ILOILO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

College of Engineering and Architecture

ACTIVITY #2

ABM 501 - Business Management and

Application to Architecture

BY

KRISTOFFER JAN D. SOBREMENTE

October 10, 2022
ACTIVITY 2
STUDENT NO. 2018-1148-A 10/10//2022

II. CHOOSE 2 OF THE METHODS AND TECHNIQUES IN BUSINESS

AND APPLY THEM TO YOUR FUTURE BUSINESS.

After thorough research, I’ve come up with the decision to choose the SWOT
Analysis and the CATWOE methods and techniques in business. SWOT is an acronym for
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This form of analysis provides an
effective overview of a company that will enable it to capitalize on opportunities,
acknowledge weaknesses and act on their strengths. This approach can be used in variety
of decision-making scenarios. Established organizations could use the SWOT technique to
assess a changing culture or environment and find ways to respond proactively. New
businesses can benefit from using SWOT analysis in their planning process as it forces
decision-makers to look both inwardly and outwardly to determine their best course of
action. Ideally this analysis is done with the input of multiple stakeholders to avoid blind
spots in the decision-making process. What makes SWOT particularly powerful is that,
with a little thought, it can help you uncover opportunities that you are well placed to
exploit. By understanding the weaknesses of your business, you can manage and eliminate
threats that might otherwise catch you unaware. Analyzing your external environment help
you prepare for opportunities (e.g., changing demographics, announcement of a new
residential development in the area, new trade agreement) and threats (e.g., new
technologies, changing exchange rates, loss of a major employer in the community, new
trade agreement) that will affect your business in coming years. By using the SWOT
framework to look at yourself and your competitors, you can craft a strategy that helps you
distinguish yourself from your competitors and better compete against them in your market.
CATWOE is a strategic analysis and problem-solving framework that can be applied to a
variety of scenarios. This approach, defined by Peter Checkland as part of his Soft Systems
Methodology, can be used to consider a problem, goal or strategy and how it will affect the
business and stakeholders as a whole CATWOE is more effective when created at the very
beginning of a project or brainstorming process and can help give direction to a project and

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help the stakeholders and actors avoid future headaches. After using the CATWOE
technique, if you find that the stakeholder perspectives vary a lot, you may take this
information forward and start to design a business activity model (BAM) for each
stakeholder perspective. Stakeholder management is essential in any change project, and
so regardless of whether or not you create a BAM, you should bear in mind the information
gleaned from your CATWOE going forward in the project. After applying both methods,
I’ve come to realize that SWOT Analysis is an effective systematic approach. The main
advantages of conducting a SWOT analysis is that it has little or no cost – anyone who
understands your business can perform a SWOT analysis. You can also use a SWOT
analysis when you don't have much time to address a complex situation. This means that
you can take steps towards improving your business without the expense of an external
consultant or business adviser. By realizing the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats, we can play around with the idea in mind. Creating our BAM with a SWOT in
consideration can make the task approachable and well though out. When you are
conducting a SWOT analysis, you should keep in mind that it is only one stage of the
business planning process. For complex issues, you will usually need to conduct more in-
depth research and analysis to make decisions.