conducting a SWOT analysis

Case Assignment

For this assignment, you will be conducting a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) for Uber. You’ve all read about SWOT analysis in the background readings, but most of you have probably never conducted one yourself.

Here are the steps to take when doing your research on Uber for your SWOT analysis:

1. Start out by conducting the “SW” portion of your analysis. Remember that strengths and weaknesses are internal to the company. For this part of the analysis, you only need to look within Uber. Do they have enough money from investors to operate and expand their business? Are they profitable, or losing money? Is their technology high quality, or does it need a lot of improvement? Is their brand name and public relations strong or weak? These are just a few examples of what to look at when conducting your internal analysis of Uber. Do your research primarily through a search of reputable news sources such as Business Week, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, etc. Take careful note of what internal aspects of Uber are strengths, and which ones are weaknesses
2. Next, conduct the “OT” portion of your SWOT analysis. Remember that opportunities and threats are external to the firm. Is there a growing or shrinking market for their service? Is regulation going to become more favorable to Uber, or less favorable? Are they facing lawsuits? If so, how serious are they? Are there new markets or products they could offer in the future? For this part of your SWOT analysis, use a combination both of specific articles on Uber in the business press as well as IBIS World’s industry report by Brian Saylor on Taxi and Limousine Services in the US #48533. The business press should provide the latest developments in Uber’s external opportunities and threats, and IBIS World will give you the “big picture” in terms of the total market for taxi-type services as well as trends in this industry.

Once you have finished your research on Uber, write up a four- to five-page paper with the following items:

1.Provide an overview of your SWOT analysis with one to two paragraphs each for your discussion of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Make sure to include at least one reference to a recent article on Uber for each of the four aspects of SWOT analysis, and for the discussion of opportunities, make sure to include some information from IBIS world. The total length of this answer should be two to three pages, with citations to at least three recent articles on Uber.
2.Prepare a table that summarizes the results of your SWOT diagram. Each quadrant should have a few bullet-points that summarize the key points for each aspect of your SWOT analysis of Uber. Here is an example of a SWOT analysis diagram that was conducted for IKEA, which is of course a much different company; but this diagram should give you an idea of what to include for your table for Uber: https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/advertising-campaigns-start-to-finish/section_11/db00f32f1e74f061df27f5df6ea8c2b6.jpg

3.Finally, now that you’ve conducted a SWOT analysis, suppose you’ve been given $1,000 on the condition that you have to bet all of this money for or against Uber succeeding in the next two years. Will you bet they continue to grow and overcome any threats and weaknesses? Or do you think they will crash and burn? There is not a right or wrong answer to this question, as nobody can predict the future. But regardless of what bet you will make, you need to explain the logic and reasoning for your bet. Why do you think the strengths and opportunities outweigh the weaknesses and threats or vice versa? Give at least three reasons for your bet, and explain the reasons with respect to specific information you found in your SWOT analysis. And no – you can’t hedge by betting $500 on each outcome. You need to predict success or failure and place all your money on this outcome. Your answer to this part of the assignment should be one to one and a half pages.

Assignment Expectations This assignment will be graded using the same grading rubric as in Module 1. Additional considerations in preparing your assignment: •Case reports are to be prepared in Microsoft Word and should be 3-4 pages in length, in addition to a cover page (course name and number, module number, session name, student name, and date prepared) and reference list – double-spaced, 12 pt. type, Times New Roman font. •Report content should include a brief introduction to the assignment, background information about the organization being studied, and some preliminary discussion of the analytical tools (situation analysis and SWOT analysis) being applied in addressing the questions or tasks proposed in the assignment. •Use subtitles, bullets, and tables to improve presentation values. In this case, a suggested structure for the assignment might be ◦Introduction ◦Situation Analysis ◦SWOT Analysis ◦Discussion ◦Conclusion