Task 6

Question 1

What is a SWOT

Answer 1

A strategic planning tool that looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for a business or element (eg a process or project or department)

Strengths - Positive things where we are better than the competition (Tend to be Internal, about the biz)

Weaknesses - Not so good at , puts us at a disadvantage (Tend to be Internal, about the biz)

Opportunities - Things we could take advantage of in the EXTERNAL environment. (looking for gaps to maybe Increase sales, new areas we could move into

Threats - areas of risk from the EXTERNAL environment we cant control threats but we can control how we react/ what we do.

Question 2

Identify opportunity.

Really have to think beyond the given info ..

Answer 2

eg. BPP question bespoke furniture:

I put the bespoke furniture therefore no obsolete stock being the strength but I think this would be wrong because thats not really about the procedures being examined but rather the business strategy ..? (I did put a second option about the signing off which was what the model answer was about)

It was obvious the weakness was about the fact there was not a firm price agreement.

The opportunity was around the procedures being improved by getting a firm price but ALSO said they should get a deposit.. to give more assurance the customer would pay up and ALSO for Working capital cycle reasons

Question 3

This task may test either CONTROLS or a SWOT analysis. Avoid writing vanilla recommendations or sitting on the fence. We need to see clear answers using information from the scenario. Who should do what, when, how often and how? Be specific. This task will take more time so spend 30 minutes and aim for 9-12 out of 15

Answer 3

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