Swot: Management and Sandwich Blitz

Sandwich Blitz has many things to consider before deciding on taking the step of expanding their business. The local economy, potential locations, and whether the company has the available resources must all be considered. The best way to help make the decision to expand is by using a process called SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis, this method allows the businesses to determine if the final objective is achievable, and if it isn’t what goal would be. The strengths that Sandwich Blitz possesses are numerous; they have already expanded seven times from the initial location.

Therefore, the company already has experience with expansion and understands all of the intricacies involved. Sandwich Blitz has a well established and popular product as indicated by the company’s 30% increase in profits in 2011. Additionally, current team members are encouraged to handle customer service issues themselves; this type of empowerment creates trustworthy, loyal and dependable employees. These strengths will benefit the company as they consider whether expansion will benefit their established business. The Sandwich Blitz company also has some weaknesses.

Upper management is stretched thin as the owners do not have any middle management to handle the day-to-day paper work and decision making. There is much work involved in expansion and the current upper management situation does not allow for time to do the research involved. At this point the day-to-day running of the company may suffer if Dalman and Lei must take time away from running the business to find a new location and work through the logistics of expanding. Sandwich Blitz may want to consider hiring an outside consulting firm to perform the research, but that may be an expense that this small company cannot afford.

Opportunities are plentiful for Sandwich Blitz expansion. They are a well established business with a loyal and predictable client base. The company understands what types of people enjoy patronizing their establishments and they also understand what products their clientele desires. Sandwich Blitz may want to consider expanding their business into markets in upscale areas in other cities; this would then create name recognition in other areas and possibly make the product even more popular.

Currently, more and more people are interested in eating healthy and this company has already established itself as catering to health conscious individuals. Expanding at this time may be a wise decision, as it will be catering to the current mentality that organically grown products are healthier. To determine what types of threats that the company must consider, they would need to do much research before making any final decisions about expansion. That in itself is a threat as company upper management is stretched thin and does not have the time to do this type of research.

Threats that the company would need to consider are any established businesses that would be competition in the area in which they decide to expand into. What types of businesses are currently in the area? Are these other businesses a threat? These are questions that would need to be carefully considered before any expansion plans are official. Additionally, the expansion area under consideration may not be able to economically support this type of business; therefore, Sandwich Blitz must carefully consider the area they will be moving into before expanding.

Sandwich Blitz has many items to consider before making any major expansion decisions. The company’s strengths and opportunities far outweigh their weaknesses and threats. I believe if they consider SWOT analysis the decision making process will go much more smoothly. Additionally, the use of this process will allow the company to make a well thought out and wise decision as to whether they have the resources and ability to expand their business further.