Organisational Issue and SWOT Analysis

Whether large or small, every organisation will at some point encounter issues that might be challenging. Take for example the global franchise Cold Stone Creamery. Several years ago, Cold Stone Creamery franchises were rapidly expanding, and it seemed there was one on every corner. They had a unique product: high-quality, hand-crafted ice creams with a bevy of toppings and flavour combinations. Cold Stone became trendy and began expanding at an extremely fast pace. Soon, franchises started opening too close to one another and were hurting each other’s sales. As fast as franchises were opening, they were closing as well. This is a perfect example of an organisation that encountered the issue of expanding too quickly.

Organisations can face a multitude of challenging issues that need to be addressed. One effective tool an organisation can use to self-evaluate and determine potential issues is a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis. A SWOT analysis can help in the decision-making process for new strategies or ventures. In addition to facilitating analysis of the organisation’s internal characteristics, SWOT analysis also introduces the notion of external environmental analysis, which you will explore in more depth in the next module.

You will act as a hired consultant to the organisation you selected. You will provide a Consulting Report to an executive in that organisation. You may select the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or Chief Operating Officer (COO). You should make your selection based on your interests and the organisational information available to you.

Your Essay consists of a Consulting Report you will make to an organisation of your choice. In this Individual Assignment, you will identify an organisational issue that will serve as the basis for your Essay

To prepare for this Essay:

• Identify an issue in the organisation you selected. Organisational issues may include ethical problems, understaffing or overstaffing, overuse or underuse of resources, lack of communication between teams and stakeholders, lack of innovation, decreased profits, or other problems or challenges faced by the organisation. The issue should be of strategic importance, with a demonstrable impact on organisational performance.

To complete this Essay:

• Describe the organisational issue that you have identified for your Essay.
• Explain the scope of the issue.
• Explain how the issue you identified may impact the organisation from an internal perspective.
• Perform a SWOT analysis on the organisation you selected and analyse the results.
• Provide two to four questions you might need to ask key stakeholders in the organisation in order to obtain additional information that would help in refining your analysis.