SWOT Analysis of the Proposal
Discuss about the Ecotourism Sustainable Development Strategies.
SWOT is an abbreviation of Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats present in an organization (Helms & Nixon, 2010). SWOT analysis is used to analyze the internal and external environment of an organization in order to determine the organization’s competitive ability. It measures what an organization is capable of doing and what it is incapable of doing.
Strengths refer to the factors within the organization which enable the organization to achieve its objectives (Ghorbani, Raufirad, Rafiaani, & Azadi, 2015). The organization can maximize on the strengths in order to outshine its competitors. From the proposal, the proposed tour firm’s strengths include the availability of a shipping container which will be used to safely transport the bicycles and equipment to the starting point of the tour. This will attract many cyclists since the firm has relieved them of the cost of transporting their equipment to the starting point of the tour. It will also result to efficiency in the tour since all the cyclist will start the tour at the same time.
The second strength is the availability of a support vehicle which will be used to handle any emergency issues, therefore, giving a guarantee to the cyclist that they are secure throughout the tour. The third strength is the availability of tour coordinators and support team which will coordinate every activity and provide necessary support to the cyclists when needed, (Hill, Jones, & Schilling, 2014).
Weakness refers to factors within an organization that deters the organization from performing at its optimum level (Ying, 2010). From the proposal the weaknesses include; the tour is only capable of accommodating a maximum of 30 cyclists at a time, therefore, limiting the number of clients/cyclist who can enroll, which consequently limits the organization’s profit per tour. The second weakness is that the proposal only targets already established cyclist/MAMILs, thus limiting beginners from enrolling in the program.
Opportunities refer to favorable factors of the external environment that an organization can utilize to achieve a competitive advantage (Ghazinoory, Abdi, & Azadegan-Mehr, 2011). From the proposal, the available opportunities include; the possibility of expanding the firm’s operations nationality and internationally. The second opportunity is the availability of multiple places where the tours can be conducted. The third opportunity is the availability of non-governmental organizations which can support the firm’s cycling activities with an aim of creating awareness about particular issues such as healthy living.
The Viability of the proposed business
Threats refer to factors of the external environment that have the potential to harm the operations of an organization, (Ying, 2010). From the proposal the threats may include; harsh weather conditions in the tour areas, political instability in the city or the tour areas, and jurisdictions that may limit the firm from expanding its operations to other Nations.
The above SWOT analysis of the proposed business, portrays that the firm has human resource strength, material strength, and multiple opportunities which the firm can utilize to achieve its objectives. The proposal has weaknesses which can be curbed through a change of strategy and the available threats can be overcome as the organization expands its operations to different regions. Therefore the firm’s strengths and opportunities, surpasses the weaknesses and threats, thus making the business proposal to be viable, (Freeman, 2010). The team can go ahead and implement the proposal.
The most suitable name for the business is “CYCLEBEST ADVENTURES”.
We are the leaders in developing your cycling talent and passion for adventure.
To be the best tour firm in providing highly motivating cycling adventures all over the world.
According to David (2011), the business core values may include;
- Highly dependable in delivering value to our stakeholders.
- Commitment to engaging in environmentally friendly activities.
- Commitment to growing the spirit of adventure
- Honesty
- High level of integrity.
- Continues creativity and excellence.
- Commitment to building strong communities of cyclists.
- Commitment to treating everybody with dignity and respect.
The unit shall be headed by a sales manager who will have the following responsibilities;
- Managing the affairs of the marketing department, (Belz & Peattie, 2012).
- Motivating and appraising staff in the marketing department.
- Conducting regular training and development for the staff members.
- Advising the management on issues pertaining to activities.
- Signing contracts with organizations which may wish to support the firm’s activities (Eden & Ackermann, 2013).
- Overseeing the orientation of cyclist.
Under the marketing manager, there will be the marketing team. Each of the marketer/ sales agents will have the following responsibilities.
- Approach new customers and attract the firm’s activities.
- Explain to the new customers about the firm’s policy pertaining to enrollment in the cycling activities.
- Inform customers/ clients when the activities are being conducted.
- Perform any other marketing duty assigned to him/ her by the marketing manager.
The sales agents will be reporting about their progress each working day to the marketing manager, who will in turn report to the administration about the team’s progress.
The two major outputs that the marketing department is expected to deliver are;
- Increased number of new clients every year. The new customers are those who have never engaged in the firm’s activities over the last five years, (Jobber & Ellis-Chadwick, 2012).
- Increased customer retention by a rate of 85% every year. (Jobber & Ellis-Chadwick, 2012).
Increased number of new clients/ cyclist will be achieved through opening of sales offices in different parts of the country and the world at large in order to reach the customers who may not be able to access the head office, Adoption of digital marketing such as blogs, social media marketing, among others, conducting multimedia advertising/ sales promotion campaign, and training the sales agent regularly so that they can deliver quality services to prospective customers, (Moutinho, 2011).
In order to increase customer retention the operation plan to be adopted involves; regular reviewing and improvement of activities, introducing competition in the activities and rewarding the winners, partnering with other like-minded organizations in order to make the activities more valuable and motivating, (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2012), and holding the activities in different parts of the world which have exciting sites and scenery in order to promote the spirit of adventure among the customers.
- A top-ranked advertising agent to conduct the multimedia advertising.
- A strong website to do blogging and social media marketing.
- Properly skilled sales agents.
- Properly skilled researchers to research on suitable sites to hold the activities, (David, 2011).
- Sufficient capital to finance the marketing operational plan.
- Strategically located sales offices in different parts of the country or the world at large.
Currently, the firm does not have sufficient capital to finance the marketing operational plan and a strong website to do online marketing.
According to Eden & Ackermann (2013), the firm will obtain the capital needed to finance the operation plan through, presenting the proposal to a financial institution such as a bank for financing. It can also obtain the capital through partnering with another organization which will be willing to finance the idea. A strong website will be obtained by hiring a technology firm to develop and host the desired website.
Milestones in the implementation of the operational plan
- By the end of the first year, a reliable firm’s website will be ready.
- By the end of the first year, the firm will have introduced 3 new tour sites where activities can be held.
- In December of the first year, the firm will hold its first cycling competition
- By the end of the second year, multimedia advertising and new sales offices will be complete.
- What percentage of new customers has each of the identified plans contributed? (Freeman, 2010).
- Is the percentage enough to generate returns that surpass the marketing budget?
- What percentage of customer retention has the firm been able to maintain?
- Is the retained percentage generating sufficient returns to the firm?
- Which of the customer retention plans contributes the highest value in customer retention?
- Are all the customer retention strategies within the set budget?
- Are the operational plans being implemented according to the set milestones?
- Which of the formulated plans is most costly?
According to Hill, Jones, & Schilling (2014). Effective monitoring and review will involve.
- Comparing the progress against the set milestone.
- Assessing and controlling possible threats to the implementation of the plan.
- Clear definition of the duties and responsibilities of each team member.
- Setting clear goals.
- Having a well-drafted implementation schedule.
- Acquiring all the resources required to implement the plan.
- Clearly defining the performance and result indicators.
In case the operational plans fail, the following contingency plan can be adopted;
- In order to increase the clients/ cyclist base, the firm can hire an agency to do marketing on its behalf and pay the agency on commission, (David, 2011).
- In order to increase customer retention capacity, the firm can develop a customer portal in which the customers will be posting their views about how the activities are being conducted and propose possible improvements that they would like to be implemented, (Jobber & Ellis-Chadwick, 2012).
According to Drahos (2016), the firm’s intellectual property can be protected by a combination of the following.
- Obtaining a copyright protection for the firm’s website, blog, firm’s online data, and other written material.
- Obtaining a patent protection for all the firm’s ideas and innovations.
- Obtaining a trademark protection in order to protect the firm’s brand.
- Hiring an intellectual property attorney to handle all matters regarding intellectual property.
- Maintain trade secrets.
- Formulating an organizational policy that restricts any stakeholder from sharing firm’s information or data before it is copyrighted.
References
Belz, F. M., & Peattie, K. (2012). Sustainability marketing: A global perspective.
David, F. R. (2011). Strategic management: Concepts and cases. Peaeson/Prentice Hall.
Drahos, P. (2016). A philosophy of intellectual property. Routledge.
Eden, C., & Ackermann, F. (2013). Making strategy: The journey of strategic management. Sage.
Freeman, R. E. (2010). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Cambridge university press.
Ghazinoory, S., Abdi, M., & Azadegan-Mehr, M. (2011). SWOT methodology: a state-of-the-art review for the past, a framework for the future. Journal of business economics and management, 12(1), 24-48.
Ghorbani, A., Raufirad, V., Rafiaani, P., & Azadi, H. (2015). Ecotourism sustainable development strategies using SWOT and QSPM model: A case study of Kaji Namakzar Wetland, South Khorasan Province, Iran. Tourism Management Perspectives, 16, 290-297.
Helms, M. M., & Nixon, J. (2010). Exploring SWOT analysis–where are we now? A review of academic research from the last decade. Journal of strategy and management, 3(3), 215-251.
Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., & Schilling, M. A. (2014). Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2012). Strategic management cases: competitiveness and globalization. Cengage Learning.
Jobber, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2012). Principles and practice of marketing (No. 7th). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Moutinho, L. (Ed.). (2011). Strategic management in tourism. Cabi.
Ying, Y. (2010, May). SWOT-TOPSIS integration method for strategic decision. In E-Business and E-Government (ICEE), 2010 International Conference on (pp. 1575-1578). IEEE.
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