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Answer in 300 words
Conduct a Synopsis of Strategic Plan : and Mission, Vision, Values
detailed feedback and critical analysis to incorporate into busisnees plans.
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Strategic Plan Part II: SWOTT Analysis
Creating a new division of a company has seemingly endless risks associated with the entire process. These risks do not go away once the division is created. Instead, they can increase, change, and ruin well thought out strategies. Identifying risks is just one part of conducting a SWOTT analysis. A SWOTT analysis as well as an internal and external environmental analysis was performed for the proposed new division of Uber, Uber Services. The following are the findings depicted in a SWOTT table as well an analysis on how the company should adapt to change, and major issues and/or opportunities found.
Table
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-External Forces and Trends Considerations
Factors
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
Trends
Industry Changes
Parent company creates many precedents
Not widely accepted as a real competitor in the service industry. Considered a fad.
Will be able to react quickly in the event of big changes
Changes limiting the use of non-experts for certain jobs
Easier for small businesses to be created that could utilize Uber Services
Legal and regulatory
Has a strong legal team that can take action quickly
Could face lawsuits from service providers and customers
Educate community leaders on the benefits of Uber Services
Uninsured workers could create many issues
No significant changes on the horizon
Global
Parent company known overseas
Many of the same weaknesses transfer overseas
Equal potential for success abraod
Local presence would be required
Globalization likely to remain constant
Economic
Strong, growing economy should increase profit
Poor economy means customers could do work themselves
Good economy could make more people willing to try
Highly dependent and sensitive to economic conditions
Rebounding economy should result in more transactions
Technological
Widely used by many companies in different industries
Does not set itself apart from others
Anyone with a smartphone is a potential customer
Hacking payment, customer, service provider information
Access to data centers is increasing
Innovation
Can build on what parent company has created
Cannot learn from the mistakes of others
Has an almost endless test market
Dependent on customer satisfaction
Modify service offerings as needed
Social
Well-known and admired brand
Little interaction with service providers
Winning over the public could yield more investors, service providers, and customers
Susceptible to bad publicity
Continue to be community friendly
Environmental
Little to no impact on environment
Cannot force eco-friendly policies and procedures on service providers or customers
Create environmentally friendly ad campaign for good publicity
Service provider with practices that negatively impact the environment
Work with service providers who are environmentally conscious
Competitive analysis
Lone company offering services in this manner
Lack of competitors makes it difficult to compare strategies
Lack of competition allows Uber Services to set the standard
Relatively easy for competitors to enter the market
Competitors of parent company will likely enter market.
Table 2-Internal Forces and Trends Considerations
Factors
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
Trends
Strategy
Launch services quickly
Fast release could be difficult to market
Let word of mouth work for the new division
Service providers could be slow to react/embrace concept
More channels to customers are preferred
Structures
Common and proven heirarchy
Some deem it outdated
Restructure to meet needs and adapt to change
Some positions have too much authority
Round-table planning becoming more popular
Processes and systems
Mimic parent company which is tested and successful
Needs funds for departments such as I.T. which can be costly
Should attract top talent for implementation
Datacenter failure resulting in delays and losses
No significant changes upcoming but flexible enough to keep up with changes
Resources
Few permanent, full-time employees required
Possible high turnover rate of permanent employees
Vast pool of potential service providers
Little control is had over service providers which could hurt business and reputation
Potential service providers would gain interest quickly
Goals
Attainable, clearly communicated
May take time to achieve
New division is well received which would make goals easier to achieve
Too many goals set which makes it difficult to focus
Should achieve goals based on success of parent company
Strategic capabilities
Experienced and talented employees
Difficult to test capabilities beforehand
Mistakes are learning opportunities
Changes could take time
Shared with parent company
Culture
Laid back, low stress culture
Employees could exploit
Could attract new talent
Division could not be taken seriously
Many companies are adapting to this culture
Technologies
Uses well-known platforms
Doesn’t own any hardware
Could create its own patent-pending software or apps
Sudden, increased costs to develop and maintain
Getting more reliable
Innovations
New way to find, schedule, and pay for services
Some may prefer traditional methods
People are doing less work themselves
People may not be ready for this style
Customers and service providers should be eager
Intellectual property
Few instances which mean fewer risks
General design/likeness easily imitated
It is easy to identify the owner
Risk of theft/counterfeits
Not a likely target
Leadership
Managers are experienced and respected
Inexperienced on finer details of some services
Hire managers who can relate to user and service providers
Sought after by competition
Current generation wants to stay with companies for long time
Ability to Adapt to Change
One of the strengths found within Uber Services is the ability to handle change. Demand is something that can fluctuate in both volume and variety. Changes in demand can be triggered by different factors such as the weather. For instance, landscaping work won’t be in as high demand during the winter months as the summer months. Some landscaping companies do offer snow removal services but those would come at a different rate and just another example of how Uber Services can adapt to change.
Supply Chain Management of Uber Services
To properly examine the supply chain of Uber Services, all of the key stakeholders need to be identified. First, there is the end customer. The customer has the need of a particular service that he or she cannot or does not want to do. That person will use their smartphone, tablet, or computer to launch the app or website to see if their need can be fulfilled by one of Uber Services many service providers, which leads us to stakeholders two and three. The company as a whole and the service providers are the next two, ultimately last, stakeholders. To complete the supply chain description, another example will be used. This time, a man notices his gutters are overflowing during a moderate rainfall. He logs into his Uber Services account to schedule someone for general labor within the next few days to clean out his gutters. He puts his request out there and much like fishing, he waits for someone to respond. Someone does and the two parties exchange some information and schedule the appointment. No cash is exchanged and is all handled by Uber Services.
Uber Service’s user-friendly app and website make searching and booking services easy. It also makes it easy for service providers to respond quickly. Time is a crucial factor for service providers. They might lose out on a job if they have to wait to an app or website to load. This creates frustration and the company will lose service providers.
Finally, there is the payment process. Uber Services will have account information of both the customer and service provider so each party will demand safe and secure transactions. This is provided through https standards and the latest in mobile technology.
Strategic Plan Development
Like any strategic plan, the one for Uber Services will be the result of many brain-storming sessions of managers and executives of the parent company, Uber. Some of the personnel will transfer to the new division, some will remain with Uber, and some may play a role in both companies. The strategic plan for Uber is proven to be successful and should act as a suitable starting point for the new division. Both facilitate services however the new division will have much broader portfolio of offerings.
Major Opportunities for Uber Services
The biggest opportunity the new division of Uber will likely encounter is a relatively new demographic comprised mostly of millennials. Studies have shown that millennials would rather pay someone to do many services that Gen X and baby boomers would do themselves. Millennials now outnumber baby boomers and many are now graduating from college and will be on their own which could make them a large portion of Uber Services customer base.
Conclusion
A SWOTT analysis is a incredibly important tool that can help any company identify its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends that it will likely face in the short or long-term. The preceding SWOTT table serves as proof of that as it will be used in the launch of Uber’s new division. A SWOTT analysis should not use the only tool in strategic planning and should be updated or at least reviewed frequently.
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Strategic Plan Part II: SWOTT Analysis |
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Strategic Plan Part 2: SWOTT Analysis
Determining the feasibility of a plan is a crucial part in determining whether or not to invest resources in to its execution. Part II of the strategic business plan is to develop a strengths, weaknesses, opportunity, threat, and trend analysis, otherwise known as an SWOTT Analysis. A SWOTT analysis is required to discern whether or not a new product, service, or business unit will be an added value to clients, or in our case a key channel partner. The training, alignment, initiative team (TAIT) business unit’s leadership team will review external and internal forces and trends that will affect how they do business with and service a very large strategic partner to build effectiveness thereby making it more efficient and hence more productive as well as profitable overall.
This will, as a necessity, drive significant change and require that those at Schneider Electric adapt to this change. Additionally, we will evaluate the extended supply change, core competencies of the offer, and how this will impact all stakeholders from the perspective of legal, economic, and regulatory forces and trends. The TAIT team will identify and evaluate relevant forces internally and externally to take advantage of internal strengths and weaknesses while clearly understanding external opportunities and threats. By understand these forces clearly before undertaking such an initiative leadership will be better positioned to set and reach strategic goals defined by the initiative.
Forces and Trends
“An external audit focuses on identifying and evaluating trends and events beyond the control of a single firm, such as increased foreign competition, population shifts to coastal areas of the United States, an aging society, and taxing Internet sales. An external audit reveals key opportunities and threats confronting an organization, so managers can formulate strategies to take advantage of the opportunities and avoid or reduce the impact of threats” (David 60). Conversely the internal audit focusses on strengths and weaknesses that the organization can control. These forces combined collectively form the basis in which an organization can effectively set its strategic goals. The SWOTT to be performed in preparation to deploy the TAIT team has identified a number of forces and trends that are most important to rationalize when determining whether it is feasible to proceed with investing the required resources needed to effectively fund a new team designed to implement the strategy. Forces such as legal, regulatory, economic, and the competitive landscape are external environmental forces. Internal factors such as our specific strategy, processes, technologies, headcount are factors that we alone have influence over.
Legal and regulatory forces certainly can be threatening in that new laws and regulations, particularly those that are directed at publicly traded organizations, can certainly pose a threat. An example of this would be the Sarbanes Oxley Act (Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act) and how it dramatically effected the accounting and auditing practices of publicly traded companies. Economic forces such as tax reforms that were not previously considered during budget cycles can certainly have a detrimental effect on resourcing.
Internal forces and trends are certainly within the control of management. As plans are managed we are continuously looking to steer our actions as to realize the desired results in our metrics. This to improve and maintain the competitive advantage for Schneider Electric and our partner. A successful strategy with proper feedback loops drive to continuous improvement and will guarantee effective initiative development and results. By understanding internal needs our processes and systems are will be designed around our strategic initiatives goals driving efficiency and as productivity. Working closely with human resources is certainly a force we can control. We will need to recruit, hire, train, and develop new resources as well as attract high value long term seasoned employees with a vast knowledge of our value-chain. HR will be utilized to development programs that will drive employee retention.
How Well the Organization Adapts to Change
There are many driving forces behind organizational change. Organizations need to be responsive to these forces lest they risk losing competitive edge, being relegated out of key industries that they participate in, or missing opportunities to integrate their organizations horizontally or vertically. At these critical junctions’ executive management must be capable of certain problem identification where change managers need to be utilized to successfully see change strategies successfully implemented.
Having worked for Schneider Electric for over ten years and having seen many very large reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, and horizontal integrations such as the TAIT strategy. Initiatives that required the application of a great deal of change management. Adding new units and teams also requires large change initiatives. Challenges presented were many with the most difficult being the cultural differences between the two groups. The most important factor by far that we can certainly control is what is called the tone at the top. Business units and teams are affected, negatively or positively, by the tenor and behaviors that are demonstrated at the leaderships levels. As we deploy the TAIT team this will be very influential as the team adopts its goals.
The Supply Chain
A supply chain is a series of processes linked together to produce a product or service. Each of the steps in the supply chain add value to the end product or service. As a large manufacturer of electrical and energy equipment Schneider Electric needs to maintain strategic relationships with industrial wholesalers and supply chains. In manufacturing, much attention is focused on upstream supplies. In the case of the proposed TAIT team we are much more focused on the downstream supply chain where the finished goods are warehoused and distributed to OEM and end-user customers. This is where the value of a strategic partner becomes very evident. Strategic distribution partners, particularly large organizations with multiple branch locations and the ability to warehouse locally the market specific products. Additionally, partners such as these limit the number of end-user customers the manufacturer needs to contract business with and provide custom designed financing terms. This makes tremendous impact in overall efficiencies as they can individually focus in each of the geographical districts.
Uncovered Issues and Opportunities the Company Faces
The identified opportunities that are driving the need for the TAIT team are centered around several strategic initiatives which will be further addressed in the subsequent balanced scorecard. Initially these have been identified as development of distributor led projects, residential “over the counter” business, internal business development manager teams, selling services, and Industrial account development. Each will require training around developing effective proposals, developing unique product promotions, recruiting internal skilled resources, and challenge of exposing each other’s internal processes and procedures through multiple departments.
Conclusion
The planned deployment of the Training, Alignment, Initiative Integration Team will benefit by performing this SWOTT analysis. It is in part designed to determine the feasibility of such a team. Understanding the internal and external factors that are directly related to our strategic initiatives and goals will drive the investment of resources into the team and provide a means to direct initiatives, measure success, and determine tactical adjustments to keep our collective goals on track.
TAIT Team SWOTT Analysis
External Factor and Trend Considerations
Factor
Primary Opportunity
(Helpful)
Primary Threat
(Harmful)
Primary Trend
Industry Changes
Demand for unique services and value in wholesale markets
Large Techs looking at the space (Amazon, etc)
Automation trend continues as AI is further developed
Legal and Regulatory
Well established and stable legal precedence in the market space
Individual State/Local Legislation & Compliance
Increasing safety compliance requirements
Global
Megatrends such as Big Data and Internet of Things play well to our offers
Fluctuating commodity prices
Globally based organizations acquiring key partners
Economic
Strong economy with large amounts of reshoring occurring
Low cost competitors, Market segment volatility
Tax reforms
Technological
New lower cost technologies available
Small technically focused organizations
Fast lifecycles and development
Innovation
Artificial Intelligence, big data analytics
Small technically focused organizations
Small highly specialized competition
Social
Meeting needs of the communities served
Challenges associated with collaborating with millennials
More and more approached to collaboration, death of email
Environmental
Demand for “green” and sustainable product and services
Keeping up with new regulations
Plays very well to our strategic values
Competitive Analysis
Higher demand to create partnership synergies
Multiple additional entrants into market
Larger wholesale distributors buying smaller creating competing chains
Internal Factor and Trend Considerations
Factor
Primary Strength
(Helpful)
Primary Weakness
(Harmful)
Primary Trend
Strategy
Focus on several key initiatives to drive overall effectiveness
Coordination with national sales force and channel teams
Proven effectiveness in other business units. Trending in correct direction
Structures
Headcount fully funded. Twelve District Sales Mgt Positions
Current reporting lines outside of field office leadership
Cyclical with frequent re-orgs under new middle mgt teams
Processes and Systems
Recent IT alignment (SAP, Force, EDI)
Multiple disparate systems. Data roll-up lag time
Large Tech investments to replace aging systems. Positive trend.
Resources
Human resource and relations teams to assist in finding quality employees
Limited interest by HR and alignment teams in the new BU
Consistent improvements to turnover numbers
Goals
Clearly defined and measurable
While national initiatives are consistent, local markets are unique
Goals consistently set to drive strategic initiatives
Strategic Capabilities
Customer Service and Business Dev teams
Lack of focus in struggling markets
Always inventing in value-add services and solutions-based offers
Culture
Diverse and Ethical. Rated very highly
Remote employees tend to be on the outside a bit
Social, Diversity, and sustainability indexes always improving
Technologies
Large investments in new Cloud based order mgt systems
Large systems requite large time/resource to replace
Properly deployed to enhance efficiency and productivity
Intellectual Property
Innovation at forefront
Challenge to develop organic growth
Consistent research and development investments (5% revenue)
Leadership
Stability at the executive leadership levels
Tend to be a bit inward focused (data, spreadsheets)
Consistently strives to enhance communication throughout all levels of the organization
References
David, Fred R., David, Forest R. Strategic Management: A Competitive Advantage Approach, Concepts and Cases, 16th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 4/2016. VitalBook file.
Schneider Electric. (2018). Schneider Electric Company Profile. Retrieved February 3, 2018 from the World Wide Web: https://www.schneider-electric.us/en/about-us/company-profile/
Review Analysis and Critique
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Review Analysis and Critique
[INTRODUCTION]
[NAME] Week 2 Strategic Plan Part I: Mission, Vision, Values
[NAME] Week 2 Strategic Plan Part I: Mission, Vision, Values
[NAME] Week 2 Strategic Plan Part I: Mission, Vision, Values
CONCLUSION
Reference
David, Fred R., Forest David. Strategic Management: A Competitive Advantage Approach, Concepts and Cases, 16th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 4/2016.
