BigTime SWOT Analysis - Essay Example

? SWOT Analysis SWOT Analysis While BigTime has long been revered as a firm whose primary area of concentration was consulting, atpresent, it endeavors to alter its image so that it is associated with additional areas of specialization as necessitated by the changing environment. The company presently appreciates the need to change its specializations to cover additional areas. In an attempt to revitalize its business and acquire greater strategic positioning, BigTime has called for assistance with its marketing and international organizational structure. The organization appears to have outgrown a vast majority of its present systems, and is presently faced with the challenge of having to layoff at least 500 workers. In order to sustain its tradition of not laying off any of its employees, BigTime will need to tackle the issues identified in the SWOT analysis presented in this report. The key issue lies in the company’s view to revolutionize its operations in order to integrate additional product offerings. This paper will provide a comprehensive SWOT analysis that will inform BigTime’s adoption of comprehensive marketing and organizational structure strategies. The SWOT analysis will be indispensable in helping BigTime take full advantage of its increasing customer base. BigTime SWOT analysis An organization’s SWOT analysis matrix is essential since it facilitates the realization of various factors concerning the organization, for instance, its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. These benchmarks are valuable in ascertaining the overall efficacy of the company’s business operations and realizing probable problematic areas and devising viable systems to tackle the problems. Strengths One of BigTime’s greatest strengths is its reputation of producing appropriate product offerings that are not only pertinent to the markets at different times, but are also tailored for each customer. In fact, the organization has been able to garner massive market presence and share based only on its name and reputation. The company is renowned for providing superior quality virtual management services to its customers. This positive reputation has been sufficient in creating opportunities for the company is diverse areas of the market. Question 1 This means that BigTime relies on its customers’ views or word of mouth as a form of marketing to other companies. Additionally, BigTime bases its marketing strategy solely on its website, which was developed 4 years ago by the vice president’s son. Through this marketing strategy, the business has attained major strides in enhancing its sales records, ultimately realizing a 20% increase in its reported profits in one year. Brand image is one of the most vital elements of an organization’s overall attractiveness. Therefore, BigTime’s good reputation and the name has a positive impact on its brand image, making the organization’s product and institutional brands quite appealing to the market. Furthermore, having operated in the virtual management market for 20 years, BigTime has in-depth knowledge of the market, which enables the company tailor its products based on market demands. Additionally, BigTime has superior infrastructure that continues to facilitate access and exploitation of applications needed to facilitate successful delivery of virtual management systems. These systems and applications are critical since they facilitate the organization’s provision of a holistic virtual experience to its customers. At present, BigTime boasts of a massive proportion of the virtual management market. BigTime’s operations in the country are approximately one-third of the market as BigTime is one of three companies that dominate the virtual management sector. Another key strength inherent in the organization is its wide array of products. BigTime offers an array of virtual services including management, organizational change, management, organizational leadership, and business. These products allow the organization to participate in diverse markets that constitute the virtual industry. This is implicit of the organization’s possession of a highly knowledgeable and specialized workforce that is able to provide different products without compromising on quality. Additionally, the organization’s customer-focused business strategy ensures success in its business framework (Pearce & Robinson, 2009). The fact that a massive portion of the organization’s clientele consists of Fortune 500 companies is implicit of BigTime’s viability as a virtual systems provider. The company’s present customer base implies that BigTime is able to demonstrate commitment to its customers in all areas of business. Weaknesses As a massive organization, BigTime is bound to experience problems emanating from its national controlling operations altering the focus from the sustenance of product quality. Essentially, through enhanced business and concentration on additional specializations, BigTime focus may change from guaranteeing product and service quality to maximizing its access to novel markets with a view to increase its revenue levels. The need to enter new markets through additional specializations is a weakness since it may result in the company compromising on the quality of its product offerings by concentrating on output rather than quality. At its core, the issue of business restructuring particularly in the 21st century, is aimed at dealing with such problems. This can be achieved by focusing business units on the satisfaction of all company customers instead of concentrating on achieving major technological advancements or entries into fresh markets. In addition, managing the organization’s operations on a national or even global milieu is part and parcel of BigTime’s weaknesses. Running an organization that is as massive as BigTime is a major challenge, compared to running a small firm with minimal product offerings and an intimate customer base. Another major weakness inherent in BigTime concerns its inadequate marketing strategies, which have proven inadequate in terms of helping the organization find additional clients in order to maintain its present workforce. Herein lies another weakness; the company’s organizational structure strategy is quite unsuccessful in ensuring that it meets its workforce needs without excesses or deficits. Currently, BigTime has a bloated workforce compared to the volume of its customers. Essentially, BigTime human resources management is quite inadequate since the company has more workers than it can sustain effectively. Therefore, the company will be required to fire 500 employees in order to ensure its workforce is equivalent to its client base. Opportunities Although the company presently possesses a praiseworthy record with regard to its product offerings and market capitalization, BigTime still has vast, viable market opportunities within the virtual management market. The global market provides a massive market pool for all businesses. Question 2 By entering the global market, BigTime will be able to take full advantage of additional market opportunities, thereby increasing its slice of the market, particularly by entering virgin markets, as well as competing with other providers of virtual business products in existing markets. Conversely, the world is rapidly becoming a technological village following robust technological inventions. Such technological advances provide major business opportunities, especially for organizations such as BigTime, which deal with virtual products that call for the use of highly technical systems and devices. The increasingly diversified array of customer preferences and needs is also an opportunity for increased business, by increasing market sharing, for instance, by offering highly innovative virtual products. Question 3 Technological innovations present increased opportunities for the company’s growth since technological advancements in technology-related industries are known to enhance the creation of novel products and services. This means that investing in innovative technologies presents a viable starting point towards BigTime’s achievement of superior quality product offerings. This, in turn, has the capacity to double the organization’s present earnings in the next five years. By taking full advantage of future technological innovations, BigTime will be able to increase its capacity to cater for additional customers, thereby doubling its earnings. Question 4 The continued growth of the technology industry is, therefore, a major opportunity. However, since BigTime presently uses an outdated website, which was developed at least 4 years ago, it is unable to take full advantage of current technologies in its marketing endeavors. Consequently, there is a need for BigTime to update its website to ensure it attains the greatest marketing capacity. Conversely, the global shift towards green business practices is also a major opportunity presented by technological advancements. Companies are increasingly becoming cautious of their carbon footprint, thus are targeting innovative ways of operating, which do not require the use of paper and other non-green practices. Additionally, the ability to adapt effectively to change is a notable opportunity. BigTime’s management has appreciated the need to revolutionize its marketing and organizational structure. Therefore, the company acknowledges the need for and importance of change to ensuring business sustainability. Essentially, BigTime needs to change its present practices by implementing a robust marketing that ensures the business promotes its products to existing and novel markets. Threats Question 4 The greatest threat experienced by BigTime is intense competition and the threat of entry of new market participants as technology-related businesses continue to attract investors. Although the company has been able to deal with competition in the past, its existing and prospective competitors pose a serious threat to its sales capacity, market capitalization and share, and ultimately, the company’s bottom line. Consequently, BigTime needs to market its products elsewhere to ensure it captures the attention of the entire market. This means that BigTime should start marketing its products in avenues such as technology forums and conferences. It is also critical for BigTime to start marketing its products through the media, including newspapers, magazines, television and radio. This will ensure that the firm gains the attention of a wider market base, thereby increasing its overall sales and profit records. Furthermore, customers will become loyal to organizations that guarantee provision of innovative and speedy services, and this poses a significant threat of loss of market share. Essentially, BigTime must contend with rapidly changing customer demands. Poor marketing and organizational structure initiatives also pose a threat to BigTime’s overall capacity to remain afloat in the highly volatile market. Lastly, the threat of economic turmoil is ever present in today’s market environment. Recent economic crises have unearthed companyies’ weaknesses in terms of dealing with financial crises. The threat of recurrence of economic crises is quite real for BigTime. Conclusion BigTime has massive competitive advantage over its competitors owing to its market presence that offers the organization a platform to enter a bigger market, thus capture a greater market share and capitalization. BigTime should continue to seek strategies that will realign its organization systems and operations, particularly focusing on its marketing mix. Importantly, BigTime should add weight to a novel operation model that upholds customer experience, as well as programs that advocate employee empowerment and satisfaction. This move will not only ensure that BigTime acquires a massive market share and infiltrates new markets, but also deals with its present organizational structure issues. As a market leader in the virtual management consultancy industry, BigTime must put into force robust mechanisms that allow it to take full advantage of its core competencies. Read More