Learning Activity : Analyzing the External and Internal Environments
introduces the very important concept of SWOT analysis which is one of the steps in the strategic planning process. Many of you will have a whole capstone course later on related to this topic which will break these down into the following general categories (with even more detail):
• You will note that the strengths and weaknesses refer to internal factors and there many different ones to consider such as:
o Culture,
o Leadership,
o Financial, physical, organizational, technological, human, innovative, and reputational resources,
o Competitive advantages/disadvantages/parities with respect to competitors, and so on.
• The opportunities and threats are external things that impact the firm. They include ones in the
o Natural environment (e.g., weather, climate, disasters, ecosystem, pollution, infrastructure, and geography);
o Macro- or general external environment (e.g., "PEST" Political/regulator/government/regulatory,Economic, Sociocultural/demographic, and Technological factors); and
o Task or operating environment - examines the industry itself and related and supporting ones ("Porter's Five Forces" - (1) existing competitors, (2) possible threat of future competitors, (3) power of suppliers, (4) power of buyers, and(5) substitutes such as cars/trains/motorcycles or eye glasses/contact lenses/Lasik surgery; in addition to what could be called a "sixth" force known as "complementors" which are different from direct suppliers but are other industries that you do not compete with but are still necessary to make your industry possible such as the auto makers/oil companies/highway construction firms/insurance agencies).
1) Try creating a SWOT analysisfor the organization you chose last week that you thought would be an interesting one for you to start (or you can choose one that you currently work for or have worked for in the past instead if you like). You probably won't have anything such as detailed financial statements or other such information but see what you can come up with related to a number of different factors in the external and internal environments). In other words see if you can list 3-5 of each of the most important S, W, O, and T factors and explain how each affects your particular organization. What do the results indicate regarding the organization's viability?
2) There is a well-known concept that allows you to match the S, W, O, and T factors called a TOWS Matrix - you will see many examples of this online such as the one athttps://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_89.htm. It is a great technique that you can create relatively quickly after you have done a SWOT analysis (something you would likely do anyway) to persuade an audience (e.g., senior managers, investors, partners, and coworkers) that you have come up with viable strategies to deal with different situations affecting an organization.
The idea here is to use the lists of factors from the SWOT analysis to now describe the types of TOWS strategies that would benefit your organization and fall into the SO, WO, ST, and WT cells as shown in the matrix on the website. Indicate in your description of strategies which particular strengths and weaknesses correspond with specific SO, WO, ST, and WT strategies using a nomenclature similar to (S2, O3) which would refer to the second strength which matches with the third opportunity. (Note that the Mind Tools website mentioned even has a worksheet that you can use but I am not sure whether or not it will come out in a useful format if you try to paste it into LEO but you can still describe the content of the four cells separately.)
Learning Activity : Leadership and Motivation
Describe leaders that you have had and how effective and efficient they may or may not have been (if you have not had a great deal of work experience you can describe other leaders you have read about). How did (or didn't) they motivate you? The leaders you describe could be from public or private businesses, government agencies, nonprofit entities, the military or even the sports world. What well known leaders do you admire and not admire and why? Have you been a leader before? If so, what have you done to make those under you perform to their fullest potential? What could you do better as a leader in the future and how could you enhance your skills to accomplish this (you can answer this part even if you weren't a leader).