Business Operations Management (Assignment Guide)

When You Can't Find a Local Company's SWOT Analysis

As you research look for information that identifies:

• SWOT for the organization
  • Although the databases Business: Insights and Business Source Premiere provide SWOT Analyses, you may not be able to find an "official" SWOT Analysis for a smaller or local company.
• Play detective.  Look closely at the information that is available and use the information you find to provide a SWOT Insight for your  company
  • search using the keywords strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats separately with the company name in your search
  • search using synonyms of your key words, e.g. instead of weaknesses, try challenges, problems, issues, difficulties, etc.
• As you read, jot down information that indicates identifiable Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
  • company expands into new locations or purchases existing smaller businesses (strength)
  • company is fined or sued, or some issue is detected (weakness)
  • company partners with or upgrades something (opportunity)
  • competitor builds new store within a mile (threat)

Example of "strengths" from the article "Festival Foods buying three Gordy's Market stores in Eau Claire and Tomah" found in the library database Newspaper Source Plus (EBSCO).:

• You will do similar detective work to: 
  • identify the company's competitive advantage
    • cost savings, multiple locations, etc.
  • explore strategies for improving the competitive advantage and how this influences the company's organizational strategies as a whole
  • explain key performance indicators (KPI) for the company
  • identify factors that impact the sustainability of the company