SWOT and PEST analysis
Within the marketing management sector of a business the importance of strategic planning is paramount. There are two main situational analysis techniques that are used within the industry to do this, SWOT and PEEST. Mintzberg and Waters (1985) wrote about the importance of an error free strategy formulation allowing for the most efficient path to be taken when achieving the chosen objective. With the use of a multitude of academic sources and my own notes I shall reveal the importance of this in relation to British Airways’ decision-making process.
SWOT analysis
The acronym SWOT highlights the importance of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that are present in the microeconomic vicinity of the organisation in question. This market analysis technique is used by businesses to aid the decision making process when an objective has been defined. First brought about in the 1960’s by Albert Humphrey, the analysis combined internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) knowledge to assess if the objective is attainable or not. The U.S Department of Agriculture released a text discussing the SWOT analysis in practice and assessed each factor (or letter) and what it provides. The strengths of a business relate to the internal fortes of the company and can include the skillset of employees or the resource advantages that the company holds. Weaknesses are detrimental factors that ‘need to be addressed in order to run a successful business’. Opportunities are considered external. Jim Riley (2012) defined them as ‘(…) any feature of the external environment which creates positive potential for the business to achieve its objectives.’ Threats highlight any ‘indication of approaching or imminent (…) negative event that can cause a risk to become a loss’
Advantages of SWOT
Businesses will use Humphrey’s SWOT analysis technique in order to understand their business better and grasp the effects of the company’s environment on
SWOT analysis
The acronym SWOT highlights the importance of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that are present in the microeconomic vicinity of the organisation in question. This market analysis technique is used by businesses to aid the decision making process when an objective has been defined. First brought about in the 1960’s by Albert Humphrey, the analysis combined internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) knowledge to assess if the objective is attainable or not. The U.S Department of Agriculture released a text discussing the SWOT analysis in practice and assessed each factor (or letter) and what it provides. The strengths of a business relate to the internal fortes of the company and can include the skillset of employees or the resource advantages that the company holds. Weaknesses are detrimental factors that ‘need to be addressed in order to run a successful business’. Opportunities are considered external. Jim Riley (2012) defined them as ‘(…) any feature of the external environment which creates positive potential for the business to achieve its objectives.’ Threats highlight any ‘indication of approaching or imminent (…) negative event that can cause a risk to become a loss’
Advantages of SWOT
Businesses will use Humphrey’s SWOT analysis technique in order to understand their business better and grasp the effects of the company’s environment on