6.1 Business management tools

SWOT separates internal strengths and weaknesses from external opportunities and threats.

It is useful only when each point is evidenced and linked to a choice.

Classify the factor by control and source, then turn it into an action.

A strong delivery network is a strength; a new regulation is a threat.

Do not list vague positives without evidence.

Ansoff compares market penetration, product development, market development and diversification by market/product novelty.

Risk usually rises as the business moves farther from known customers and capabilities.

Locate the proposal, then state the main uncertainty and capability gap.

Selling the current drink to current customers is penetration; a new drink for a new market is diversification.

The matrix is a risk lens, not a guaranteed growth ranking.

STEEPLE scans social, technological, economic, environmental, political, legal and ethical forces around a business.

It turns external change into scenarios and strategic questions, not predictions.

Identify the force, time horizon and affected decision.

A data law changes the design of a customer app and its compliance cost.

Do not treat all factors as equally likely or controllable.

BCG maps products by relative market share and market growth into stars, cash cows, question marks and dogs.

The categories suggest cash allocation but ignore synergies, margins and future uncertainty.

State the axes and decide whether investment, harvest or exit is justified.

A high-share, low-growth product may fund a high-growth question mark.

A dog is not automatically worthless if it supports another product.

A business plan connects the opportunity, strategy, operations, finance, risks and milestones.

Its value comes from coherent assumptions and review, not length.

Trace one assumption through market, resources, cash and implementation.

A launch plan links 2,000 units to staffing, stock, promotion and a cash buffer.

A plan is not proof that funding or demand will occur.

A decision tree represents choices, uncertain outcomes and payoffs so expected values and risks can be compared.

Probabilities and payoffs are assumptions; expected value does not show dispersion or ethics.

Label branches, multiply payoff by probability, sum outcomes and test sensitivity.

A launch with 0.6 chance of $100k and 0.4 chance of −$20k has expected value $52k before cost.

The highest expected value is not always the safest choice.

Mean, median, mode, range and standard deviation summarise a dataset; each reveals a different feature.

Outliers and skew can make the mean misleading, while a summary hides individual cases.

Choose the statistic that matches the distribution and decision.

Delivery times of 2,2,3,3,20 minutes have median 3 but mean 6; the outlier matters for capacity.

A summary is not causation or a forecast.

Circular models keep products and materials in use through repair, reuse, remanufacture, sharing or recycling while reducing waste.

Design, incentives, reverse logistics and customer behaviour determine whether value actually circulates.

Trace the product after use and identify the revenue and recovery mechanism.

A tool company leases durable drills, retrieves them, repairs them and leases them again.

Recycling alone may destroy more value than reuse or repair.