23.Explain how business strategy is developed, including swot analysis.

Importance of SWOT Analysis in Developing a Marketing Strategy

Often viewed as a key step related to planning, SWOT analysis is deceptively simple despite the immense value it delivers. The system combines information from the environmental analysis and separates it into two components: internal issues (strengths and weaknesses) and external issues (opportunities and threats).

This level of analysis enables an organization to determine whether there are factors present that will aid in the achievement of specific objectives (due to an existing strength or opportunity) or if there are obstacles that must be overcome before the desired outcome can be realized (due to weaknesses or threats).

The process of SWOT analysis evaluates your company's strengths, weaknesses, market opportunities and potential threats to provide competitive insight into the potential and critical issues that impact the overall success of the business. Further, the primary goal of a SWOT analysis is to identify and assign all significant factors that could positively or negatively impact success to one of the four categories, providing an objective and in-depth look at your business. Highly useful for developing and confirming your organizational goals, each of the four categories provides specific insights that can be used to cultivate a successful marketing strategy, including:

Turning SWOT Analysis into a Strategic Plan. Once you've established specific values related to your business offerings within the four quadrants of SWOT analysis, you can develop a strategic plan based on the information you've learned. For example, once you've identified your inherent strengths, you can leverage them to pursue the opportunities best suited to your organization, effectively reducing potential vulnerability related to threats. In the same way, by identifying your organization's weaknesses with regard to external threats, you can devise a plan that will enable you to eliminate or minimize them while improving defensive strategies related to your offerings.

It's important to remember that SWOT analysis can be influenced (and often quite strongly) by those who perform the analysis. So it's a good idea to have an outside business consultant review the results to provide the most objective plan.

24. Describe how to use Gantt charts and pert planning techniques.

PERT chart is a project management tool used to schedule, organize, and coordinate tasks within a project. PERT stands for Program Evaluation Review Technique, a methodology developed by the U.S. Navy in the 1950s to manage the Polaris submarine missile program. A similar methodology, the Critical Path Method (CPM) was developed for project management in the private sector at about the same time.

A PERT chart presents a graphic illustration of a project as a network diagram consisting of numbered nodes (either circles or rectangles) representing events, or milestones in the project linked by labelled vectors (directional lines) representing tasks in the project. The direction of the arrows on the lines indicates the sequence of tasks. In the diagram, for example, the tasks between nodes 1, 2, 4, 8, and 10 must be completed in sequence. These are called dependent or serial tasks. The tasks between nodes 1 and 2, and nodes 1 and 3 are not dependent on the completion of one to start the other and can be undertaken simultaneously. These tasks are called parallel or concurrent tasks. Tasks that must be completed in sequence but that don't require resources or completion time are considered to have event dependency. These are represented by dotted lines with arrows and are called dummy activities. For example, the dashed arrow linking nodes 6 and 9 indicates that the system files must be converted before the user test can take place, but that the resources and time required to prepare for the user test (writing the user manual and user training) are on another path. Numbers on the opposite sides of the vectors indicate the time allotted for the task.

The PERT chart is sometimes preferred over the Gantt chart, another popular project management charting method, because it clearly illustrates task dependencies. On the other hand, the PERT chart can be much more difficult to interpret, especially on complex projects. Frequently, project managers use both techniques.

A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart developed as a production control tool in 1917 by Henry L. Gantt. Frequently used in project management, a Gantt chart provides a graphical illustration of a schedule that helps to plan, coordinate, and track specific tasks in a project.

A Gantt chart is constructed with a horizontal axis representing the total time span of the project, broken down into increments (for example, days, weeks, or months) and a vertical axis representing the tasks that make up the project (for example, if the project is outfitting your computer with new software, the major tasks involved might be: conduct research, choose software, install software). Horizontal bars of varying lengths represent the sequences, timing, and time span for each task. Using the same example, you would put "conduct research" at the top of the verticle axis and draw a bar on the graph that represents the amount of time you expect to spend on the research, and then enter the other tasks below the first one and representative bars at the points in time when you expect to undertake them. The bar spans may overlap, as, for example, you may conduct research and choose software during the same time span. As the project progresses, secondary bars, arrowheads, or darkened bars may be added to indicate completed tasks, or the portions of tasks that have been completed. A vertical line is used to represent the report date.

Gantt charts give a clear illustration of project status, but one problem with them is that they don't indicate task dependencies - you cannot tell how one task falling behind schedule affects other tasks.