Strategic Planning Report: SWOT, PESTLE, and Risk Analysis

This report delves into the core components of strategic planning, offering a comprehensive analysis of key frameworks and considerations. It begins by outlining a method for developing organizational values, emphasizing the importance of cultural assessment, stakeholder agreement, and strategic business plan review. The report then thoroughly examines the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) and PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal) analyses, illustrating their purposes and providing illustrative questions. Furthermore, it addresses critical risks in strategic plan implementation, such as financial constraints, project delays, and loss of key personnel, along with strategies for protecting intellectual property through trademarks, patents, and copyrights. The report also underscores the significance of legislative and regulatory compliance in strategic planning, ensuring ethical and sustainable business practices. References from academic sources are included to support the analysis, providing a well-rounded perspective on strategic planning principles.

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Assessment questions and answers
Outline a method for developing organizational values?
a) Assessment of organizational culture and structure.
b) Mutual agreement by key stakeholders.
c) A review of strategic business plan.
What is the purpose of a SWOT analysis in a strategic planning process?
SWOT analysis is an abbreviation of the “strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats”1 .In the
strategic planning process context, the purpose of SWOT analysis is to get managers or key
stakeholders participating in the planning process to think about diverse aspects that might
potentially impact how the new project will be successful. Failure to analyses strengths,
weakness, opportunities and threats could influence managers to make poor planning and
decision making. Furthermore, analyzing these components of SWOT analysis helps
stakeholders involved in strategic planning process to determine which project have a high
possibility of being successful. The analysis also enables the strategic planning team to avoid
making costly mistakes.
Discuss each component of a SWOT analysis?
The components of SWOT analysis include strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats.
1 Bull, Joseph William, N. Jobstvogt, A. Böhnke-Henrichs, A. Mascarenhas, N. Sitas, C.
Baulcomb, C. K. Lambini et al. "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats: A SWOT
analysis of the ecosystem services framework." Ecosystem services 17 (2016): 99-111.

Strength: This is the first component of the SWOT analysis process. In the strategic planning
process, “strengths” components are talents, experience, proficiency, skill, competitive
advantage or other external or internal factors that improves the project being planned to be
implemented and cannot be easily copied. Example of strengths that may impact strategic
planning process includes well-trained staff to work towards the accomplishment of projects
goals and objectives, solid financing, management expertise, good relationships between internal
and external stakeholders, high customer retention, valuable intellectual property, modern
machinery or equipment, superior technology and a superior brand.
Weakness: This is the second component of SWOT analysis. In the strategic planning process,
the main purpose of weakness is to evaluate problems and devises executable solutions.
Weakness consists of factors that reduce the ability of strategic management or team involved in
implementing the project to achieve its objectives, goals and targets. Some example, of weakness
that may impact the strategic planning process, may include gaps in expertise, mismanagement,
lack of enough funds to run and implements a project, insufficient efforts from the marketing
team and outdated machinery and or equipment.
Opportunities: This is the third component of SWOT analysis. Opportunities include external
factors that allow the project to be successful, grow and be profitable for an organization.
Example of opportunities includes advanced in technologies, team diversity, efficient support
from the management and innovations.
Threats: This is the fourth component of SWOT analysis. Threats are external obstacles that
might interfere with the implementation of the project. Threats that might affect the strategic
planning process include regulatory or legal changes, change in technology as Autio 2once said
2 Autio, Erkko. "Growth of Technology‐based New Firms." The Blackwell handbook of
entrepreneurship (2017): 329-347.

that “technology evolves every day”, consumer shifts to competitors product and decline or
instability in the economy.
What is the purpose of a Pestle analysis in a strategic planning process?
The purpose of PESTEL analysis in the strategic planning process is to determine the external
environment that might positively or negatively impact the project being planned to be
implemented3. The external factors (PESTEL) include political, economic, social, technological,
ecological, environmental and legal factors.
List four examples of questions you may ask when conducting a Pestle analysis?
a. What are economic factors affect the business? Is the economy unstable, stable or the
industry the company is operating growing? How much globalization does it affect a
market share of a company?
b. What are the political factors affecting the company? what are trading policies that might
impact the company? What regulations should the company follow and how have they
changed in the last five years?
c. What are the social factors affecting the business? Is the population slowing down or
growing?
d. What are the technological factors affecting the business? What new technologies are
critical for enhancing day-to-day operations?
Discuss three risks that should be taken into account in implementing strategic plans?
Financial risks (higher implementation costs than forecast) - The risks associated with
budgeting should be taken into account. For example, during the strategic planning process, the
3 Pan, Wei, Le Chen, and Wenting Zhan. "PESTEL analysis of construction productivity
enhancement strategies: A case study of three economies." Journal of Management in
Engineering 35, no. 1 (2018): 05018013.

involved stakeholders prepare the project budget that shows the costs of implementing a project.
Specifically, if no similar projects have been implemented before it becomes a challenge and as a
project is being implemented a company may experience a challenge of costs being higher than
forecast which might raise problems when making decisions of areas that need cost-cutting in
order to make a project reach its goals, objectives and targets.
Delays in project completion risk should also be taken into account. The delays may result
from diverse factors such as management interference, insufficient capital and maybe delays in
different departments when executing their roles and responsibilities. For example, if some team
members are unable to complete their assigned roles and responsibility on time, the
implementation of the project may delay which in turn may require more financing as projected.
Loss of key personnel risk: This risk should be accounted as the key personnel in charge of
project implementation might leave the company unexpectedly. Furthermore, this might also
cause a delay in project completion as it takes some time to get a replacement with the same skill
sets and knowledge.
Discuss why it is important to protect its intellectual property?
Protecting intellectual property is important as it protects products, ideas, thought of leadership
and branding of a business. Through intellectual property, an organization is able to establish a
strong brand that is pivotal for business success. For example, intellectual property protects the
name of company and Logo that sets a business apart from competitors which can significantly
damage the market perception of organizational reputation, production and quality4. In addition,
the intellectual property protects technologies developed from being compromised by an
4 Peng, Mike W., David Ahlstrom, Shawn M. Carraher, and Weilei Stone Shi. "History and the
debate over intellectual property." Management and Organization Review 13, no. 1 (2017): 15-
38

organization and ensures the business can only market and control the products developed.
Furthermore, intellectual property ensures the business is licensed, has an important revenue
stream and cannot be used as security for loans.
Discuss three strategies a business can implement to protect their intellectual property such
as that documented in strategic plans?
Trademarks- With trademark strategy being obtained through registration, it safeguards the
rights of intellectual property of an organization from infringement and counterfeiting. The
registered mark is used as an entity of the unique services and products and it protects
competitors from copying procedures, plans and other activities of an organization.
Patents- Implementation of patent protects intellectual property by giving a company the legal
right of excluding selling, using and making an intervention for the duration of time.
Copyrights- Use of copyrights in the protection of intellectual property will grant an
organization an exclusive legal right of determining whether and under what conditions might
the documentation of strategic planning be used and copied by other parties.
Discuss why an organisational would take legislative and regulatory and relevant codes of
practice into consideration during the strategic planning process?
The organization would take regulatory, legislative and relevant codes of practice in order to
ensure the project or activities being planned are compiled to diverse Australian laws, ethics and
are sustainable. Furthermore, taking these regulatory, legislative and codes of practice ensure
that there is established better information governance, improved operational process with less
interference from government and the organization fosters best practices.
References

Peng, Mike W., David Ahlstrom, Shawn M. Carraher, and Weilei Stone Shi. "History and the
debate over intellectual property." Management and Organization Review 13, no. 1 (2017): 15-
38.
Autio, Erkko. "Growth of Technology‐based New Firms." The Blackwell handbook of
entrepreneurship (2017): 329-347.
Bull, Joseph William, N. Jobstvogt, A. Böhnke-Henrichs, A. Mascarenhas, N. Sitas, C.
Baulcomb, C. K. Lambini et al. "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats: A SWOT
analysis of the ecosystem services framework." Ecosystem services 17 (2016): 99-111.
Pan, Wei, Le Chen, and Wenting Zhan. "PESTEL analysis of construction productivity
enhancement strategies: A case study of three economies." Journal of Management in
Engineering 35, no. 1 (2018): 05018013.