Team project
Team Project Instructions
As a business professional, it is important that you are able to conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis of an organization.
Step 1:
Select any company that you are familiar with. In order for you to obtain the necessary information for the SWOT analysis, it will need to be a company that has information about the firm available on the internet and/or through library resources. Post the name of the company you select in the discussion forum “Team Project Company Names” by the due date listed in the course schedule. Be sure to list your; (1) group number and (2) the company name in the subject line. The company selections are on a first-come first-serve basis. You cannot list a company that has already been taken by another team. So, the sooner you pick a company, the better chance you will get to keep it.
Step 2:
The team project report should include the four sections listed below. Please separate each section with a section header and include headings for subsections as well.
- Description of the organization (including information on the CEO, mission statement, vision statement, etc.)
- Situational Analysis (SWOT Analysis)
This is where you analyze the firm’s internal and external environment. The internal environment is analyzed by identifying the firm’s strengths and weaknesses. The external environment is analyzed by identifying the opportunities and threats to the firm due to conditions beyond the firm’s control (e.g., economic conditions, political instability, etc.). See chapter 6-2b: Situational Analysis for an overview of a SWOT analysis.
- Strengths – What is the firm really good at and what resources does the firm have that sets them apart from their competition. What are the firms distinctive competencies and core capabilities (see chapter 6-2b for a description of these terms)Weaknesses – What are the weaknesses of the firmOpportunities – What conditions/developments outside the firm provides an opportunity for the firm to capitalize onThreats – What outside conditions/developments pose a threat to the firm
- Based on your SWOT analysis, identify and describe the main issues and challenges the company is facing.
- Based on the SWOT analysis, recommend strategies that will help the company overcome the main issues/challenges and create or maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. You need to justify your recommendations.
**NOTE: The report must be submitted as a word document typed in Times New Roman, font size = 12, double spaced, and 1 inch margins on top/bottom/sides of page. 7 pages maximum (5 pages minimum) NOT including cover page and reference pages. Points will be deducted for not adhering to formatting guidelines and page restrictions. Group number and all group member names should be listed on the cover page. File name should start with group number and company analyzed (e.g., Group 1_Amazon).
Step 3:
One person from the group must upload the team project report to the assignment folder on the class D2L page by the due date listed in the course schedule. The team project report must be one collective report from the entire team.
U-Haul
Strengths and Weakness
Large businesses which have been operating for nearly a hundred years have shown their strengths and weaknesses over time.
The large moving and storage business U Haul, have shown weakness by competing with other similar business and as well as exhibiting its strengths. U-Haul was involved in a dispute with the business, POD’s for four years. U haul had to settle a 60.7 million dollars payment to POD’s by using the word “POD”S”, POD”S trade mark name, during a website advertisement. U-Haul used the words, “pod” and “pods” in order to divert business sales from POD”S to U Haul.
POD’s sued over the use of its trademark name. The company (POD”S), sued U Haul for corrective action in using its name. U Haul infringed on its name knowingly, in order to make bigger sales.
The 75 year old company, U haul, exhibited its strengths a business. This company made a unique investment in the community of Mansfield, Michigan. They invested in a 9.35 acre property, which was blight within the city. U Haul invested in a large building left over from a Big Lots Store and a Value Furniture store. A large state of the art U Box business was created. A state of the art self-storage warehouse and moving business was built. Local people within the community were hired to work in the newly established warehouse. A cleaning technological program was instituted to help stop the Covid-19 virus. The sales and renting propane equipment was an eco-friendly operation. There also was a take a box and leave a box program making, less human contact. Through the adaptive use of an abandoned buildings, creating community jobs, help clean up the city, create employment, and get rid of blight.
Maintaining a competitive edge is what every business branded successful keeps on daily basis. The business expects you to ad lib and advance in each new situation that you face, depending on the instinct and certainty you’ve earned from your fight scars throughout the long term. This encourages you create and keep up your notoriety for being somebody who wins for your clients. Therefore, U-Haul has an obligation of ensuring that it remains competitive in the market. For the U-Haul to achieve this it should deploy the following competitive advantage strategies.
Put Resources into your Mastery.
The initial step of U-Haul to building a solid Completive advantage is for the business is to pick a particular mastery – and center on creating it. Instead of attempting to be the best at everything, attempt to be the best at a certain something (or a few, worst case scenario) ( Hayek, Brandon , Wallace, & Kendra , 2017). This equivalent thought is one that has been rehashed by one fruitful business person after another after another. Simply ensure whatever abilities you choose to zero in on are significant for you clients, and not the same as those of your rivals. This will enhance the efficiency in U-Haul operation.
Pick your Fights.
U-Haul essential to pick its subject matters, it’s similarly as critical to pick whom it work with is fundamental with the growing online Market. Thusly, a subsequent proposal is to think ahead and pick its fights carefully. At the end of the day, work with the customers who will give U-Haul the most obvious opportunity at progress. It is not necessarily the case that you should just pick the easy pick ins ( Jared & Philip , 2014). Or maybe, the thought is to work with any customer, yet just the ones U-Haul realize you are best able to help. Thus will be essential to ensure that U-Haul saves delivery cost incurred in the other companies.
U-Haul should be Contented with Itself.
The same as chess players would contend with themselves as training, U-Haul should provoke itself to improve every day. On the off chance that U-Haul accomplished incredible outcomes for one customer, take a stab at defining the objective of accomplishing far superior outcomes for the following one, and plan ways it can work off its takeaways from each past commitment ( Farshad & Majid , 2016). The key here is to gain from your triumphs and disappointments so U-Haul can twofold down on your prosperity and keep up a sharp competitive edge.
Offer Itself Privileged Insights and Triumphs.
U-Haul may be astonished to locate that sharing a portion of its important privileged insights can be an incredible methodology to drive U-Haul to grow new ones. Also, rather than keeping the entirety of the information it have figured out how to itself, sharing it tends to be a savvy advertising technique to situate itself as a pioneer ( Hayek, Brandon , Wallace, & Kendra , 2017). In light of this, work with the most fulfilled customers to distribute the greatest successes as contextual analyses or contributed articles (like this one) as an approach to exhibit the mastery. This will ensure that U-Haul gains a larger market share amidst the strive competition.
Continue Improving.
According to ( Farshad & Majid , 2016) as of late shielded the significance of tenacious development, saying, “If your solitary guard against attacking militaries is a canal, you won’t keep going long. What makes a difference is the movement of development – that is the principal determinant of intensity.” Ultimately, U-Haul to accomplish this by investing the effort to practice and sharpen its art. This gives him the certainty and the instinct to alter each time U-Haul face another test, since things never happen a similar way twice – U-Haul generally should have the option to adjust information to new circumstances ( Jared & Philip , 2014). In this way, on the off chance that U-Haul is yet searching for its upper hand, make certain to remember these tips. Eventually, it boils down to narrowing and refining U-Haul mastery, choosing the correct customers and persistently adjusting to new circumstances. However long you keep this up, U-Haul will keep a serious edge that nobody else can beat – regardless of their endeavors to attempt.
References
Farshad , A., & Majid , E. (2016). Investigating the impact of viral message appeal and message credibility on consumer attitude toward the brand. International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research, 9(3), 24-33.
Hayek, M., Brandon , R. S., Wallace, A. W., & Kendra , I. (2017). A dark side of political skill? Awareness and life satisfaction in a Latin American Business. Journal of Management and Organization, 23(3), 405.
Jared , D. H., & Philip , B. (2014). A comparison of alternative measures of organizational aspirations. Strategic Management Journal, 35(3), 338-357.