Athlete's Warehouse Swot Analysis Essay

Recall that in a SWOT analysis, the Strengths and Weaknesses are internal. This means that the organization has more control over these factors. The opportunities and threats are external, meaning that they have little to no influence over them. Read the following case study and provide three strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (each) for Athlete’s Warehouse . Provide a brief, overall evaluation of this organization based on your findings:

SWOT analysis was developed by Ken Andrews in his book, The concept of corporate strategy, published in 1971 (Carpenter, Taylor, & Erdogan, 2010, p. 228). Consequently, SWOT analysis is used to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats faced by a business. The business
According to Howse (1992), Colin, “needed Ed’s support to finance the business” (Howse, 1992, p. 2) The second weakness that is identified is the urgency in securing employment for Colin. While it is understandable that Colin would be stressed not having any gainful employment, the urgency of creating success is not advantageous. “Recognizing the urgency in securing employment for Colin, the brothers began to review the various factors which would influence their decision” (Howse, 1992, p. 2). Consequently, poor staffing decisions may be made in an effort to ensure that Colin has steady employment. The third weakness is Ed’s age and limited time to retirement. According to the text, Ed is sincerely concerned for his investment when he says, “I don't want to lose my retirement money” (Howse, 1992, p. 5). Ed has been planning to retire in nine years and he is concerned about tying up the money he has been saving for retirement, possibly loosing it in a failed venture (Howse, 1992, p. 2). These weaknesses are internal and are able to be influenced by the brothers as they manage their business and
“The primary competition for Athlete's Warehouse would be the three sporting goods stores in Grand Falls and Windsor” (Howse, 1992, p. 3). They include B & B Sports, Sports Experts, and Sportstop. Competition such as this means that opening a new and competing business has a greater chance of failure. These three stores are already established in the chosen location. The second threat to success is the large discount store with deep pockets also in proposed area. Woolworths is a big-box store that could discount items sold by the brothers to block their entry to market. Also, Nicole Leinbach-Reyhle makes a good point that consumers are often influenced by marketing from larger retailers, forgetting about their local shops. “Many Americans frequent chain stores without considering their local merchant or other small business options” (Leinback-Reyhle, 2014). The third threat to Athlete Warehouse is that the local economic pool is relatively small and relies on only a few employers to employ potential customers. Should massive layoffs hit the town of Grand Falls, consumers may be forced to move away. Colin and Ed will be relying on the local businesses, such as Abitibi Price Paper to keep employment levels constant enough to support their