Strategy and SWOT Analysis
Key Concepts in Business Strategy and SWOT Analysis
Creating a competitive business advantage is a complex endeavor. Various techniques have been developed to guide the self-analysis process practiced by business enterprises. Traditional strategic planning engages a company in both internal and external analysis. In order to conduct a strategic analysis that makes niche or unique opportunities salient, it is necessary to have a robust view of the competitive landscape. Alternately, a thorough analysis of operations and position requires a penetrating look at the internal capacity of the company. A SWOT analysis promotes a clear-eyed look at the external and internal dimensions of a business that have the potential to impinge on the development of an effective strategic plan for the company.
A SWOT analysis takes the participants through a systematic process of examining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that are aspects of a company's business. The internal components of the SWOT analysis are described in terms of strengths and weaknesses, while the external components of the SWOT analysis are categorically described as opportunities and threats. Each of the SWOT components is important to the ultimate development of a strategic plan. That said, if emphasis needs to be placed on any particular dimension, it would be the aspects of the analysis that hold the promise of greater differentiation. Business analysts look for ways to be effective in ways that are most valued by consumers or clients: whatever the value-add, differentiation takes place in the mind of the consumer or client. Differentiation is not something that a business creates; differentiation is the result of some action by the business that conditions the perception of the consumer or the client to value or favor a company in some particular way. Essentially, to achieve differentiation, the core competencies of a company must be valued by customers or clients more than the core competencies of other businesses.
Strategic thinking is as much about what a business ought not to do as it is about what a company should do. Consider that the greatest competitive advantage may come about once a business has decided what it will not do that the competitors do, and are likely to continue doing. This is the fundamental premise of Blue Ocean strategy: a SWOT analysis and strategic planning can reveal niche opportunities that are conceptually fresh and radically appealing to consumers. Ostensibly, a niche opportunity can...
Competitive Strategy In a free economy, a multitude of firms compete for the business of the same customer segment. Therefore, if a firm is to succeed in attracting and retaining the maximum number of customers from the targeted segment, it must develop and successfully execute a strategy that has a distinct competitive advantage over its rivals. Thus, a competitive strategy is defined as a plan that attempts to define a position
Competitive Strategies and Government Policies Carnival Cruise Line: Carnival Cruise Line is a British-American cruise line headquartered in Florida, United States. It is one of the top ten cruise lines owned by Carnival Corporation & plc -- the largest operator of cruise ships in the world. Carnival Cruise line has the largest fleet size of 24 ships among all other subsidiaries of the Carnival Corporation. These ships provide deep sea cruising as
Competitive Strategies of Google and Microsoft The Battle for the Future of Search: Comparing the Brilliant, Competitive Cultures of Google and Microsoft Both Microsoft and Google have emerged as catalysts of remarkable growth in the high technology industry. Each of these companies have a very unique, finely-tuned series of strategies for managing the innovation processes, including the steps each rely on for creating new services. Each also has shown remarkable success at delivering
Companies that do not make such a choice run the risk of being caught in the middle. They may be good at everything, but excel at nothing. In business, however, success comes from developing competitive advantage, in particular sustainable competitive advantage. Firms therefore should focus their limited resources on excellence in one particular area, and be the best in the industry in that area. In Porter's generic strategies, a firm
Cost leadership Attracting more customers and gaining financial advantage over the competition as profits would increase 4 Forces the company to drastically reduce costs, meaning that product quality could suffer demises -4 0 6. Focus strategy Can achieve either of cost advantage or differentiation 4 Addresses a niche market -4 0 7. Differentiation strategy Product uniqueness which allows for the charging of a premium price to cover for the additionally incurred expenditure 5 Additional costs which will reduce overall financial gains (they will however be recuperated from
The factor for the major success of Microsoft in developing operating systems is that they usually tolerate a third party to write a program for them. Windows has managed to stay on top of its game because it has a variety of programs where one can choose from compared to MacOS distributions. Windows joined their forces with many programmers. Currently the danger of substitute systems of operation is at
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