SWOT Analysis is a commonly used strategic management framework which scans internal strengths and internal weaknesses of a product or service industry and highlights the opportunities and threats of the external environment. This will help to focus on the strengths, minimize weaknesses and take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available by overcoming threats. SWOT Analysis becomes a useless exercise if it is not extended to TOWS Analysis where the strengths are used to capitalize on opportunities and to counter threats and, the weaknesses are minimized using opportunities and both weaknesses and threats are avoided. Read More: SWOT Analysis — A Strategic Planning Tool Weihrich developed TOWS Matrix in 1982, as the next step of SWOT Analysis in developing alternative strategies. TOWS Matrix is a conceptual framework for identifying and analyzing the threats (T) and opportunities (O) in the external environment and assessing the organization’s weaknesses (W) and strengths (S). Continue reading
Business Strategies
Case Study: Google’s Competitive Advantage
The rise of Google, now a $6.1 billion company, has been fast and fierce. Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page met in 1995 as Stanford University graduate students. They created a search engine that combined the technologies of Page’s PageRank system, which evaluates a page’s importance based on the external links to it, and Brin’s Web crawler, which visits Web sites and records a summary of their content. Because Google was so effective, it quickly became the search engine of choice for Web users. Today, Google handles nearly 50 percent of Web searches. Google stopped displaying the number of Web pages it indexed after the number surpassed 8 billion in 2005, but some estimates now place the number at 25 billion. Google’s index also includes one billion images and one billion Usenet newsgroup messages. In addition to searching for Web pages, Google users can search for PDF, PostScript, text, Microsoft Continue reading
Case Study: Kellogg’s Business Strategy
Kellogg’s is the world’s largest cereal maker since 1906 and is located in the United States. Kellogg’s products has become a part of the delicious mornings for the people around the world since a century. Its business is operated in two segments: Kellogg’s North America and Kellogg’s International. 66% of the revenue to the company comes from North America region which consists of the Canada and the United States. The remaining 34% comes from the Kellogg’s international market which consists of Europe (20%), Latin America (8%) and Asia Pacific (6%). The products vary from ready-to-eat cereals to convenience foods such as cereal bars, cookies, toaster pastries, crackers, frozen waffles, snacks and veggie foods. Obesity and Health & Wellness is the primary concern for people in the world today. Kellogg’s has invested on this trend by introducing many health focused products like Kellogg’s ®, Pop-Tarts ®, Cheez-It ®, Mini-Wheats ®, Nutri-Grain Continue reading
Case Study: Competitive Advantage of Hewlett Packard (HP)
Hewlett Packard popularly called HP is a company that provides technology solutions to consumers, businesses and all forms of institutions worldwide. The company later expands its operations to IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing services. The company is known throughout the world by operating in more than 170 countries around the world. The mission of the company is to facilitate how technology and services can assist individuals and institutions in addressing their problems and challenges so as to realize their dreams. The company applies new thinking and ideas come out with basic and valuable experiences with the technology with her IT corporation headquarter in Palo, Alto, California, USA. The company has been maintaining a lead among her contemporaries due to the effective strategic planning of the company and this has been jealously guided by the company in virtually all her businesses. How Competitive Continue reading
Business Turnaround Strategies
When a firm has experienced a serious decline in its market position, it is a candidate to mount an all-out effort to turn the firm around and improve its market position. Use of a turnaround strategy appears to be most appropriate when the firm’s decline is caused by internal actions such as improper strategy selection or poor implementation and execution of a workable. If the analysis indicates the firm’s present strategy is appropriate, then the problem is poor implementation. If the analysis indicates the firm’s present strategy is inappropriate, then the problem is improper strategy selection. Turnaround strategies attempt to revitalize businesses in a slump. They involve a combination of cost-cutting measures and revenue-enhancing strategies. Before a firm elects a turnaround strategy, two questions should be asked: Does the firm have the capabilities to earn an acceptable level of profits in the future? Will the firm’s value after a successful Continue reading
Case Study of Apple: Competitive Advantage Through Innovation
Apple Inc. is an American consumer electronic company which designs, develops manufactures and supports the well-known hardware products such as Macintosh computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Most of Apple’s products seem to be a trigger of revolution in electronic market and this reason contribute Apple as a market leader. The main strategy to run its business is not only creating new innovation product but also incremental improvement. The strength of Apple is “think different”. With innovative ideas and aesthetic designs, Apple has changed how people listen to music and communicate. One of the success products of Apple is iPhone which is a revolutionary device. It combined the feature of music device (iPod) and mobile phone technology with the key feature on this product that is “multi-touch” and “multi-tasking” on the graphic user interface. The phone supports a camera, a multimedia player, a blue tooth, web browsing and Continue reading