Problem: CanGo has never prepared a SWOT analysis. This can lead to poor decision making and ineffective goal determination. Solution: Prepare a SWOT analysis which shows the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are often internal factors while opportunities and threats are external. CanGo needs to do a SWOT analysis in order to identify where they are strong and where they are vulnerable. To do a SWOT analysis CanGo needs to ask themselves the following for each section:
STRENGTHS: What advantages do we have? What do we do better than anyone else? What unique or lowest-cost resources can we draw upon that others can’t? What do people in their market see as our strengths? Examples of CanGo’s strengths are: cost advantage, cohesive workforce, pricing, online growth and market share leadership. WEAKNESSES: What could we improve? What should we avoid? What are people in our market likely to see as weaknesses? What factors lose us sales?
Examples of CanGo’s weaknesses are: bad communication, no clear strategic plan, weak management team, low R and poor decision making. OPPORTUNITIES: What good opportunities can we spot? What interesting trends are we aware of? Examples of CanGo’s opportunities are: large variety of online content, product and services expansion and emerging markets and expansion abroad THREATS: What obstacles do we face? What are our competitors doing? Is changing technology threatening our position? Do we have bad debt or cash-flow problems?
Could any of our weaknesses seriously threaten our business? Examples of CanGo’s threats are: lack of clear performance goals, ineffective employee evaluation, competition from other online companies and cash-flow problems. (http://www. mindtools. com/pages/article/newTMC_05. htm) After identification of each control, CanGo should do the following with respect to each: Strengths- maintained, build upon or leverage. Weaknesses-remedy, change or stop. Opportunities-prioritize, capture, build upon and optimize.
Threats -counter or minimize and manage. All of these controls are very important in preparing the company for any future problems. It is also used to analyze prospects for sales and profitability, as well as revealing competitive advantages. In addition to all this, it gives you the big picture of the most important factors that can influence survival and prosperity. Preparing the SWOT analysis is also a great a way to keep a company in check and allow for the development of future expansion plans.