SWOT Analysis of Manulife has given you a good insight into the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. 

If you enjoy in-depth company research just like the SWOT analysis of Manulife, check out our IIDE Knowledge portal for more fascinating case studies.

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Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs......[Read full bio]

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