“Securing a market leading future through SWOT analysis A Hewden case study” INTRODUCTION Hewden was founded in 1968 and has grown to be the market leader in the construction rental industry based in the U.K. Today the company is employing 1,400 professionals and focuses on delivering outstanding solutions across a wide range of industry sectors such as construction, infrastructure, industrial and environmental. In 2010, Hewden was acquired by Sun Capital Partners Inc., a U.S. based investment firm. This case study is an attempt to analyse the internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) factors affecting the company’s strategic planning. It is also an attempt to use SWOT analysis in order to provide …show more content…
“Hewden has increased the range of eco-friendly welfare units within its accommodation portfolio, helping users to reduce carbon emissions, noise pollution and ongoing running costs” and often offers support to homeless, weak and disadvantaged people. Weaknesses Weaknesses are a source of competitive disadvantage for the company and constraints in achieving its objectives. They are usually harder to identify externally since there is no data provided by the company itself. Initially, Hewden faced a lack of automation which inflicted more time-consuming procedures, inefficiencies and lack of transparency; therefore the company invested in an updated operating system. On the other hand, people are usually reluctant to change, consequently it takes time for employees to get familiar with the new working environment offered, to embrace the new procedures and exploit the system possibilities to the fullest. A change in mindset and culture is always hard to achieve and this shift is a challenge for Hewden. Constant personnel training and frequent system updates are required and will probably inflict higher operational costs. Although Hewden’s experienced personnel is considered to be a key factor in its success, the potential weakness of an ageing workforce is becoming visible. Considering the actual demographical conditions and the extension of state pension ages, the company has to adapt and act drastically. In order
Marketing plan is always based on information regarding product, customers, market and competitors. The best way to analyze all this information is through a SWOT analysis. SWOT stand for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This analysis takes into account both internal and external factors, internals being strengths and weakness, and external being opportunities and threats (Kotler & Keller, 2009).
Strategic planning requires all levels of an organization, from the head of the company to the most junior member, to think about where the organization is today and how they can influence the organization to move forward in a “positive” manner to attain its goals (profit, growth, downsizing, etc.). One method used in strategic planning is for an organization to conduct a “Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats” (SWOT) analysis. Just as the name implies, a SWOT analysis looks at the four dimensions that can affect an organization. One business that can benefit from a SWOT analysis is Lennar Home Builders, Inc. This assignment will focus on one of the largest national offices for this company, located in Miami, FL. First, the paper will describe the history, products, and major competitors of one of the largest home builders in the country. Next, the focus shifts to create a SWTO analysis detailing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that may affect the organization. The assignment begins with a brief discussion on Lennar Homes, one of the most successful home builders in Florida and the United States.
David Hewes migrated to San Francisco from Sacramento where he had his successful business, but due to a natural disaster he lost everything. The last name Hewes goes way back in history starting with Joshua Hewes. Hewes was known for his contribution of the “First Transcontinental Railroad”. The Oakland City Council elected David Hewes. Also David Hewes provided one the golden spikes that marked completion of the Transcontinental Railroad at the Promontory summit.
A SWOTT analysis of MCS was performed concluding that external forces such as the economy, the competition, and the government rules and regulations have very important effect on MCS strategic planning. The analysis also concludes that MCS strengths and weaknesses must also be taken into consideration when implementing a strategic plan. Strengths such as a good information system, the ability to create processes and make quick improvement to existent processes allow MCS to stay ahead of the competition and be successful. On the other hand, MCS weakness such as insufficient training to employees can become a serious issue and can jeopardize the company relationships with its customers. Analyzing the different factors that affect MCS internal and external environment is essential to create and establish successful strategies.
The strategic management tool also includes on this paper. The tool that I used in the organisation is SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, and also noted the advantage and disadvantage of the said analysis. The SWOT analysis is usually use by the organisation because it can easily detects the strength and weakness in the internal environment and the opportunities and threats outside the organisation. I also included some advantages and disadvantages of the said
The SWOT-driven strategic plan is New Belgium’s Brewery (NBB) competitive advantage, the most important and the cornerstone of the company’s strategic focus (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). The purpose of a SWOT analysis is to collect marketing information via a situation analysis which identifies the advantages and disadvantages of New Belgium’s Brewery (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). A SWOT analysis provides a strategic focus for New Belgium’s Brewery marketing efforts (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). The process of collecting information for the situation analysis is done by first identifying New Belgium’s internal strengths and weakness (Quast, 2013). As well as identifying New Belgium’s external opportunities and threats (Quast, 2013).
* Weaknesses - Weaknesses are the assets which would prevent the sandwich/snack bar from accomplishing their specific mission and achieving their full potential. These weaknesses decline influences on the organisations success and growth in the economy. Weaknesses in an organization may be a criticizing machinery, insufficient research and development facilities, narrow product range, poor decision-making, etc. However these are controllable which must be eliminated. An example of The sandwich/snack bars organisational weaknesses are huge debts, high employee turnover, complex decision making process, narrow product range, large wastage of raw materials, etc. The business must ensure that prices of sandwiches and other products are reasonable and affordable in order to ensure consistency in sales and to meet costs.
The following SWOT analysis encompasses the strengths and weaknesses to which the logistic and strategic components of the marketing plan will be tailored to address from the internal business
Moving ahead,in order to get the idea about company’s internal environment and its capacity to survive and prosper in the market(Strategic capability), I analysed the resources and competencies(Appendix 3) ,the value chain (Appendix 3),the Cultural Web(Appendix 5). To find out the influence of stakeholders on the company I applied Power/Interest to the company and finally analysis of strengths,weaknesses ,opportunities and threats to the company(SWOT Analysis-Appendix 7) provide with clear idea about the strategic position of M&S.
For strategic analysis part, we used PESTLE and Porter’s 5 forces for external analysis; and SWOT and Value Chain for internal analysis.
The aim of this paper is to critically evaluate the SWOT analysis as one of popular tools in marketing. SWOT analysis is an analysis method of identifying all external and internal factors for organization strategies (Rauch, 2007). It is considered in this paper that though SWOT analysis has limitations, it can be improved to be more effective as its development. This paper firstly focused on the definition of SWOT analysis. And then it discussed the context of the SWOT analysis including its evolution and its applications. Followed by, the paper introduced two relevant practice cases based on SWOT analysis. Next, the critical evaluation of SWOT analysis was presented with
The focus of the SWOT analysis is to identify the key internal and external factors that are important to achieving the objective. SWOT analysis groups key pieces of information into two main categories; internal factors and external factors. The internal factors are the strengths and weaknesses that are internal to the company while the external factors are the opportunities and threats that presented by the external environment. The internal factors are determined by their impact on the company’s objectives. What may represent strengths with respect to one objective may be weaknesses for another objective. The external factors may include technological change, legislation, cultural changes, and changes in the marketplace or competitive position (Wood, 2008).
SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieving that objective. The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey, who led a research project at Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies.[1]
According to What is SWOT Anlysis (2011), SWOT analysis is an analysis used to identify the internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) of the company as well as external factors (opportunities and threats) of the company.
Future- oriented: Strategic management encompasses forecasts, what is anticipated by the managers. In such decisions, emphasis is placed on the development of projections that will enable the firm to select the most promising strategic options. In the turbulent environment, a firm will succeed only if it takes a proactive stance towards change.