Wednesday 25th September Mr Nicholls Year 10 Business Wednesday 25th September Mr Nicholls

Objectives To be able to recognise the importance of competitors in business planning. To be able to state at least three potential strengths and three weaknesses of competitors that might affect business planning.

To start with… Choose a business and write its name down in your book – this business will be your focus for the remainder of the session. Make sure you choose one for yourself – don’t copy the people around you!

Strengths: What advantages does your organisation have? What do you do better than anyone else? What unique or lowest-cost resources can you draw upon that others can't? What do people in your market see as your strengths? What factors mean that you "get the sale"? What is your organisation's Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

Weaknesses… What could you improve? What should you avoid? What are people in your market likely to see as weaknesses? What factors lose you sales?

So… Who are your competitors? What threats do they pose? What are your competitors doing better than you? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors? How are your competitors likely to respond to any changes to the way you do business?

Homework Complete the exercise on page 22 of the text book (you’ll need to take one with you!). Make sure you answer questions 1, 2 and 3 IN FULL whilst considering exactly what the question is asking of you. Due next Monday.