Melaney Baker and Saima Amzed SWOT & PESTLE Melaney Baker and Saima Amzed

SWOT Is a tool to identify internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as its external opportunities and threats.

What can it be used for? business planning strategic planning outsourcing a service activity or resource an investment opportunity a method of sales distribution competitor evaluation marketing product development research reports

Applied to an organisation Primark moving store location… Need to look at how it will effect all people involved with company and therefore could use SWOT Opportunities e.g. more essential location, potential for new customers Threats; smaller store, less stock, possibly less sales Strength; finding a new location, otherwise would have to close down, all would people loose jobs Weakness; less employees, some made redundant therefore paying out for redundancy, brand image

Limitations to SWOT Need to go back and check the SWOT stays the same; time consuming Just a list, doesn’t prioritise the issues at hand and it doesn’t help to realise the overall goal A good way to generate many ideas however doesn’t help to choose the best or offer solutions Difficult to identify the elements e.g. a strength to one person could be a weakness to someone else Validity; can produce results that are bias

Alternatives SCORE: Strengths, Challenges, Options, Responses and Effectiveness SOAR: Strengths, Opportunism, Aspiration and Results NOISE: Needs, Opportunities, Improvements, Strengths and Exceptions SCOPE: Situation, Core competencies, Obstacles, Prospects and Expectations

PESTLE PESTLE is a acronym which symbolises P for Political, E for Economic, S for Social, T for Technological, L for Legal and E for Environmental.

What can it used for? Companies can track the environment they are operating in, allows them to investigate the external environment Helps to plan and launch a new product/project/service Helps to guide strategic decision making, helps to see if a plan/idea is worth going ahead with

Applied to an organisation Apple releasing a new IPhone, will need to look at external environment Political: higher calls for corporate taxation in America, therefore would have to pay more tax Economic: Increased labour costs in China Social: Ethical concerns in Chinese labour, could limit socially conscious consumers Technological: Competitors such as Google and Samsung can duplicate product, not unique Legal: Company depends on products being covered by intellectual property laws, Apple venerable to piracy and lawsuits Environmental: Pollution is a growing concern from manufacturing facilities

Limitations to PESTLE Users can oversimplify the information that is used for making decisions The process has to be conducted regularly to be effective and often organizations do not make this investment. Users must not submit to 'paralysis by analysis' where they gather too much information and forget that the objective of this tool is the identification of issues so that action can be taken. Organizations often restrict who is involved due to time and cost considerations. This limits the technique's effectiveness as a key perspective may be missing from the discussions. Users' access to quality external information is often restricted because of the cost and time needed to collate it. Assumptions often form the basis for most of the data used, making any decision made based on such data subjective. -

Alternatives PEST: Political, Economic, Technical, and Social STEP: Strategic Trend Evaluation Process DEEPLIST: Demographic, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal, Informational, Social and Technological Many variations, with very similar factors!!