"Business Strategy" Reading Club: From Strategy Ideas to SWOT Analysis

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The author of this article is Miss Michun Lee. Thank you for her detailed records and sharing.

On the evening of January 5, 2017, a total of 23 partners gathered at ZAZA Coffee near the MRT Zhongshan Junior High School Station to participate in the first activity of the “Business Strategy” reading club.

At the beginning of the event, Vista, the leader of this book club, was responsible for opening the event. He solved the problem with this famous saying, “Since ancient times, those who do not plan for the future will not be able to plan for a moment; those who do not plan for the overall situation will not be able to plan for a region.” This famous saying inspired everyone to understand and think about “strategy”.


At the same time, he also helped everyone review the concepts mentioned in the book through several briefings, that is, if an enterprise must have comprehensive and long-term considerations, it must first have plans and strategies before taking action.

What is Strategy?

At the beginning of the reading club, Vista got directly to the topic and emphasized the importance of “output”. Therefore, he hopes that everyone will not stick to traditional theories and try to express their understanding of “strategy” in their own words.

Vista then raised the next point of thinking, what is the difference between tactics and strategy?

The members thought about it for a while. Some thought tactics were a direction, strategy was a policy, and some thought it was a method of implementation. The members on site brainstormed and answered.

Vista said: “How to implement it is the most important thing!”

Vista then named the helper and asked three questions: “What are your plans for 2017? How will you achieve the goals? Also, how will you quantify this plan?”

Of course, these issues are all related to strategy. After setting the goals, we need to clarify the methods and business models to achieve them, and we need to clearly define the planning process. Because process design often involves efficiency.

How to set goals when it comes to implementing policies? How do you achieve your goals after setting them? At the same time, it is also necessary to consider what feasible business models should be adopted in response to market changes?

At this time, Vista recommended management guru Michael. “Competitive Strategy: Analysis of Industry Environment and Competitors” written by Porter. This book helps everyone take stock of the company’s advantages and how manufacturers can get orders? How can enterprises ensure their advantages and win?

Vista also shared his experience as a judge for competitions and projects, “Many teams will use SWOT analysis, but most people only stick to the form and rarely see the complete structure, let alone make full use of the overall framework.”

From these words, I also understood that whether we use SWOT analysis or business strategy, we must know how to think and analyze!

Next, Vista used the self-driving car business model as an example to inspire everyone to think.

Vista asked members: “What do you think are the advantages of autonomous vehicles?”

Some people think the main advantage is to ensure safety, others say it can save time, and of course some think it can make city transportation more convenient. Vista is trying to ask members to think more deeply about business models. Please think about this: When the autonomous car era comes, what exactly has technology changed? In fact, autonomous vehicles are not only an advancement in the transportation system, but also a wonderful service that connects people and things.

Stimulated by a burst of thinking, the members thought more broadly and deeply about “strategy.” Next, Junchen will lead everyone to read and discuss the first chapter.

Junchen gave a basic introduction to the four items of the SWOT analysis table, and also explained the advantages and disadvantages of SWOT and TOWS. Junchen, who has BP planning experience, said that SWOT has been overused and is easily restricted by time, space and environment. This problem also has the same problem with TOWS. But what is different is that the advantages of TOWS help answer “What should we do?”

Junchen pointed out that SWOT cannot know what strategy the opponent will adopt next or where the business blind spots of its own company are. These will take some time to be verified and cannot be of immediate help.

The BCG matrix can be simply divided into four quadrants, including: Problem Business (WO), Star Business (SO), Thin Dog Business (WT) and Taurus Business (ST). Junchen also further explained the relationship between the BCG matrix and SWOT.

A member asked: “Why do BCG and SWOT correspond like this?”

Junchen said: “The x and y axes are interchangeable. They can also be used for business brands, market share %, etc. McKinsey is also useful, but the indicators are different. This is also related to the industry in which it is located and needs to correspond to the product life cycle. Understand whether the strategy is feasible? How does the internal and external environment and activities match up? Which strategy should be adopted to actually implement it? Match it.”

Another member asked: “Is this the same as the BPM table in the book? It’s just that the expression and wording are different?”

Junchen said: “Yes, this is the difference between online data translation and book translation, but the same form is just a different way of expressing the form.”

A member asked: “Can this (BCG combined with SWOT) matrix be used to analyze one’s own internal enterprises? Can it be applied to the analysis of competitors?”

Junchen told everyone: “For competitor analysis, it is better to use five forces analysis. Most predictions are made at the service level, or some basic information can be obtained from interviews and reports about competitors. However, confidential information such as the true repurchase rate and growth rate of competitors is often impossible to truly know.”

Finally, Junchen used four cases that he analyzed with SWOT in the past as examples to provide everyone with reference, and asked each member to start practicing using SWOT for analysis and application.

Vista then added, what are the different ways of looking at business groups? For example, when discussing strategies, you can put more thought into it and don’t just give the answer without thinking. Strategy application can be divided into the following three aspects:

1. Find customers: Who are the customers? Who are the consumer groups (Central? South? Boys or girls?)
2. What is the product? What services are provided? What are the businesses?
3. What are the access routes in the city?

After the introductory reading process, we began to enter the focus of this reading club, which is the 40-minute workshop stage. The group was divided into three groups for brainstorming, and members of each group came on stage one after another, and then a representative reported to everyone, organizing the topics from the ideas into the results of the SWOT analysis.

“Business Strategy” Workshop

The discussion topic of the first group is “Using VR technology to create an online platform for religious believers”, the second group’s topic is “Health service website suitable for people aged 35-55”, and the third group’s topic is “E-commerce for selling fresh fruits and vegetables on the spot”.

Finally, Vista provides some suggestions for the reference of partners sharing this time:

1. The three minutes must focus on the key points (because the partners in the audience may not have relevant backgrounds, and the keywords and information that can be captured are limited), such as: What is the topic? What industry is your background? What did you analyze?
2. You can freely display the layout of the poster (it is recommended to buy a larger poster next time).
3. Before the speaker takes the stage, he can take some time to summarize the content.
4. In the book club, try not to directly use the companies that members work for as examples to avoid leaking company secrets.

As the discussions among the members became more and more lively, the book club also came to an end. It was the first time for a group photo to be taken. The members were very happy and looked forward to the next “Business Strategy” reading group. ★ Article source: This article was originally published on Vista Cheng’s personal website

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Further reading

• Reading is endless fun-a-brief: A brief discussion of the gains from participating in a reading club
• “Open Leadership” reading club launched

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