THe Story of the Unhappy Blackberry and the SWOT Analysis

Last week as part of one on one feedback I was doing with a group of students from a particular client in the Peninsular region, I was largely focused on one on the best and sadly least used tools we've ever had in business. Namely the SWOT analysis.

For those that may never have used it before, the SWOT analysis is a time and test model that examines the internal strengths and weaknesses or your product or business, as well as the external  opportunities your business faces within the market it operates within.

The key point being that we can actively (and hopefully proactively) do something about the internal strengths and weaknesses, whereas despite the fact we can be aware of and respond quickly to the opportunities and threats of the marketplace, in a free market society we can not directly control these factors and in fact it is illegal to even try to do so as it means contravening world wide business law.

Now to put this into perspective it is always so refreshing to see global brands not only do their SWOT analysis but leverage the insight they gain from it and respond with clearly thought out, measured and appropriate action.

I have no doubt that this is the case with Blackberry with the recent release of its impressive new Blackberry Z10 smart phone.  As someone who has been using Blackberry phones for the last six years, I am very aware of their respective strengths and weaknesses and am thrilled to see that its makers RIM have addressed the biggest weakness by now providing a full screen instead of it's more traditional half screen with fixed keys.

Yes Blackberry has always had the best email and as proud users we have also said we wanted serious business tools and not just a phone to play games on, but let's be honest for a minute. In the years since we bought our first curve or Bold phone, with the introduction of iPhone's and more recently Androids, how many time s have you wished for a full size screen, better camera and infinitely better web browsing ability? Well thankfully now these things are all in the latest and best Blackberry and you have a serious choice to make again when your current mobile contract expires.
The story of Blackberry and the SWOT analysis is a nice one.

And until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,
Daniele.