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Business communication: writing a SWOT analysis
Business communication: writing a SWOT analysis

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8.3 From source to notes to paragraph

This activity will demonstrate how source material can be reduced into notes summarising the key points, and then used to illustrate points in a final SWOT text.

Activity 14

Click on the arrow below to see how the snippets from the original newspaper text, on the left, transferred into bullet points for the Weaknesses section of the SWOT table.

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This interactive has two columns. The left-hand column contains snippets from the newspaper text and is titled ‘Weaknesses’ from newspaper text. The cells below are as follows:

1. The problem is a mix of capacity – emphasised by a six-month lead time – and sluggish production methods

2. ‘In the past we have not been able to make enough bikes to meet demand,’

3. We have been losing market share. The market has been growing 20% to 25% a year and we haven't been growing at the same rate.’

4. patents Brompton had expired eight years ago

5. being based in a 22,000 sq ft site in London, it does not benefit from the low wage structure of Taiwan, where 80% of bikes are made

6. unwilling to relocate

7. Our bikes have hardly changed in 20 years

8. We had the chance to go into 15 new shops in the US but didn’t because we couldn't supply them

The right-hand column contains bullets points and is titled Weaknesses. The cells below are as follows:

Slow inefficient production methods (1)

Limited capacity to manufacture enough bikes to meet demand. (1 and 2)

Market growth 20–25% per year; losing market share. (3)

Patents expired (4)

Based in London, high running costs (5)

Unwilling to relocate (6)

No development of product (7)

Growth constrained through its manufacturing capability (8)

Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Now click on the arrow below to see how the bullet points from the SWOT table were developed into the final paragraph. The numbers in brackets show which point ended up where in the paragraph.

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The left-hand column contains bullets points and is titled Weaknesses. The cells below the title are as follows:

Slow inefficient production methods (1)

Limited capacity to manufacture enough bikes to meet demand. (1 and 2)

Market growth 20–25% per year; losing market share. (3)

Patents expired (4)

Based in London, high running costs (5)

Unwilling to relocate (6)

No development of product (7)

Growth constrained through its manufacturing capability (8)

The right-hand column contains a paragraph with numbering which corresponds to the bullet point numbering from the left-hand column. It is titled Student’s paragraph on weaknesses.

Although Brompton has many strengths, it also has weaknesses. (3) The main weakness is that the company is not growing in line with the rest of the market. The market has grown 20–25% year on year and Brompton has been unable to match this rise. (1) This growth has been constrained by inefficient production methods and the(2) inability to produce enough bikes to meet consumer demand. (5) Being based in London makes production more expensive as staff costs are high here. Finally, (4) the issue of patent expiry has not been addressed and there appears to be (7) little research and development into future products and services taking place. Brompton relies on traditional engineering methods and is not looking to the future with how it can innovate further to develop products to meet the demands of customers and improvements to its production methods.

Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Discussion

What you might have noticed here is that the student did not just transfer the list of points from the SWOT table into his analysis. He carefully considered the points to see how best to organise them. This consideration led to a choice of what would be his main point, based on which was the most significant weakness for the business. This led on very logically to the other contributing points.