BMI4001M Write a Report Which Will Have a Form of SWOT Analysis Underpinned by Economic Environment

Assessment Description 

The economic environment (micro and macro) affects not only the daily functions of the businesses but also their future activities such as the introduction of new products, expansion, pricing, hiring new workers etc. A business of any size needs to understand how changes in demand, consumer preferences, price changes, inflation, changes to interest rates and economic/political situations affect their activities.

While large businesses or international corporations have teams dedicated to analysing the economic environment, small/medium businesses often lack the resources to establish and run such a team. These businesses are therefore caught unprepared and exposed to sudden changes or negative events.

Report Task: SWOT Analysis of the Business.

Your task is to write a report that will have a form of SWOT analysis underpinned by the economic environment (micro and macro). The aim is to help a local business to understand their position. This means your targeted audience is a business, hence you need to think carefully about what type of information you will use and how you communicate your findings.

You will write the report as a team of 2. Teams will be organised by your tutor but you will have to plan the work together and decide how you are going to do the writing.

A local business will present its activities/products during the semester. You need to take notes and ask questions that will help you to write the report.  The report cannot be generic, it needs to be tailored to the business presented and their needs.

The assignment aims to provide an opportunity to explore different career options, apply your knowledge to a real-life project and gain skills needed for your future career and receive valuable feedback that will help you to further work on your goals and skills.

While the next pages provide some detailed information about the requirements more information will be discussed in the seminars so attendance will increase your chances of attaining a good mark.

In your answer, you are expected to cover the following:

 1 Strengths: These are internal factors of the business and can be related to product, service, location, and anything else related to the operation of the business. You are not expected to cover everything. You must not simply describe the activities. The aim is to analyse their strengths and link them to concepts covered in this module. You may want to link it to Demand, price elasticity or income elasticity as well as price elasticity of supply (The law of Demand and supply, as well as elasticity, is covered in week 3).

2 Weaknesses: These are also internal factors. Identify possible weaknesses in the context of the economic environment. You may want to consider the product design and the elasticity of demand. You may wish to use appropriate diagrams demonstrating the relationship. (Elasticities are covered in week 3) 

3. Opportunities: These are external factors. Your aim here is to stay focused and only consider the economic environment. You may wish to consider monetary and fiscal policies as well as the current economic environment in terms of unemployment, inflation, supply chain and others.

4. Threats: These are also external factors. You may wish to focus on competition but do not forget to analyse the economic environment. Examples of appropriate factors considered in this section are: inflation, monetary policy, supply chain disturbances, unemployment, fiscal policy e.g., taxation, changes to regulations and others. 

You need to work with available data and information from reputable sources.

Learning Outcomes

You must successfully achieve the following Programme-level Learning Outcomes to pass this assessment:

LO2: Apply basic economic techniques and appreciate the complexity of basic economic issues.
LO3: Explore and understand the effect of a changing economic environment on economic agents.