Course Management Principles

Student: Scott Buble
Instructor: Professor Dewan
Date: October 28, 2012
SWOT Analysis

|Organization: Amy’s Bread |
|Operational Objectives: Has had steady growth throughout the past few years and becoming more and more competitive in the|
|New York City Market. Amy is weighing her options to see if she should focus on retail or wholesale and also whether or |
|not to move to a larger location. |

INTERNAL

|Strengths |Weaknesses |
|Amy’s Bakery is Zagat rated which helps to distinguish her bakery as being |The bakery industry is extremely competitive and many times there are low wholesale |
|extremely successful. |profit margins. |
|Amy’s Bakery, unlike many others, donates to charities, which helps consumers |Locations in New York City are very expensive and there are always bakeries opening |
|see they also care about the community. |which makes the bakery environment more competitive. |
|Amy has a high entrepenuerial spirit. |Hand production techniques, while valuable, produce high labor costs. |
|Has an excellent manager (Toy Kim Dupree) who is dedicated to helping the |Ingredients are much more expensive than many of Amy’s competitors. |
|company succeed. |Because other companies do not have to worry about high labor costs or ingredients, |
|Company has many wholesale clients lining up and already has many whole |they are able to turn a profit more easily. |
|customers in her portfolio (50 customers and 30 on waiting list). |Lower-profit wholesalers account for 75% of sales (meaning that it is harder to turn a|
|While most companies struggle to make a profit, Amy’s Bakery is turning a |profit for lower-profit wholesalers). |
|profit. |The current location of the bakery is much too small to meet the growing demand. |
|Excellent work environment (benefits, low turnover, employees feel free to |Cash-only bakery. While taking cash is much easier, more and more customers prefer to |
|speak and voice their ideas, etc) |pay with credit/debit cards. |
|Retail business accounts for 25% of profits and increases sales. | |
|High quality breads that are homemade and freshly made as opposed to other | |
|bakeries that do not bake their bread in store and lacks quality. | |
|Able to grow business and secure bank financing since her business has positive| |
|signs of growth. | |
|Works with the public/press and is open to putting herself out there. | |
|Wholesale business seems to be a continued success as it represents 75% of | |
|sales. | |
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EXTERNAL

|Opportunities |Threats |
|Higher profit margins with high-end breads (i.e. black olive, apple walnut |Growing concerns of carbohydrates in the diet possibly can affect consumer demand for |
|raisin; $2.40 wholesale, $3.40 retail). This means higher profits than normal |bread. |
|breads. |Competition from large competitors such as Au Bon Pain and Panera Bread. |
|Possible use of merchant services would help increase their business by |The deplorable economy that affects small business (i.e. not able to hire as many |
|allowing credit card payments and can also help to receive payments from |employees, possible production cuts). |
|wholesale retailers. | |
|Hiring another manager would allow Amy to focus more and allow her more time to| |
|run the company and grow the business. | |
|If she buys the 31st street location, production can happen on a large scale | |
|and the customers on the waiting list can be dealt with accordingly. | |
|If Amy leases the 15th street location she can cater to both her retail and | |
|wholesale customers. | |
|Amy can perhaps grow her business by advertising more and offering specials for| |
|her retail customers. | |
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