When carrying out a SWOT Smilin Tiger would have to undertake a considerable amount of market research which would include an in depth look into competitor and customer research. Its best option would be to ask the opinions of its key stakeholders such as employees and suppliers. Although this may be time-consuming and costly in the short-term the long term benefits of a more efficiently run, customer and stakeholder orientated business will outweigh these factors in the future. It would also assist the business in the development of its corporate objective of profit maximisation and whether or not diversification into a chain of high street shops would actually be the best move for ST.
Companies like Smilin Tiger should work towards building on their strengths and overcoming their weaknesses. Opportunities and threats are contained within the external environment that surrounds a business and are outside of a businesses control. In this case business look to seek out opportunities and ward off threats.
Smilin Tiger has many strengths but also many weaknesses. Their strengths being such things as an established brand name which is helped by the publicity and promotion of a successful UK pentathlete (Trisha Thompson), an increase in the sales of its sportswear (sportswear is now becoming an increasingly used fashion item), the fact that they are a public limited company (which has benefits to its legal structure) and the fact that their customer base is the higher and middle income groups as these people are less income sensitive as they have more disposable income available to them.
The weaknesses of the company are things like the worsening problems to do with recruitment and retention at both management and lower level, the fact that Jeff Laurel believes that just above the minimum wage is more than enough to retain the lower level members of staff, Smilin Tigers aim like objective of ‘Profit maximisation’ (with no specific target) and also the fact that ST is facing a ‘stock out’ situation to do with the fact that some items of sportswear are selling out far to quickly (within a week of delivery) which is leaving customers unsatisfied and resulting in a loss in sales for the company because some consumers are unwilling to wait for their products and so they go elsewhere.
There are also many opportunities and threats that the business is exposed to within the external environment it operates in. the opportunities available to the company are such things as the growth in leisure time (due to the fact that many people are choosing t have their families later and more and more people are living to past the retirement age) this results in these people having more free time, the growing trend of sportswear as a fashion item and also the greater attention to business ethics. This could increase the businesses market share and help them to achieve their objective of profit maximisation due to the fact that the business could charge a premium rate on its goods because of the fact their produce was manufactured under moral and ethical conditions.
Lastly, the threats towards the business could be defined as the intensifying competition from other sporting activities and leisure pursuits, the adverse and embarrassing publicity over the working conditions provided by their Indonesian supplier which may negatively affect sales and also the changes in exchange rates (if the pound was to become weaker against the rupiah then it would cost the business more to buy from the Indonesian supplier).
Many major strategic decisions affect businesses for several years to come and therefore they should be carefully reviewed before being gone ahead with. Smilin Tiger should undertake a SWOT analysis focusing mainly on its key stakeholders (employees, suppliers) before they make their final decision over their diversification plans. The SWOT analysis would benefit the company greatly and help it towards achieving its objective of profit maximisation.
