The SWOT Analysis of Beyond Product - Essay Example

The SWOT analysis of beyond Product The SWOT analysis is a tool used to examine the internal look of the company via evaluating its strength, weakness. It involves analysis of external look through examining the opportunities and threats that the company encounters in the process of operations. According to Pahl and Richter (25), the SWOT analysis will assist Peter to assess the ability of the company in undertaking its operations of producing and marketing the products of the company. Since, the company is still developing and finding its market position, financial positions are not adequate for the company to maximize its profitability. However, the Beyond company has a significant strength from the Peter, who is a vital shareholder and has experience on the business. The participation of peter in the business plan completion helped him to win the competition that provides knowledge he used to formulate business strategy that helps in achieving their objectives of introducing the snowboards in the market. His partner who had complementary financial and accounting skills also helped in the product and business plan development. The Italian and Belgian engineering companies and the significant chemical company motivated peter to develop hybrid binding with positive features that proved that the market was ready for a new product. However, the company faced severe challenges in product development and marketing strategies because it was costly, and the company was limited to financing methods. Meanwhile, lack of assurance to the inventors due to slow product development of the product in the market caused peter to loss the only partner, who was supporting the company financially. The beyond product has a significant opportunity of achieving it mission to provide a range of high quality products by allowing business angels to invest their equity of pounds 300,000. Meanwhile, the company will encounter potential threats from generating the interest of importers at the ISPO fair because the sales would be much lower than expected that will jeopardize the future of the company. The Market Opportunity Available For Peter The snowboarding is the quickest growing sport in the united State with average growth rate of 11.4 percent that will offer peter a sizeable market opportunity for its products. Meanwhile, there are seventeen million snowboarders active globally that account for every one third of the total winter sport population, and since the peter product is designed for this purpose it will benefit from these buyers. The marketing mix of the snowboarder capture the youth between the age of the 20 and 25 and male are more interested than the female, but the number of the interested older snowboarders and female is growing faster. Peter product will benefit a lot with these marketing mix opportunities of the young, older, male and female worldwide. Meanwhile, the snowboard industry has improved and represent 15 percent of all winter sales that assures peter of steady market opportunity of the product in the current situation and in the future. The trend of the snowboarders’ sales in the most powerful countries like Japan, United State, Canada and Europe have shown positive growth that is a reasonable market opportunity for peter’s products. The change of customer behavior towards the range of the snowboarders in indicate that the Hybrid bindings is expected to gain the market share in the future; thus, the peters hybrid binding will withstand the customer preference changes. Recommendations for Peter’s Product Development According to Sam and Makor (17), Product development is characterized as a complete process of binding a new product to the existing market. The process often commences with idea, design, creation and ends with a successful product on the market. Thus, I would recommend peter to do active product development particularly for the existing customers that will help him enhance company competitiveness and high growth. In order to achieve sustainable growth and competitiveness, peter should develop market vision, explore strategic relationship and create strong brands that will enable him capture the market niche for his product. I would recommend peter to employ technological advances like internet and e-business marketing that will develop the new networks for product development in the global market. The technology will change in product development that will respond to the increasing trend of competition. Martin (449) indicate that the rapidly changing customer requirements will help peter to enhance the ability to develop and produce quality products faster and cheaper. Moreover, by implementing the technology in product developments it provides a platform to share information, resources and allow the company to shorten the development cycle of the new product of peter in the market. Meanwhile, he should continue doing research on his product via innovation that will develop his product and address superior customer’s needs more competitively and profitability than existing solutions (De Wit 121). The Financial Proposal Longenecker and Moore (56) indicate that the financial proposal contains details on how individual or company intends to achieve their business plan. The financial proposal is significant in helping the company to raise capital and can be beneficial to the operation of the company. The financial proposal that I would make to the business angel’s will not be detailed because the beyond business is still making ways to capture the market. Background The Beyond company was founded by the peter after saving to develop a revolutionary model of the snowboard bindings. During the business plan competition, peter met a partner with complementary financial and accounting skills who invest his money in the company. The management The beyond company is managed by the leading shareholder peter and his partner, who has a significant share in the company. The peter’s contribution from his saving amounted to pound 350,000, and that of his partner amount to pound 207,000, and the contribution of new investors will amount to pound 300,000. Products The Beyond products deals with only the snowboard binding product that will be used in the winter sport activities, in various market niche. The customers range from the old, young, male and female that will compete for peter’s patent in the market. Market The snowboard binding patent will capture the United State, Europe, Canada and Japan because they have a positive trend of the future of the Beyond product company. The company will use wholesale, retailers as the means of the channel of distribution of its products to the market. Financial performance From the profit and loss exhibit of the Beyond product, it shows the past performance and the projected future performance of the beyond product. Peter predicted that the new binding may capture 10 percent of the global market, and expect sales of 12, 000 in 2006 that will increase to 280,000 in 2011. Meanwhile, the sales prices to the customer will vary between pound 200 and pound 240 that will allow gross margin of approximately pound 30 per binding for beyond product. The predicted financial performance and the trend of the targeted market opportunities are a clear indication of the ability of the beyond company to capture the market. Business angels will make a wise decision in investing pound 300,000 into the beyond company. Works Cited De Wit, Meyer. Strategy: Process, Content, Context. London: Thomson Business Press, 2003. Longenecker, Justin and Moore, Carlos. Small Business Management: An Entrepreneurial Emphasis. New York: CengageBrain Inc, 2005. Martin, Thompson. Strategic management. New York: CengageBrain Inc, 2010. Pahl, Nadine and Richter, Anne. SWOT Analysis- Idea, Methodology and a Practical Approach. United Kingdom: GRIN Verlag Press, 2009. Sam, Steven and Makor, Jared. Strategic Internet Business Management: An Assessment of Internet Business Growth Strategies. United Kingdom: GRIN Verlag Press, 2011. Read More