Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Brief Summary
In this document we have outlined our Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Knowing our own
strengths and weaknesses and outlining potential
opportunity and threats enables us to navigate through the
business world with as little surprises as possible in both the
near and distant future.
Peak Planners
11/26/2013
Document Contents
Strengths ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Advantages of proposition..................................................................................................................................... 3
Competitive Advantage .......................................................................................................................................... 3
USP's (unique selling points) ................................................................................................................................. 3
Our Experience, knowledge and data acquisition .............................................................................................. 3
Marketing - reach, distribution, awareness .......................................................................................................... 3
Location .................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Price, value, quality .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Processes, systems, IT, communications ............................................................................................................. 4
Philosophy, values and attitude ............................................................................................................................. 4
Summary of Strengths ............................................................................................................................................ 4
Weaknesses ................................................................................................................................................................. 5
Disadvantages of proposition................................................................................................................................ 5
Gaps in capabilities ................................................................................................................................................. 5
Lack of competitive strength and reputation ...................................................................................................... 5
Financials .................................................................................................................................................................. 5
Own known vulnerabilities? .................................................................................................................................. 5
Timescales, deadlines and pressures ..................................................................................................................... 5
Cashflow and start-up cash-drain ......................................................................................................................... 5
Continuity, supply chain robustness..................................................................................................................... 5
Effects on core activities, distraction ................................................................................................................... 6
Reliability of data, plan predictability ................................................................................................................... 6
Accreditations .......................................................................................................................................................... 6
Processes and systems ............................................................................................................................................ 6
Succession ................................................................................................................................................................. 6
Summary of weaknesses ......................................................................................................................................... 6
Opportunities ............................................................................................................................................................. 7
Competitors .............................................................................................................................................................. 7
Revenue Streams ..................................................................................................................................................... 7
Industry/lifestyle trends and external influences ............................................................................................... 7
Technological development and innovation ....................................................................................................... 7
New markets, vertical, horizontal ......................................................................................................................... 7
Geographical, export, import ................................................................................................................................ 7
Tactics (e.g: surprise, major contracts) ................................................................................................................. 7
Information and research ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Strengths
Advantages of proposition
Competitive Advantage
We are a small team with the ability to adapt to change and output new updates/applications
quickly
Ability to create the application ourselves therefore eliminating misunderstanding between
creator and developer that often occurs
Niche market
As the system would also be available as a web app we are not limiting our market to smartphone
users
Takes a personalised meal plan and creates list on external websites such as supermarkets
Personalised sport specific meal plans constructed by professional nutritionists
Using partnerships with restaurants allows user to eat out whilst keeping to their meal plan
Enhanced sports performance
Our team all have strong background in technology, app development and web design as well as
a keen eye for design and marketing.
Broad knowledge of key market with experience and contacts within it.
Between us we have a large range of experience in many sports
Easy to populate the basics of meal plans from online sources to be refined by a nutritionist
Location
No locational constraints
Product is easily extended to included language support to expand internationally
Team all have the ability to easily travel to specific events nationally.
Start-up will be locally based in order to build strong base for business expansion further afield
Low cost IT solutions all that is necessary for start-up is web hosting and a domain purchase
Attain feedback from app users to ensure smooth operating of system enabling us to keep our
users satisfied.
Email customer support to cut need for full time admin/tech staff
Strive to provide accurate and useful information which provides real world gains to users
Listen to feedback on both the app and web
Positive and energetic attitude to promote our healthy eating business
Quality, Research, Innovation, Passion, Performance, Enhancement, Teamwork, Healthy, Time saving.
All the for-mentioned define how we approach our business and characterise our strengths in a few
words.
Summary of Strengths
Having carefully considered our company strengths we can now know where we are particularly strong
and strive to maintain and improve on these key attributes in order to overcome our weaknesses. One of
our core strengths lies in the small size of our company, this makes us very agile and adaptable in a fast
moving industry which gives us a competitive edge.
Weaknesses
Disadvantages of proposition
Gaps in capabilities
As a team we do not have real world experience in marketing and taking a product to market
In our team we lack a nutritionist which would be helpful in order to reduce costs
We do not have an existing established health/sports company to launch our products of the
back of which would be a benefit with a very reputation based product
Our product will be launched into very niche markets
We do not have a pre-existing reputation in the market which could set us up for scrutiny and
mistrust by consumers at first
Financials
We rely on subscriptions and one off events for our revenue which means we have to constantly
keep content up to date in order to please subscribers and make they feel like they are receiving
value for money
Minimal timescale pressures however we need to get our product to market as quickly as possible
to avoid the idea being poached by a larger company.
Pressure to get infinity partners involved in order to expand our products reach and appeal
Web hosting
Apple developer license
Domain
Printing - Branded business cards, flyers and recipe cards
Nutritionist to endorse meal plans
A limited marketing budget
Supply chain relies on supermarkets systems and therefore the supermarkets themselves which
are both unpredictable
One off events could distract us from the real goal of gaining subscribers as that is where the
revenue is.
Because we will be populating the meal plans ourselves (albeit with advice from a nutritionist) we
open ourselves up to the possibility of less than 100% accurate data
Unpredictable subscription take-up and adoption could pose as a problem to planning financially
Accreditations
We require a nutritionist which we are yet to obtain, we require one with a good reputation
amongst the sports industry
We have no track record with health food or sports nutrition so gaining accreditation and
advertisement with market leaders such as Mens Health would be a huge benefit however it is
difficult to achieve
System reliability is a main weakness because customers expect a very slick and smooth
experience paying a monthly subscription
Succession
Issues could arise if key members of our team leave to start another job after university
Team members may also interest in the company and not contribute equally
Summary of weaknesses
Knowing our fundamental weaknesses allows us to face them head on and keeps aware of where we
could be unsuccessful in the future. Our main weakness probably lies in system reliability, because
although we are confident we can sustain reliable systems, even the smallest amount of downtime could
lead to loss of subscriptions and users.
Opportunities
Competitors
Currently there are no similar products to ours on the market offering what we can offer, this
gives us a competitive edge
Large companys cannot move as quickly as we can due to our tightly formed development team
Revenue Streams
The possibility to incorporate ads and sponsorships on our site for extra revenue
Rebranding our application for charity events gives us the opportunity to beta test changes to the
application without causing any long term impact
Opportunity to work with supermarkets to develop our product exclusively with them
There are many opportunities to promote our product linked to specific events, people are
inspired to take up and try new sports due to huge events such as Tour de France and the
Olympic games if we are clever with our marketing we can capture these consumers
Being a small intuitive team we are good are learning new technologies and could easily adapt our
application to a new mobile standard or device
With technological experience we all have we could easily go on to create extra monitoring
devices to enhance the users experience of the service we offer
Being a very versatile application it allows us to adapt it to suit different markets, for example
pregnancy meal plans or elderly health care.
We aim to target many niche sports markets as well as extending in other areas once we have a
proven business model to support expansion
Being an application/website based product we have the ability to expand both nationally and
internationally without too much trouble or alteration to our product
If we were to land a contact with a large supermarket that would be ideal as it could mean vastly
increased awareness leading to increased revenue and exponential growth.
We have the opportunity to gain large amounts of feedback and information through charity
events and also through our fellow university peers and university sports societies and teams.
Advertisement in relevant local establishments such as gyms, sports stores and sports centres.
Referral system to encourage people to tell their friends
Partnerships with charities for one off events such as sponsored walks or run
We aim to provide for a large range of sports however we can also cater for less conventional
more seasonal weather oriented sports such as snow sports and summer sports because although
our product may be aimed at specific sports athletes like to maintain fitness all year round in
order to be in the best shape possible for next season.
Summary of opportunities
Prior knowledge of opportunities that might come our way or that we could pursue allows us to be
prepared to take on new challenges and work involved with these potential opportunities. An important
opportunity we have identified is the possibility to get involved with a charity, this could boost awareness
with potential consumers we would not usually reach and also allows us to gather useful data and
feedback on our application before we have any subscribers.
Threats
Competitors
Larger competitors could easily replicate our idea and be more successful purely due to an
existing customer base
Public Relations
Threats such as poor reviews by users or even worse influential sporting figures could damage
our reputation irreparably.
Unhappy customers would directly hurt our bottom line due to our business model being
subscription based so it is important that we keep customers happy and maintain subscribers.
Market demand
Although there is currently a demand for our product, we could stand at a loss if companies such
as supermarkets started offering specific dietary information i.e. sporting meal plans to its
consumers directly. (this is unlikely to happen due the niche nature of this market)
There is potential for disaster if the supermarkets alter their websites significantly it will render
our product unusable until we alter it to fit the changes
The loss of key partnerships or and contracts could be a substantial threat, for example the loss
of a nutritionist could leave us unable to create new meal plans.
IT Developments
There is a threat from the ever changing technological developments in the industry. If we were
to get left behind in the uptake of a major new technology in the future this could leave us at a
loss.
Expansion is obviously something we are aiming for however knowing when to reduce our own
workload by employing other stuff is key to our success, if we start to struggle we could
potentially harm the company financially.
Obstacles faced
The first key obstacle we face is taking the product to market as smoothly as possible, with no
prior experience this stage will be a very crucial part in the companys development and could
pose a threat if we go about it the wrong way.
Setting up meetings to gain important contracts with infinity partners and supermarkets.
Loss of any of our key staff members poses as substantial threat to the business however would
not cause lasting issues for the company as they could be replaced in time, the issue would arise
when trying to find the right candidate to fill the position.
There are lots of sports which are very seasonal and therefore this could lead to subscribers
cancelling or failing to renew contracts out of season which would affect our bottom line.
Summary of threats
Analysis of threats that we face is a very important aspect to the SWOT analysis, it allows us to prepare
for the worst and also create contingency plans based on a risk a particular threat might pose. Our most
prominent threat probably stems from the fact that our business idea and concept is easily replicable by
larger companies on a much smaller timescale and they already have a consumer base the buy into the
product whereas we will need to build our customer base from the ground up.