This critique will discuss the two business strategic analysis models of SWOT and Porters 5 Forces, with a view to further understanding their application in Strategic Management. I will discuss the usefulness and applicability of these models in business today, and whether other contemporary models should be applied when exploring strategies for analysis.
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
In my readings for this critique, I learned Strategic Management has been difficult to define by both Academics and Scholars alike. The Strategic Management Journal article, “What is Strategic Management, Really? “ references John Wiley as stating in part, Strategic Management is “fragmented and lacking a coherent identity”, which is ‘paradoxically at odds with
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OPPORTUNITIES
Are there current gaps in the market?
Innovation?
Are there political, economic, social or technological changes that could be favourable for you? THREATS
What is your competition doing that could impact you?
What changes could be unfavourable to you (Political, social, economic, technology)?
What restraints – eg resourcing?
EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT
SWOT is considered a widely used tool to assist an organisation understand their business activity, both internally and externally. The intent is to not only formulate strategies that support the mission of the organisation but to avoid weaknesses, neutralise the threats and exploit opportunities and strengths. (Davidson et al 2009. P212). SWOT provides the guidelines for critically assessing what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong, who or what can take you down, and what you can do to get—and stay—ahead of the pack.
The internal factors relate to the organisation 's strengths and weaknesses, i.e. competency, and competitive viability. An internal analysis using the data generated by SWOT will assist in the development of planning objectives to grow and sustain a business. An analysis of the strength and competency would include technology and equipment to accomplish work, which would then support the brand identity, expertise, and resources of the business. The weaknesses are the opposite – poor technology, lack of expertise or deficient in assets. Once these deficiencies are revealed, the
According to Nicole Fallon of the Business News Daily, a SWOT analysis is an analytical framework that can help any company face its greatest challenges and find its most promising new markets, by identifying the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (2017). It allows for an extensive evaluation of the company’s internal and external resources as well as current and future threats that the company may face. This process can be a great asset in determining and exploring new initiatives, as it helps to identify areas of improvement within the organization while helping with the facilitation and implementation of new business policies. This process is crucial in refreshing the strategies and tactics of any
A SWOT analysis is a tool used to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization. A SWOT model measures what an organization can or cannot do as well as the possible opportunities and threats. This is done by taking data from the organization’s environment, analyzing the information and separating it into the internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats). When this is completed the analysis can create a plan for the organization to achieve its goals, and identify what difficulties must be overcome to attain
A SWOT analysis is an evaluation of the business environment and organizational strategic capability to identify key issues that may impact strategy development (Ireland, R., Hoskisson & Hitt, 2008). Strengths and weaknesses define a firm’s internal environment whereas opportunities and threats constitute the external environment.
SWOT analysis can be used to describe and analyse a company’s internal capabilities in relation to its competitive environment. A strategy behind
Internal analysis are conducted so it can identify an organizations strengths and weakness. Threats and opportunities are identified by assessing the external environment. Either in its broad or competitive environment. The most essential result of a SWOT analysis is the ability to draw conclusions about the organizations situation and need for strategic action.
It is a widely used technique where managers create a quick overview of a company’s strategic situation. The basic premise behind SWOT analysis is that an effective strategy derives from a sound “fit” between a firm’s internal strengths and weaknesses and its external situation. The idea is to leverage the company’s strengths in light of the opportunities and minimize its weaknesses and threats. SWOT analysis is an integral part of the strategic management process because strategy is derived after a sound analysis of the firm’s
For strategic analysis part, we used PESTLE and Porter’s 5 forces for external analysis; and SWOT and Value Chain for internal analysis.
Businesses in the same industry compete against each other to meet their organization goals and sustain competitive advantage over one another. But to meet those goals, it’s important for businesses to analyze their internal and external environment to allow them to come up with new business strategies beneficial to the business. Firms can use SWOT as a starting point. SWOT is a basic technique that can be used by business owners to analyze their business and industry condition (Dess, G., Lumpkin G.T., Eisner, A., McNamara, G, 2013). Using SWOT will help business owners understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of their business. It would help them analyze and come up
SWOT analysis is a popular analysis tool used in different situations that include not just business and marketing but also project planning and personal career development (Chapman 1995-2012). As for the strategic planning, Kenneth Andrews popularized his idea that good strategy means keeping a fit between the external situations a firm faces and the internal capabilities (Hill and Westbrook, 1997). The format the SWOT analysis presented is a 2x2 'internal/external' matrix, in which questions and relative answers can be listed for analysis (chapman 1995-2012). And according to Hill and Westbrook (1997), the output of SWOT analysis comes from meetings facilitated by consultants or managers to contribute the final analysis. Brainstorming can be used for filling in the sections to answer the questions. In addition, similar arguments should be concluded and ranked according to their answers in meetings (Rauch, 2007). As for the newly developed analysis, the TOWS matrix matching the various factors enables companies to stimulate new strategic initiative (Dyson, 2004).
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).
Today’s businesses end up working in a situation that is changing quicker than before. The process of analysing the issues and changing the techniques within the business is known as SWOT analysis.
SWOT analysis is a useful tool for understanding and decision-making for all sorts of situations in business and organization. SWOT analysis can be classified into internal and external factors affecting a company. The Strengths and Weaknesses of the SWOT analysis represent the internal factors that influence the viability of the company. While the Opportunities and Threats, on the other hand, are the external factors that may affect the company's performances. A SWOT analysis provides more understanding of the organization in relation to its internal and external environment so that manager can formulate better strategy in pursuit of its mission.
Thru the course I have learned that Strategic Management builds on many processes and that various companies and organizations with diverse backgrounds can teach us valuable lessons. To be on the lookout for what can be considered a beneficial development in an organization or perhaps what can be a bad plan plausibly implemented at the wrong time.
Internal strengths and weaknesses include things such as financial performance, organizational communication, product quality and availability, market share, customer perceptions, human resources, and production facilities and capacity (Ferrell and Hartline, 2014, p. 85). External opportunities and threats consist of things like technology, social trends, government regulations, and economic conditions (p. 85). A company can also determine what competitive advantages it has by conducting a SWOT analysis (p. 85). A SWOT analysis is simple and does not require any special training; however, there are several things that must be done to ensure that the analysis is productive (p. 87). Some of these things include conducting separate analyses for each product-market, identifying any current or potential competitors, sharing information across all areas of the company, looking at issues through the eyes of a customer, determining the causes of each issue, and maintaining separation between internal and external issues (p. 88-92).
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]