Question

Please perform this analysis using the example case study. Use as much space as needed.

Strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats (SWOT)

1. Introduction to SWOT - Begin with an introduction to the SWOT analysis. Make sure you make it understandable to someone who has no knowledge of our class or what we are doing.

2. Five strengths - clearly stated, explained with a summary sentence, backed up with a data point
3. Five weaknesses - clearly stated, explained with a summary sentence, backed up with a data point
4. Five opportunities - clearly stated, explained with a summary sentence, backed up with a data point
5. Five threats - clearly stated, explained with a summary sentence, backed up with a data point
6. Five sets of pairs between strengths and opportunities; and weaknesses and threats
7. Easy to comprehend?
8. Appropriate visual quadrants
9. Wrap up paragraph – Include a wrap up paragraph summarizing what you did and prepare the reader for the next stage of your portfolio, the competitive advantage. Rank and prioritize results
10. Grammar and spelling

Answer 1

answer-

SWOT analysis is one of the most widely used tools for strategic analysis. According to a research done by Harvard Business School – more than 75% of the decision makers in strategy department had used SWOT analysis for the purpose of strategic analysis.

SWOT Analysis is a methodological approach to analyze the - Strengths & Weaknesses that Amazon Cent possess, and Opportunities & Threats that the firm faces because of competitive and macro-economic factors.

SWOT analysis provides key insights into both internal and external factors that can impact the performance of an organization. It can help the managers of the organization to optimize performance, look for new opportunities, manage competition, maximize return on resources employed, and minimization of various business and policy making risks.

Case Study Overview

As the world's largest online retailer, Amazon had a 12.3 per cent worldwide market share and had operations in 10 countries. However, its performance was markedly unbalanced across different countries. For example, it had a significant market share in Germany at 21.4 per cent, while it only owned 1.7 per cent of the Chinese online retailing market. In this way, Amazon faced critical challenges in developing future international strategies. Should it continue its global expansion into new markets? What should the company do with less successful markets, such as China? Yong Li is affiliated with State University of New York at Buffalo. Jing Li is affiliated with Simon Fraser University.

What are "Strengths" in SWOT Analysis?

Strengths are the firm's capabilities and resources that it can use to design, develop, and sustain competitive advantage in the marketplace

- High margins compare to Leadership & Managing People industry's competitors - Even though Amazon Cent is facing downward pressure on profitability, compare to competitors it is still racking in higher profit margins.

- Track record of innovation - Even though most players in the Leadership & Managing People strive to innovate, Amazon Cent has successful record at consumer driven innovation.

- Market Leadership Position - Amazon Cent has a strong market leadership position in the Leadership & Managing People industry. It has helped the company to rapidly scale new products successes.

- Wide geographic presence - Amazon Cent has extensive dealer network and associates network that not only help in delivering efficient services to the customers but also help in managing competitive challenges in Leadership & Managing People industry.

- Talent management at Amazon Cent and skill development of the employees - Human resources are integral to the success of Amazon Cent in Leadership & Managing People industry.

What are "Weaknesses" in SWOT Analysis?

Weaknesses in case study Amazon Goes Global can either be absence of strengths or resources of capabilities that are required but at present the organization doesn't have. Managers have to be certain if the weakness is present because of lack of strategic planning or as a result of strategic choice.

- Low investments into Amazon Cent's customer oriented services - This can lead to competitors gaining advantage in near future.

- Declining market share of Amazon Cent with increasing revenues - the Leadership & Managing People industry is growing faster than the company. In such a scenario Amazon Cent has to carefully analyze the various trends within the sector and figure out what it needs to do to drive future growth.

- High turnover of employees at the lower levels is also a concern for the Amazon Cent . It can lead to higher salaries to maintain the talent within the firm.

- Business Model of Amazon Cent can be easily imitated by the competitors in the industryname industry. To overcome these challenges companyname needs to build a platform model that can integrate suppliers, vendors and end users.

Opportunities are potential areas where the firm chan identify potential for - growth, profits, and market share.

- Lower inflation rate - The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Amazon Cent. This will increase the consumption of Amazon Cent products.

- Trend of customers migrating to higher end products - It represents great opportunity for Amazon Cent, as the firm has strong brand recognition in the premium segment, customers have experience with excellent customer services provided by Amazon Cent brands in the lower segment. It can be a win-win for the company and provides an opportunity to increase the profitability.

- Opportunities in Online Space - Increasing adoption of online services by customers will also enable Amazon Cent to provide new offerings to the customers in industry.

- Rapid Expansion of Economy As the US economy is improving faster than any other developed economy, it will provide Amazon Cent an opportunity to expand into the US market. Amazon Cent already have know-how to operate into the competitive US market.

- Increasing customer base in lower segments - As customers have to migrate from un-organized operators in the industry to licensed players. It will provide Amazon Cent an opportunity to penetrate entry level market with a no-frill offering.

Threats are factors that can be potential dangers to the firm's business models because of changes in macro economic factors and changing consumer perceptions. Threats can be managed but not controlled.

- Changing demographics - As the babyboomers are retiring and new generation finding hard to replace their purchasing power. This can lead to higher profits in the short run for Amazon Cent but reducing margins over the long run as young people are less brand loyal and more open to experimentation.

- Growing technological expertise of local players in the export market - One of the biggest threat of tie-up with the local players in the export market for Amazon Goes Global is threat of losing IPR. The intellectual property rights framework is not very strong in emerging markets especially in China.

- Shortage of skilled human resources - Given the high turnover of employees and increasing dependence on innovative solution, companyname can face skilled human resources challenges in the near future.

- Competitive pressures - As the new product launch cycles are reducing in the industry. It has put additional competitive pressures on players such as Amazon Cent. Given the large customer base, Amazon Cent can't respond quickly to the needs of the niche markets that disruptors are focusing on.

What should be included in a SWOT analysis of Amazon Goes Global?

There are four major elements / components of SWOT analysis - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Amazon Cent can divide these four elements into two broad categories - Internal Factors and External Factors.

	Opportunities	Threats
Strengths	Strength Opportunities (SO) Strategies Leveraging brand recognition in new segments	Strength Threats (ST) Strategies Investing into R&D to thwart Leadership & Managing People industry disruptors.
Weaknesses	Weakness Opportunities (WO) Strategies Investing into customer oriented services and supply chain	Weaknesses Threats (WT) Strategies Get out of the business and focus on growth areas