Assignment Details:

· Please reply to the presented statement(s) below.

Deliverable Length: 250 words (minimum) per reply

ONE:

1. Accomplishing the course objectives will support my success in management by being alert on changes that need to be made to make said company successful. Making sure when issues arise, it is the manager’s duty to make sure those issues are taken care of and then never to be made again. Making a plan ahead of time to make necessary changes and a better work environment is essential. Having a plan is a great way to become a successful leader and staff to follow, but having manager skills, great communication, and knowledge of modern technology to navigate staff to become successful is ideally going to succeed.

If a manager does not master these objectives, then the company or department will not succeed without a manager who has a plan, wants to help staff become successful, communicating with peers of what is going on, skills to become a better department, or without a manager navigating through tough situations or issues. In that way, a manager will let down a whole staff, a company, customers, and themselves if they do not step up and become great leaders. They could lose money for the company and customers as well.

2. The importance of the current data in a SWOT analysis is for businesses and organizations to highlight where they need to work on their weaknesses to avoid them in the future, keep up their strengths, show where their opportunities may lay, and the threats that may occur outside of their reach. It is a plan or drawn out map that shows where the company stands in a competitive standpoint. That way, they can focus on how they change things up and focus on what is important on a performance level.

3. To identify the SWOT factors for a firm, a company needs to analyze data, financial reports, articles, and surveys to get the information they need in order to fill out the SWOT analysis. Then it will be split into an internal analysis and external analysis. The internal analysis is made up of strengths and weaknesses of the company. The information will be pulled from the data from HR, sales, marketing, accounting, research, and production. This will help narrow down how the company is doing and how the resources can help with future goals. Next the external analysis is performed. This consists of the opportunities and threats in a SWOT analysis. The factors and data come from demographics and technology to customers and competitors. Once the external and internal analysis is created, then the individual SWOT part is created and narrowed down.

4. The SWOT factors that must be specific to the firm are the internal part which is made up by the strengths and weaknesses. The company can improve these things and can control them because they are internal which will be specific to the firm. The external analysis is more generic because it consists of the opportunities and threats which they can not control as easily and do not have that much research as the internal part of the SWOT analysis.

TWO:

Success in management may come in many forms but understanding and knowing the basic fundamentals will create a strong foundation to create a path of success for management and the overall organization. Tools like creating improved business plans, using critical thinking skills, understanding legal issues/ethical issues, differentiating relationships, and effective communication techniques are all the basic building blocks of success in management. Based on my experience working abroad, many foreign businesses in the region where I work thrive on effective communication to build strong relationships. So, accomplishing these goals and many more like them will feed my success and the entire management team. There will be challenges along to the way to success, so any experience, good or bad, is still experience. The experience can then be adjusted, mastered, and applied to familiar challenges along the way to accomplishing success. Not understanding and mastering the experiences/objectives can cause a chain reaction which will delay management success or even cause failure.

Current data just like anything, when applied is the most accurate and true information available, any other information would be unacceptable. By knowing and understanding the current data of the SWOT analysis adjustments will be made. For instance, some of the threats may become opportunities, then the opportunities may eventually become strengths.

To determine the SWOT analysis of a fictitious firm (trademark) the internal factors of the strengths and weakness must be identified. The firm or organization has more control over these factors and can be clearly identified.

Opportunities and Threats are generally categorized as external factors. These factors cannot be controlled and can only be anticipated and encouraged by a firm or company. They are influenced from the outside of the company. Strengths and weaknesses are influenced and controlled from within the company.

Reference:

SWOT Analysis | Principles of Marketing. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-marketing-spring2016/chapter/reading-defining-and-using-a-swot-analysis/. Accessed 29 Jan. 2021.

THREE:

Once I focus in on the terminal course objectives, I will be able to improve my management skills in my current job. Every objective has a very important detail that would help a manager become more well rounded and better in their roles. Starting from the bottom and working up like we do in the workplace. The first step would be to instill and implement great communication strategies and techniques. Then again during a meeting or business gathering (training) show good and bad business practices that would strengthen the company and their overall practice. Technology is self-explanatory that is just getting better daily and implementing new pieces to strengthen the core practices makes every business better at the end of the day. Critical thinking skill are needed every day to solve problems and even to differentiate between political and economic forces. As we can all differentiate going through these objectives each one has an important meaning to business and their life cycles. Each one can help us improve and become a better manager or leader.

The current data within a SWOT analysis is very helpful in many ways. You can identify strengths, weaknesses, and even threats within your industry. This gives every business the opportunity to capitalize on other weaknesses and even strengthen their own businesses by pinpointing an area of need. The current data though portrays the current markets data not the past market data giving a real time insight on market shifts and opportunities.

Team, T., Wrote, B., & Wrote, M. (n.d.). SWOT Analysis: – How to Develop a Strategy For Success. Retrieved January 29, 2021, from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm

FOUR:

It takes a special kind of person to successfully lead and manage a team. The objectives of this course will provide further knowledge on how to better assess situations that present potential legal or ethical issues and provide guidance on how to create plans to improve business operations. Mastering these skills along with effective communication, critical thinking skills, and various trainings, will enhance one’s abilities in management.

Being in a leadership position, does not make one a leader. Risk or challenges that a manager may encounter if the objectives of this course are not met could include poor decision making, the inability to effectively communicate, and failure to build trust among their peers.

The current data in SWOT analysis is vital in determining the specific strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing both the internal and external environment of an organization. The current data is used to evaluate some of the pertinent internal issues affecting an organization and its impact on achieving sustainable competitiveness (Namugenyi, Nimmagadda & Reiners, 2019). As a result, the current data in SWOT analysis examines how the internal strengths of an organization can be used to solve its weakness in ensuring that it remains competitive. Besides, the external opportunities projected in the current SWOT analysis data are used in countering threats that negatively affect the competitiveness of an organization (Namugenyi et al., 2019). Notably, without current data, the SWOT analysis cannot be effective in achieving its primary objective. An organization using obsolete SWOT analysis data cannot achieve a competitive advantage. Such organizations end up formulating ineffective strategies that cannot counter external threats and internal weaknesses.

The primary objective of carrying out a SWOT analysis is to establish the vital internal and external factors that are essential in achieving competitiveness. As a strategic tool that is used to achieve the primary objectives of an organization, a fictitious firm should start by deciding on the end goal of carrying out a SWOT analysis (Gürel & Tat, 2017). The formulated objective guides the whole of the SWOT analysis process, making sure that specific internal and external factors are analyzed. Creating two broad groups consisting both internal and external factors is the subsequent step that is used in identifying SWOT analysis factors in a fictitious firm. As stated above, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of a fictitious firm will establish internal factors. Specific strengths and weaknesses of the internal factors of a fictitious firm are then listed. Listing these factors leads to the formulation of an effective management strategy that fosters competitiveness (Namugenyi et al., 2019). On the other hand, the external factors of a fictitious firm will be determined after evaluating the opportunities and threats in the business environment (Gürel & Tat, 2017). An extensive analysis of the industry in which the fictitious firm operates is then carried out. Results from this in-depth analysis lead to the listing of both external opportunities and threats of a fictitious firm. Similarly, the listed opportunities and threats enable the firm’s management to formulate an effective strategy.

A SWOT analysis is divided into two broad categories, comprising the internal and external factors. The internal factors are always specific to the organization. These factors include the strengths and weaknesses of an organization that either hinder or enable the firm to achieve its objectives (Phadermrod, Crowder & Wills, 2019). As a result, an organization’s strengths include anything that enables it to achieve its objectives, hence fostering competitiveness. The strengths allow an organization to pursue and achieve competitiveness without facing any challenge. An organization’s weaknesses include all the factors that counter the implemented efforts in achieving the set objectives (Phadermrod et al., 2019). Weaknesses are internal control factors that have to be fixed or changed using specific threats to achieve the primary objectives of an organization.

The generic factors of a SWOT analysis comprise all the external factors evident in an industry where an organization operates. Consequently, the opportunities and threats facing an organization are grouped in this category. Organizations can utilize external opportunities such as technological advancement, effective regulations and legislations, shifts in business competition, and other social-cultural changes to achieve competitiveness (Phadermrod et al., 2019). Apart from being used to achieve competitiveness, the opportunities of an organization are used to counter the generic threats that hinder the organization from achieving its primary objective (Phadermrod et al., 2019). A generic threat, such as stiff market competition, is likely to hinder a firm from achieving its objectives.

References

Gürel, E., & Tat, M. (2017). SWOT analysis: a theoretical review. Journal of International Social Research, 10(51).

Namugenyi, C., Nimmagadda, S. L., & Reiners, T. (2019). Design of a SWOT Analysis Model and its Evaluation in Diverse Digital Business Ecosystem Contexts. Procedia Computer Science, 159, 1145-1154. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R. M., & Wills, G. B. (2019). Importance-performance analysis based SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management, 44, 194-203.

FIVE:

When reviewing the core objectives of this course it is important for me as a leader to understand that change is inevitable and to be a successful company we must embrace the change and think strategically. It is important for management to understand these potential changes and propose ways to improve efficiency to stay ahead of the competition. I think it is important to think critically in a variety of ways and look at all aspects of the change to ensure the correct changes are made which fit the requirements of the company as well as the law and other forces.

In order to be a successful leader, you need to look at these opportunities and take advantage of the change to push the company forward. If a leader does not apply these aspects, they may have a hard time communicating strategic plans to their team, as well as communicating these possible changes to management to implement a change. In my time, working for a bank, especially in 2020 it was imperative for senior leaders to look at ways we did things and make the changes. Covid has changed how many companies do business and the companies which succeeded the most were the ones who were already thinking critically. They may not have had the perfect plan in place, however, they stay ahead of the pandemic in someway to ensure operations were continual and the employees were safe and taken care of. This was a great example as to why we it is important to understand the concepts of this course and prepare for the future and to think strategically.