business

1. ❖ What are business
objectives?
❖ Do you think
business objectives
can change ?
❖ What do you think
can make a
business change its
objectives?
● Businesses operate in a dynamic
(constantly changing)
environment which may cause
the business to pivot between
different objectives
○ Business objectives are
often influenced by various
internal and external factors
● These changes are often
necessary to ensure that the
business remains competitive,
profitable, and compliant with
regulations

7. ● SWOT Analysis is an
analytical tool used by
businesses to identify
○ Internal strengths and
weaknesses
○ External opportunities
and threats
Effective SWOT analysis can help
senior managers to understand
the current business position and
future changes that may occur so
that appropriate strategic
decisions may be made

8. ❖ Strengths describe what an organisation
excels at and what separates it from the
competition: a strong brand, loyal customer
base, a strong balance sheet, unique
technology, and so on.
For example:
○ Qualities that separate the business
from rivals
○ Internal resources such as skilled staff
or a particular innovation
○ Possession of assets such as capital,
patents or intellectual property
○ A loyal customer base
○ Effective leadership

9. Weaknesses stop an organisation from performing
at its optimum level. They are areas where the
business needs to improve to remain competitive:
a weak brand, higher-than-average turnover, high
levels of debt, an inadequate supply chain, or lack
of capital.
For example:
● Ways in which the business lags behind
competitors
● Resource or capital limitations including
labour and finance
● Lack of a competitive advantage
● Lack of a unique selling proposition (USP)
● Poor online presence

10. ❖ Opportunities refer to favorable external factors that
could give an organisation a competitive advantage.
For example, if a country cuts tariffs, a car
manufacturer can export its cars into a new market,
increasing sales and market share.
● Developing markets for specific products become
apparent
● Few competitors exist
● A changing legal or political environment positively
impacts on business processes and decisions
● Social or technological developments create an
emerging need for the businesses products
● Economic indicators becoming more favourable
● A potential for positive media coverage of the
business

11. Threats refer to factors that have the potential to harm an
organisation. For example, a drought is a threat to a
wheat-producing company, as it may destroy or reduce the
crop yield. Other common threats include things like rising
costs for materials, increasing competition, tight labor
supply. and so on.
Hazards that have the potential to damage business
performance
For example:
● New or emerging competitors are gaining market
share
● A changing legal or political environment negatively
impacting on business processes and decisions
● Social or technological developments threaten
obsolescence of products
● Economic indicators becoming less favourable
● Negative press coverage

12. Internal. What occurs within the company
serves as a great source of information for the
strengths and weaknesses categories of the
SWOT analysis. Examples of internal factors
include financial and human resources,
tangible and intangible (brand name) assets,
and operational efficiencies.
Potential questions to list internal factors are:
● (Strength) What are we doing well?
● (Strength) What is our strongest asset?
● (Weakness) What are our detractors?
● (Weakness) What are our
lowest-performing product lines?
External. What happens outside of the company is
equally as important to the success of a company
as internal factors. External influences, such as
monetary policies, market changes, and access to
suppliers, are categories to pull from to create a
list of opportunities and weaknesses.
Potential questions to list external factors are:
● (Opportunity) What trends are evident in the
marketplace?
● (Opportunity) What demographics are we not
targeting?
● (Threat) How many competitors exist, and
what is their market share?
● (Threat) Are there new regulations that
potentially could harm our operations or
products?

13. Pitfalls and Prerequisites of SWOT
Analysis
● Subjectivity: Over-reliance on subjective
evaluations rather than grounding
analyses in objective data and
perspectives.
● Complacency: Allowing the analysis to
stagnate, becoming obsolete amidst
evolving internal and external
environments.
● Misalignment: Devolving strategies that
are misaligned with the actual SWOT
elements, misconstruing or misapplying
derived insights.
Prerequisites for Efficacy
● Comprehensive Data: Ensuring
the analysis is based on
thorough, relevant, and recent
data, spanning all pertinent
aspects and sources.
● Objective Evaluation: Maintaining
an unbiased and objective lens
throughout the analysis,
safeguarding against skewed or
misinformed outputs.
● Strategic Alignment: Ensuring
that derived strategies are
inherently aligned with identified
SWOT elements, guaranteeing
relevance and applicability.