Cutting Costs Strategically
February 12, 2025
A brand is a perception in its consumers’ minds. A strong brand can command a premium price. This power of a brand is measured using a technique of marketing research – Brand Health Survey. Figure: Current health status of some popular brands While checking a brand’s health certain vital aspects are captured such as how […]
Integrated marketing strategy integrates relevant marketing tools to deliver similar message to a larger audience. Remember, an integrated marketing strategy is successful only when it creates awareness of a particular brand among a large number of end-users. Remember, a marketer needs to carefully blend and make the best possible use of all promotional tools so […]
Today every company needs to advertise its product to inform the customers about the product, increase the sales, acquire market value, and gain reputation and name in the industry. Every business spends lot of money for advertising their products but the money spent will lead to success only when the best techniques of advertising are […]
Confronting a No-Growth Economy The main problem facing the global economy is that growth has stalled and excessive money printing has led to inflation. There is a saying which goes something like this, if you do not change direction, you are likely to end up in the same place that your life is taking you […]
Following are some important methods and tools for customer retention: Data sources and databases for retention: An important aspect for an organization is to think what should be the reasons that enhance repeat purchase. On paper it is not possible to make definite strategies to increase customer retention. Hence, retention databases are created to have […]
A personal SWOT Analysis is needed to understand where one stands with respect to one’s career and life path. A personal SWOT Analysis is usually the first step towards recognizing one’s position in attempting to deal with life’s challenges and career prospects.
First, one should never overestimate or underestimate one’s strengths. Therefore, a personal SWOT Analysis must be objective and to the point as far as delineating, one’s strengths are concerned. The reason we mentioned not to underestimate or overestimate one’s strengths is that while many tend to overestimate their strengths, there are some who underestimate them as well.
Therefore, the identification of one’s strengths must be done by listing all the attributes one thinks are the key assets and then penning them down to understand where one’s key personality traits would lead them.
For instance, many people have superior communication skills, people management skills, and an ability to crack aptitude tests as strengths. On the other hand, there are many for whom these very skills are lacking and hence, listing the components of the SWOT would help them in gaining a true picture of where one stands.
Listing the strengths along with the weaknesses gives one an opportunity to identify areas of improvement as well as to note those areas where one need not spend much time on. We have to remember that time is precious for many of us and hence, understanding where one stands would help us to ration it better to concentrate on the weaknesses.
For instance, if problem solving is your weakness, then you must spend more time honing your skills in that regard. Apart from that, if communication skills are your weakness, you must enroll in spoken English or a communication course that would help you polish your skills.
Once the strengths and weaknesses are listed, you must identify the opportunities that can come your way and build yourself accordingly to tap into those opportunities.
You must remember that you need to build a door for opportunity to knock on it as well as remember the fact that success in life depends to a large extent on how well one anticipates the future by observing the trends of the present and then preparing accordingly for the same.
As the saying goes, chance favors the prepared mind and hence, accurate identification of opportunities is one critical aspect that would make or mar your chances in career and in life.
The last element of the personal SWOT Analysis is the assessment of threats. One should not go into battle without scanning the environment for potential threats. Hence, one must be cautious about the direction one wants to take and list down the threats that would contribute to failure.
For instance, if you foresee that in the near future, your finances are likely to be tight, you must plan accordingly so that you do not go deep into debt. Often, the biggest threat to many individuals is managing the cash flow situation as well as understanding the blind spots that prevent people from assessing a situation for what it is.
The blind spots we are referring to are the mental blocks all of us when assessing our personal SWOT elements and these prevent us from an honest assessment of where we stand and what our weaknesses are.
One can list down any number of strengths and any number of opportunities. However, the tough part is to accurately and reliably identify the threats and weaknesses as otherwise we would be blind to them because of self-love.
The key aspect here is that one must not be caught up in one’s own shadow thinking that one is invincible. Hence, proper identification of weaknesses and threats goes a long way in ensuring that one is not caught by surprise.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *