Small Business Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Small Business Management - Case Study Example During their initial stages, the economic conditions were not very supportive for a start up, as the economy was going through a recessionary period; thus, they could only manage to start off with $25,000 but within first six months, they were able to launch their first anti-virus program. This was a major success and also due to this, they could get funding from 'Korea Technology Credit Guarantee Fund' for the amount of $33,500 and this had become their seed money. The anti virus market in Korea grew from 4 billion in 1998, to 26 billion in 2002, and the firm grew with it. Of late, the firm has broaden its product line by adding in data recovery with announcement of 'DataMedic Solution'. Problems and challenges are a part of routine business activities but analyzing them is the only source that leads to an appropriate solution with long term viability. This section utilizes some tools and techniques for analyzing the problems, so that appropriate solutions can be proposed: SWOT is one of the widely used tools for analyzing the internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) factors prevailing in the industry under consideration. Thus, SWOT is very helpful in determining the environmental situation, matching the internal and external variables. Following is the SWOT analysis of the firm based on the learning from various sources: 1. Strengths The firm has great potential in terms of the research and development skills The initiators and the owners are five professional programmers Since the owners are directly involved in the work, it gives the firm a cutting edge over the competitors The learning curve is a quicker one since the ownership belongs to professionals rather than the businessmen Most of the anti-viruses developed are primarily windows based, and windows being a widely used operating system is definitely an advantage Financial stability is another important strength for the firm 2. Weaknesses One of the major weaknesses of the firm is its weak brand image; since it lacks professional marketers, it hasn't been able to develop its image as such The firm has a fairly narrow and focused product line, and customers prefer one window solution for all problems The recently done diversification was also unrelated (data recovery solutions) It can be seen that there is lack of vision about where the firm wants to be in the next five or ten years 3. Opportunities The growing market of anti viruses is a big time opportunity for the firm Reduced customer loyalty is also an opportunity because with customers switching all the time, the firm can easily hunt for the share of the pie of other anti virus software makers 4. Threats Reduced customer loyalty is a threat in itself as well as customers are not loyal to any single firm Increasing competition is another major influence particularly with competition coming from foreign products The life cycle of these products has reduced drastically and needs regular updates and newer versions The market is rapidly moving towards maturity which means that firms need to be innovative and proactive in terms of launching the latest