9.1 Organizational and Industry Analysis Template

The first template is the Organizational and Industry Analysis templateIncorporates the quick SWOT analysis using concepts from supply chain analysis, Porter’s value chain analysis and five-force model, the resource-based approach, core competencies analysis, and the Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas to conduct a brief industry analysis without bogging down in details. and it incorporates the quick SWOT analysis using concepts from supply chain analysis, Porter’s value chain analysis and five-force model,Porter (1998). the resource-based approach,Barney (1991). core competencies analysis,Prahalad and Hamel (1990). and the Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas.Kim and Mauborgne (2005). The idea is to conduct a brief industry analysis without getting bogged down in the details. This template is contained in Note 9.3 "Organizational and Industry Analysis Template (do this first)". The FAD template is a good source of information related to what products or services are going to be produced and sold. The point of the first planning template is to help you understand the current or proposed organization and the target industry. Questions 1 through 5 assist in detailing the basic question related to what business you are in and what the industry looks like. Question 6 is a simplified SWOT diagram. It is intentionally small so that that it is difficult to enter too many items. Long laundry lists are a recurring critique of SWOT analysis. One area where the simplified SWOT analysis differs from the traditional SWOT approach is that the focus is not on just internal issues, but on any areas where an organization has strengths and weaknesses. For example, the research and development (R&D) and product development areas are typically considered internal functions, but the supply and value chains along with the brand image are interconnected functions that span the internal and external organizational environment.

Organizational and Industry Analysis Template (do this first)

  1. Give a brief description of your business model including what products or service you are producing or will produce.

    ___________________________________________________________

  2. Describe your target customers and the size of the market.

    ___________________________________________________________

  3. List and describe your current competitors.

    ___________________________________________________________

  4. List and describe your potential competitors.

    ___________________________________________________________

  5. Who will you purchase or acquire materials, components, resources, or other inputs from?

    ___________________________________________________________

  6. SWOT (consider human resources, R&D, marketing, procurement, manufacturing, distribution, engineering, IT, finance, accounting, and legal)

    • What are your strengths (products, R&D, supply chain, brand, pricing, core competencies, resources, infrastructure, scalability, and interfaces)?
    • What are your weaknesses (products, R&D, supply chain, brand, pricing, core competencies, resources, infrastructure, scalability, and interfaces)?
    • What are the opportunities (growth, market share, product lines, Blue Ocean, complementary products, lock-in, brand, and first-mover advantage)?
    • What are the threats (substitutes, emerging technologies, new entrants, economic climate, government regulations, and social/culture issues)?
  7. Strategy Canvas for new product compared with competitor or industry (price and quality are example attributes)

Use the FAD template to add key attributes to the Strategy Canvas (you can continue the table if you need more attributes)

Meaning of product or service BOF POD POP EXT DIS BOF POD POP EXT DIS BOF POD POP EXT DIS BOF POD POP EXT DIS BOF POD POP EXT DIS BOF POD POP EXT DIS
Attribute name Price Quality
Very high
High
Average
Low
Very low
Not applicable
BOF, Blue Ocean features and exciters; POD, points of difference and differentiators; POP, points of parity and must-haves; EXT, extinct and vestigial features; DIS, dissatisfiers

Another important feature of the Organizational and Industry Analysis template is the presence of question 7 and the development of a strategy canvas, the Blue Ocean strategy, for identifying the current product features and how they compare with one or more competitors or with a typical product or service found in the industry marketplace. The goal is to assist in illustrating what product features are being used to differentiate the competitors and to identify other areas where you might want to reduce or add features or even increase or decrease performance.