Abstract: Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) will have to perform their own SWOT analysis which will enable

them to become efficient, effective, competitive and, above all, viable and profitable business enterprises. Needless to emphasize that UCBs are going to emerge as an important segment of the banking sector in the post-reforms period.

An effort has been made to conceptualize future strategies for ushering in an era of self-reliant, self-sustained and economically viable urban cooperative credit structure. Survival of the fittest in urban banking sector will assume greater significance in years to come. An attempt has been made by an in-depth Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis for UCB sector to cope with the challenges thrown up by reforms in the banking sector. In a way, this has led the UCBs to reposition themselves in the increasingly competitive environment.

The overall evaluation of a businesss strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is called SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis consists of an analysis of the external and internal environments. External Environment Analysis In general, a business unit has to monitor key macroenvironment forces (demographic economic, technological, political-legal, and social-cultural) and microenvironment factors (customers, competitors, distributors, and suppliers) that affect its ability to earn profits Then, for each trend or development, management needs to identify the associated marketing opportunities and threats. A marketing opportunity is an area of buyer need in which a company can perform profitably. Opportunities can be classified according to their attractiveness and their success probability. The companys success probability depends on

whether its business strengths not only match the key success requirements for operating in the target market, but also exceed those of its competitors. Mere competence does not constitute a competitive advantage. The best-performing company will be the one that can generate the greatest customer value and sustain it over time. An environmental threat is a challenge posed by an unfavorable external trend or development that would lead, in the absence of defensive marketing action, to deterioration in sales or profit. Threats should be classified according to seriousness and probability of occurrence. Minor threats can be ignored; somewhat more serious threats must be carefully monitored; and major threats require the development of contingency plans that spell out changes the company can make if necessary. Internal Environment Analysis It is one thing to discern attractive opportunities and another to have the competencies to succeed in these opportunities. Thus, each business needs to periodically evaluate its internal strengths and weaknesses in marketing, financial, manufacturing, and organizational competencies. Clearly, the business does not have to correct all of its weaknesses, nor should it gloat about all of its strengths. The big question is whether the business should limit itself to those opportunities in which it possesses the required strengths or consider better opportunities to acquire or develop certain strengths. Sometimes a business does poorly because its departments do not work together well as a team. It is therefore critically important to assess interdepartmental working relationships as part of the internal environmental audit.

 Strengths of ADC bank:-

1) Opening an account is easy as compared to procedures in other private banks.

2) Get priority by different cooperative society for transaction and loans.

3) People have their trust and faith in the bank and thus it has received large amount of fixed as Well as saving deposits.

4) Highest number of branches i.e 150 in total in Gujarat thus making it one of the leading cooperative bank.

5) As the bank is a cooperative bank thus bank gets the advantage of getting priority by the different cooperative societies for transactions and loans.

6) The Bank deals the user as not only the customers but also the member of the bank.

7) It has great amount cooperation with other district cooperative banks and district mandlis and rural cooperative societies. 8) Stable management and structure of the organisation.

 Weakness of ADC bank:-

1) The ADC Bank staff lacks the professionalism. 2) No internet banking and mobile banking. 3) Core Banking Solution is yet to be installed 4) Less advertisement is other weakness, they prefer to keep low profile though having large business 5) ATM network is not well spread like other nationalized and public banks.

Oppurtunities for ADC Bank:1. Being the cooperative bank it has the opportunity to finance the government projects. 2. Providing ATM facilities may take bank a long way. 3. As it is a state cooperative bank this bank is bank in demand. 4. Being cooperative bank this bank gets priority over the other banks for cooperative societies. 5. Existence of bank in remote areas. 6. Bank may take the advantage of being cooperative bank by promoting itself.

 Threats for ADC Bank:-

1) Easy policies of the public banks. 2) Less documentation of the public banks for different types of loans. 3) Instant /one minute service provided by some banks. 4) Online banking and mobile banking facilities of other nationalized and public banks 5) Facilities like ZERO BALANCE ACCOUNT by some of public sector banks. 6) Increasing market share of the other bank threaten the ADC bank to lose its position in the market. 7) More significant brand image in public acceptance of product and services of public and nationalized banks as compared to cooperative banks. 8) Lack of Exposure and modern touch can affect its business.

Porter's Five Forces Model of Competition

The nature of competition in an industry in large part determines the content of strategy, especially business-level strategy. Based as it is on the fundamental economics of the industry, the very profit potential of an industry is determined by competitive interactions. Where these interactions are intense, profits tend to be whittled away by the activities of competing. Where they are mild and competitors appear docile, profit potential tends to be high. Yet a full understanding of the elements of competition within an industry is easy to overlook and often difficult to comprehend. Porter has identified five basic forces that collectively describe the state of competition in an industry: 1. The intensity of rivalry among competitors 2. The threat of new entrants to the market 3. The amount of bargaining power possessed by the firm's/industry's suppliers 4. The amount of bargaining power possessed by the firm's/industry's customers 5. The extent that substitute products present a threat to a firm's/industry's products These forces assist in identifying the presence or absence of potential high returns. The weaker are Porter's five forces, the greater is the opportunity for firms in an industry to experience superior profitability. More generally, understanding how these forces affect competition within an industry allows the strategist to identify the most advantageous strategic position. The actors within an industry on whom these forces exert pressure are, respectively, the industry's competing firms themselves, potential new entrants to the industry's markets, suppliers (vendors), customers, and makers of substitute products. Obviously, the starting point for conducting an analysis of the five forces of competition is to identify all the competitors, potential new entrants, major suppliers, the demographics of customers, and makers of and nature of substitute products. Competitors would not only have to be identified, but various distinguishing data about the industry would also have to be specified. For each competitor this data would include market share, product line differences/similarities, market segments served, price/quality relationships represented by products, growth/decline trends, financial strength differences, and any other information that will help describe the industry.

Porters FIVE-FORCE analysis for Ahmedabad district cooperative bank

BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS
-Low supplier bargaining power -Few alternatives available -Subject to RBI Rules and Regulations -Not concentrated -Forward integration -Nature of suppliers

THREAT OF NEW ENTRANT

-Low barriers to entry -Government policies are supportive -Globalization and liberalisation policy -High exit barriers INDUSTRY RIVARLY Intense competition Many private, public, Co-operative, foreign banks

BARGAINING POWER OF CUSTOMERS

-High bargaining power -Low switching cost -Large no. of alternatives -Homogeneous service by banks -Full information available with customers

THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES
High threat from substitutes Like Mutual funds,

T-bills, Government securities