Learning Activity 1
IFE Key Internal Factors
| Internal Strengths | Weight* | Rating** | Weighted Score (WxR) |
| The firms have the largest chain stores in the United States | 15 | 4 | 60 |
| Effective and efficient distributional channels to reach customers | 5 | 3 | 15 |
| NOOK products are sold through other retailers in the market | 5 | 3 | 15 |
| The firms attract investments from various industry heavyweights | 10 | 4 | 40 |
| NOOK brand received well in various stores in the market | 5 | 3 | 15 |
| New NOOK HD products will help the firm to sustain stiff competition in the market | 10 | 4 | 40 |
| Internal Weaknesses | |||
| Cash is drained due to investment in digital business | 12 | 2 | 24 |
| Reduced profits margins when digital sales are compared with traditional sales | 8 | 2 | 16 |
| Higher costs incurred on maintaining physical store locations | 5 | 1 | 5 |
| Competitor companies are well funded and have few modes of competitions | 7 | 1 | 7 |
| The struggle to achieve the previous profitability will affect future transactions regarding the lines of business and expansion | 8 | 2 | 16 |
| Partnering with Microsoft to earn more funding was scaled back | 10 | 2 | 20 |
| Total Weighted Score | 100. | 273 |
EFE Key External Factors
| Opportunities | Weight* | Rating** (1-4) | Weighted Score (WxR) |
| Partnering with Microsoft helped the firm to receive more funding | 16 | 4 | 64 |
| The demand for digital content increased, and the firm would increase sales | 9 | 3 | 27 |
| Retail locations were promoted to community gathering leading to a wide market range | 7 | 2 | 14 |
| NOOK Media LLC helped the firm to increase its international presence | 8 | 3 | 24 |
| Independent booksellers and number of chains decreased, which was an opportunity for the firm to dominate the market | 10 | 4 | 40 |
| The expansion of B&N colleges and universities outsourced their bookstore operations from the firm | 10 | 4 | 40 |
| Threats | |||
| The increase in the purchase of the e-content might affect the viability of the long-term traditional retail stores | 5 | 2 | 10 |
| Investors focused on common shares might be discouraged when the dividend payments are suspended | 10 | 4 | 40 |
| Direct control of the firm's operations might reduce as a result of the partnership with Microsoft | 10 | 3 | 30 |
| Customers might be influenced by the strategy of heavy price discounting employed by the competitors | 5 | 2 | 10 |
| Increased number of tablets and e-readers will affect the firm’s traditional bookselling stores globally | 8 | 3 | 24 |
| Libraries will pose stiff competition to the firm due to the increased offering of e-materials | 12 | 4 | 48 |
| Total Weighted Score | 100. | 371 |
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Learning Activity 2
Barnes and Noble Firm is the largest bookseller in the US. Being the largest bookselling company does not exempt it from the challenges faced by other business in the market. For example, Barnes and Noble Firm face challenges as well as opportunities such as competition, the influence of technology in the market and production process, distribution methods, and leadership styles. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that I chose in Barnes and Noble Firm will help the company in identifying and utilizing the strengths and weaknesses while addressing threats and weaknesses in the process of production, marketing, and distribution of the products. Many companies fail due to lack of knowledge about the status of their operations as well as the challenges they are might face in the business. SWOT analysis helps Barnes and Noble Firm to understand areas that need improvement or avoiding threats through more funding, qualified staff, and reducing prices.
In the strategic point of view, weighted IFE and EFE help the organization understand the areas that boost the performance of the organization as well as those that affect the performance or operation. For example, considering the weighted IFE in the internal strengths, the strengths that have 10% and 15% helps the company in boosting its performance. The firms should focus on increasing the funding or recruiting qualified staff in such areas such that the company can improve its performance. Additionally, the organization might decide to drop or improve the strengths and weaknesses with lower weighted IFE or EFE depending on the status of the organization. The strategies adopted by the organization will be based on the weighted IFE, and EFE results from the analysis.
References
Ketchen, D., & Short, S. (2014). ‘ Mastering Strategy: Art and Science’ and ‘Evaluating the External Environment.’ In Mastering Strategic Management . The Saylor Foundation.
Kubissa, D., Lamm, C., Myers, T., & Ruffin, P. (2014). A Group Case Analysis of Barnes & Noble Booksellers. http://robertdaigle.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/BarnesAndNoble.pdf
Rupp, W. T., & Clinton, S. A. (2017). Book Retailers and the Ever-Changing SCM Landscape: Case Study of Barnes & Noble Company and Amazon (pp. 7-9).
Salehan, M., & Kim, D. J. (2016). Predicting the performance of online consumer reviews: A sentiment mining approach to big data analytics. Decision Support Systems , 81 , 30-40.
