The firms in any sector of business have their own potential strengths and weaknesses. There is no company in the world that can be considered as 100% complete in all sense. Every firm has its own strong and weak points. Firms establish objectives and strategies while evaluating internal strengths/weaknesses, coupled with external opportunities/threats. The tool of SWOT analysis is used to create the intention upon making the use of strengths and overcoming weak points. Organization needs to make a clear business policy in a comprehensive manner which consists of all areas such as management information system, production, operations, finance and marketing. The need is to highlight the area and the functions such as warranties, advertising, customer service, packaging and pricing. Different types of firm such as Universities, Government agencies, Hospital and the functional area of business. In Pharmaceutical sector, there are many areas in the sector that requires attention to detail and focus on areas on utilizing strengths and reducing weaknesses. Multinational Companies have even bigger task on their mind since there are many divisions that need to be analyzed by measuring strengths and weaknesses. An organization's strength that is unique and cannot be replicated by rivals is known as distinctive competencies. The main core areas of a firm are marketing, finance and operations. The firm needs to build competitive advantage in the following areas if it wants to compete in a given environment.3M is big company and has its own set of competitive advantage in areas of research and development which enables them to produce a wide range of new products. Company should design their strategies in such a manner to improve their weaknesses and to convert them into potential opportunities.
The area of research and development is imperative for organization survival in dynamic business environment. To harness one’sskill in Research and development the adequate use of market research is important. Market Research is an important tool for gathering systematic information and evaluating the relevant data that is related to the marketing of goods and services.Market research is a way to find out previously hidden positives and negatives, and the duty of researchers is to make use of all qualitative and quantitative tools to gather rich and relevant information. Marketing research is mechanism that consists of many activities that aims to support all core functions of an organization. Firms that possess superb marketing research skills have a potential strength in applying generic strategies. The other area of focus is the operation that can be better evaluated through opportunity analysis that involves the expenses and revenues. The process of decision making is related to all potential kind of risks. Operations also form a core part of any organization since the aim is to improve efficiency of all the processes and reduce the errors in the system. Therefore, it is imperative for the firm to perform a cost/benefits analysis which includes measuring the total benefits from the analysis, total expenditures from the decision and comparison with total benefits and total costs. The production process is to see that costs should not exceed estimated benefits. There potential areas for improvement as there are plenty of opportunities. Firm needs to take into consideration areas that are sometimes not given importance. The need is to incorporate those areas as well to discuss the potential strengths and weakness.
References
David, F. (2013).Strategic management. Harlow, England: Pearson.
Professional Growth Systems,. (2014). The Importance of an Internal Assessment. Retrieved 26 October 2014, from http://www.professionalgrowthsystems.com/library-articles/importance-internal-assessment/
