Monterey Peninsula College
Introduction to Business
Building a Strategy Tree using SWOT Analysis
Complete the exercise ONE STEP AT A TIME to experience using one of the
most valuable business strategy organization tools in existence.
Step 1: Select a Business:
Compare your previously selected businesses on these grounds:
1) Is the business simple enough to understand without further research?
2) Can your team members identify with the possibility running this
business?
3) Do team members have a reasonable state of knowledge of the
competitors and customer needs in your market?
4) Select the business that best satisfies those requirements. Indicate your
business name and description at the very top of the strategy tree page.
Step 2: Prepare a mission statement for your selected business.
The mission should reveal the core principles upon which it is founded and only
the longest term, most overarching goals of the business. Write these at a
high enough level so as to be substantially unchanging over time. All
goals will be derived from this mission statement, and should therefore fit
within its parameters. Write your mission statement where indicated on
your strategy tree page.
Step 3: Creating your Long Term Goals
Create 3 separate quantified, reasonable goals as follows:
1) A market share goal, to earn a certain share of the sales of your
product/service to your customers;
2) A customer satisfaction goal, to make customers happy and loyal.
Indicate a specific quantifiable goal;
3) A profitability goal, in any of several quantifiable measurements: Profit
dollars, profit percent of sales, ROI, etc.
Write your three most important goals on your strategy tree
Step 4: Creating your Strategies
1) SWOT Analysis
Complete the following SWOT Analysis page considering your team as
the management of your company. This should allow for a variety of
realistic strengths and weaknesses! Use what knowledge you already
have of your business environment to complete the Opportunities and
Threats worksheet area. A little bit of imagination is helpful here, but do
make it realistic.
2) SWOT Matrix
Review your SWOT Analysis and make some connections. Derive
strategies for each of the four quadrants of the SWOT matrix. Use the
SWOT Matrix worksheet to generate strategy ideas, then transfer them to
the strategy tree.
Monterey Peninsula College
Introduction to Business
Strategy Tree
Company Name: __________________________________________________
Business Description:_______________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Mission Statement
Goal #1
Strategies from Goal #1
Goal #2
Goal #3
Strategies from Goal #1
Strategies from Goal #2
Monterey Peninsula College
Introduction to Business
SWOT Analysis Worksheet Area
Strengths: Resources and Capabilities which can be used to form competitive
advantage
Weaknesses: Shortfalls in resources and Capabilities that hamper pursuit of
competitive advantages
Opportunities: Ways the market (input or output) offer us to grow our profitability
Threats: Market changes bringing the possibility of declining growth or decreased
profitability
Monterey Peninsula College
Introduction to Business
SWOT Matrix: This is just a worksheet to help generate and classify potential
strategies. Record your strategy ideas in the appropriate sector.
Strengths
Weakness
Opportunities
Threats
Strengths on Opportunities - Use our strengths to capture market opportunities
Strengths on Threats - Use our strengths to counter market threats
Weaknesses on Opportunities - Fix our weaknesses to allow us to pursue
market opportunities
Weaknesses on Threats - Fix a problem to alleviate an external threat