Strengths and Threats, a tale of the tape

In recent weeks, HBSDealer has solicited reader opinions on the strength and weaknesses of their respective businesses. The results, shown below, are a sort of industry-wide S.W.O.T. analysis.

S.W.O.T. are the initials for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Of course, every business sees each group differently, but responses from hundreds of participants paints a picture of a typical hardware and building supply industry company.

If a company’s leadership agreed with the sentiment of each of our four poll questions, that company could be described as follows: Strong in customer relations and weak in employee training; it sees opportunity in acquisitions, and it feels threatened by the labor shortage.

If that sounds like your company, you’re probably not alone.

Here is the breakdown of responses in each S.W.O.T. analysis category, along with the percentage of respondents who agreed:

Strengths
Customer relations, 25%;
Company culture, 20%;
Leadership, 16%;
Location, 11%;
Financial backing, 8%;
Employee training, 5%;
Strategic planning, 5%;
Supply chain, 4%;
Information technology, 3%;
Marketing, 2%; and
Other, 2%
(74 voters)

Weaknesses
Employee training, 21%;
Information technology, 16%;
Strategic planning, 12%:
Marketing, 12%;
Supply chain, 11%;
Company culture, 7%;
Leadership, 6%;
Customer relations, 6%;
Location, 4%;
Other, 4%;
Financial backing, 1%
(116 voters)

Opportunities
Acquisitions, 20%;
New categories of sales, 19%;
Staff, executives, people, 16%;
Expansions, 13%;
Supply chain improvements, 13%;
Buy online, pickup in store, 9%;
Ecommerce, 7%; and
Other, 2%.
(132 voters)

 

Threats 
Labor shortage: 35%;
Tariffs/trade war: 20%;
Competition from traditional players: 13%;
The economy: 11%;
Competition from new players: 8%;
The unknown: 4%;
Weather: 3%;
Regulatory environment: 3%; and
Other: 3%.
(191 voters)

For more surveys, visit the HBSDealer Polls archive.