Enterprise Task 4-Who else is out there - how good are they?-Notes

For this Enterprise task we have been asked to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of three practitioners or design agencies as objectively as you can.

We have to assess what opportunities for your own practise have revealed themselves to you as a result of this analysis and evaluation.

In responding to this task you will need to consider the following questions:

Who am I competing against?

What do they offer?

What makes me better?

What makes me different?

The task also asks us to make references to SWOT and evaluate its usefulness as an analysis or evaluation tool. 

I am going to go over the SWOT analysis to make sure I use it correctly. 

SWOT-Strength, weakness, opportunity, threats. 

Strengths:

• What advantages does your organization have?
• What do you do better than anyone else?
• What unique or lowest-cost resources can you draw upon that others can't?
• What do people in your market see as your strengths?
• What factors mean that you "get the sale"?
• What is your organization's Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

Consider your strengths from both an internal perspective, and from the point of view of your customers and people in your market.

You should also be realistic - it's far too easy to fall prey to "not invented here syndrome." Also, if you're having any difficulty with this, try writing down a list of your organization's characteristics. Some of these will hopefully be strengths!

When looking at your strengths, think about them in relation to your competitors. For example, if all of your competitors provide high quality products, then a high quality production process is not a strength in your organization's market, it's a necessity.

Weaknesses:

• What could you improve?
• What should you avoid?
• What are people in your market likely to see as weaknesses?
• What factors lose you sales?

Again, consider this from an internal and external basis: Do other people seem to perceive weaknesses that you don't see? Are your competitors doing any better than you?

It's best to be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible.

Opportunities:

• What good opportunities can you spot?
• What interesting trends are you aware of?

Useful opportunities can come from such things as:

• Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow scale.
• Changes in government policy related to your field.
• Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, and so on.
• Local events

Threats

• What obstacles do you face?
• What are your competitors doing?
• Are quality standards or specifications for your job, products or services changing?
• Is changing technology threatening your position?
• Do you have bad debt or cash-flow problems?
• Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your business?

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm