SWOT Analysis for Car Dealership
SWOT framework is a simple tool used to evaluate the internal forces in the business environment by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the company. It also external forces likely to affect business performance by determining opportunities and threats. In strategic planning, SWOT analysis provides managers with the necessary information for developing a strategic plan that meets corporate goals, improve business operations, and sustain the relevance of the business (Vlados, & Chatzinikolaou, 2019). The resultant is a strategic plan fit that aligns the internal weaknesses and strengths with opportunities and threats in the external environment.
The strategic plan exploits exploit opportunities and minimize threats to ensure business success. Therefore, the SWOT framework provides managers with relevant information for developing a strategic plan by enabling managers to build on the strengths and reverse weaknesses of an organization. The managers are also able to identify and optimize opportunities and mitigate threats likely to have adverse effects on the organization. Most importantly, this tool is helping managers to identify core competencies of the organization for ensuring successful operations and positive business performance (Majama, & Magang, 2017). These forces influencing car dealership are analyzed as below:
Strengths:
The main strength of the car dealership firm includes a strategic location in a big city populated with high-income people that makes up the potential customers. Most urban centers are inhabited by businessmen and professionals from middle to upper class who can afford the price of cars. My company is located within the potential customers for cars and is accessible to a large number of clients. Therefore, my company has many customers who are offering the required market for car products. The second strength is the vast experience in the car dealership and also a variety of car brands the firm is offering to customers. The experience was over many years of a car dealership in this large city selling a variety of car brands.
Weaknesses:
The main weakness is the lack of competitive strength due to the increasing competitiveness in the car dealership market. It is vital to enhance the firm’s competitiveness for the survival of the company in this competitive market. The second weakness is the lack of a broader network as it is only located in one city. It is vital to increase branches across different cities around the country to reach a wider customer base and increase sales.
Opportunities:
The main opportunity is a decline in petrol prices which is an encouragement for owning cars. More and more people can now afford to fuel cars. Technological advancement particularly online communication is offering new avenues for the firms to cost-effectively market their cars and reach out to a wider variety of customers.
Threats
The first threat is increasing competitiveness in car markets which have reduced sales for the car dealership firm. The company needs to develop competitive strategies to gain a competitive advantage in the car market. The second threat is the high tax imposed on a car that raises the price of cars thus deterring people from purchasing cars.
Gant Chart
Gant chant is used in strategic planning to graphically display to schedule different tasks and activities executed within the planning (Van Rijn, 2016). It is hence important in revealing the timeline of the plan and how long it will take to accomplish each task and activities as the order of completing tasks and activities.
References
Majama, N. S., & Magang, T. I. T. (2017). Strategic planning in small and medium enterprises (SMEs): A case study of Botswana SMEs. Journal of Management and Strategy, 8(1), 74-103.
Van Rijn, J. (2016). The work plan: project management. IMIESA, 41(6), 61-62.
Vlados, C., & Chatzinikolaou, D. (2019). Towards a restructuration of the conventional SWOT analysis. Business and Management Studies, 5(2), 76-84.