Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis
Although human history is marked by project from the roman aqueducts to the American
transcontinental railroad project management was not developed as a separate discipline until
the mid twentieth century. Beginning with the nuclear weapons program after World War II.
Specific technique emerged for planning and managing their enormous budget and work force.
The most well none PERT and CPM have become synonymous for project scheduling
techniques. Both PERT and CPM were much more than scheduling techniques but the
scheduling graphics they procedure called PRET charts and Critical path.
Strengths
Positive tangible and intangible attributes, internal to an organization.
They are within the organizations control.
Weakness
Factors that are within an organizations control that detracts from its ability to attain the
desired goal.
Which areas might the organization improve?
Opportunities
External attractive factors that represent the reason for an organization to exit and
develop.
What opportunities exist in the environment, which will propel the organization?
Identify then by their time frames
Threats
External factors beyond an organizations control, which could place the organization
mission or operation at risk.
The organization may benefit by having contingency plans address them if they should
occur.
Classify them by their seriousness and probability of occurrence.
Background to the Project
The origins of the SWOT analysis technique is credited by Albert Humphrey, who led a research
project at Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s using data from many top companies.
The goal was identify why corporate planning failed. The resulting research identified a number
of key areas and the tool used to explore each of critical areas was called SOFT analysis.
Humphrey and the original research team used the categories what is good in the present is
satisfactory good in the future is an opportunity bad in the present is a fault and bad in the
future is a threat . This was called the SOFT analysis. In 1964 Uric and Orr at a conference
changed the F to a W and it has stuck as that SOFT to SWOT.
SWOT analysis is a planning tool used to understand the strengths, Weaknesses, opportunities
and Threats involved in a project or in a business. It involves specifying the objective of the
business or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are supportive or
unfavorable to achieving that objective . SWOT is often used as part of strategic planning
process. SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats. The analysis
can be performed on a product on a service a company or even on an individual.
2
Strength
1. Human Resources:
Manpower is one of the major national resources of Bangladesh. About 35 million people
constitute this vast reservoir of manpower. Fortunately Bangladesh is steadily turning her
manpower into an asset through training and skill development with a view to meeting the needs
of a modern economy.
Bangladesh offers an abundant supply of disciplined, easily trainable and low cost work force
suitable for any labor intensive industry. Of late there is an increasing supply of professionals,
technologists and other middle and low level skilled workers. They receive technical training
from universities, collage, technical training centers, polytechnic institutions etc. the expenditure
incurred by an employer to trim his employee is exempted from income tax.
2. Availability of Manpower:
In Bangladesh, almost unlimited of unskilled manpower is available at a rate that is probably
cheapest in the world. There are however, some manpower resource constraints during the
plantation period in rural areas. One shoe not has to work in details of manpower resource
optimization that, one has to strive for in the projects I n the industrialized world. It is very easy
to appoint and terminate the services of the temporary staff, a situation that is common in
projects.
Technical manpower
Medical manpower
Engineering manpower
3
Industrial manpower
Manpower for financial institution
4. Leather sector:
Sector highlights:
The labor intensive lather industry is well suited to Bangladesh having cheap and
abundant labor.
Bangladesh has a domestic supply of good quality raw materials as hides and skins are a
byproduct of large livestock industry.
Adequate government support in the form of tax holidays, duty free imports of raw
materials and machinery for export oriented lather market.
The industry lace domestic technology and expertise and local support industries such as
chemical are still under developed.
Products:
Finished leather
Leather goods
Investment incentives:
Jute fiber is 100% bio degradable and recyclable and thus environmentally friendly. It is one of
the most versatile natural fibers that have been used in raw materials for packaging, textile, non
textile, construction, and agricultural sectors. It helps to make best quality industrial yarn, fabric
net, and sacks.
6. RMG sector:
The textile and garment sector in Bangladesh fulfill a crucial role in the economy. Bangladesh-
the country of world famous muslin fabric and the great Royal Bengal Tiger has now emerged is
an aerial giant in the world textile and apparel market. The country export its appeal products
worth about 9.0 billion US$ per year to the USA, EU, Canada and most of the Scandinavian and
Middle Eastern countries. At present the country is the 6th largest apparel supplier to the USA
EUK countries. The major products are Knit and woven shirt and blouses, trousers, skirts,
shorts, kales, coats, sweaters, sportswear and many more causal and fashion apparels. The
4
industry made a modest start in 1984 with a few shirt factories exporting to USA mainly with the
spillover Korean orders due to quota.
7. Agricultural Sector:
The agricultural sector contribution to Bangladesh total GDP is very important. Agriculture is
the single most important sector of Bangladesh economy. 80% of the people is engaged is
agriculture. 57% of the labor force is engaged in the crape sector with represent about 78% of
the value added in the agricultural sector. The share of agriculture in GDP has fallen from
around 57% in the 1970s to 35% in recent years but agriculture is still the largest economic
sector. It is also the source of many of the small the industrial sector raw materials such as jute
and tea, and account for 20% of the value of expert. In short agriculture is the driving force
behind economic growth in Bangladesh and as a result increasing food and agriculture
production have always major concern of Bangladeshi policy market.
8. Large market:
Bangladesh as a market is huge in size. They can purchase so many low and medium price
goods and at present a new group of consumers is creating day by day.
5
Weakness
1. Doing Business in Bangladesh: some Hurdles
In spite of having stronger LEG (labor supply, Entrepreneurs, Gas stock), is Bangladesh
economy running and growing shower than her potential capacity? The answer is an unfortunate
Yes justified with some commonly mentioned reasons like political instabilities, corruptions,
poor planning and implementation, natural calamities, weak financial markets, One very
significant issue that most often fails to secure a place in the above list and is left unnoticed for
long is the regulatory environment that carries on retting numerous barters for entrepreneurs
from starting to scrape a business. There are hundreds of procedures that are to be performed in
the brick and mortar environment (as opposed to via Internet) Most of these procedures create
enormous harassment for the entrepreneurs and waste or resources. The result is very obvious;
people find it more profitable to count interests from depositing their savings into the banks or
Govt. Certificates rather than getting involved in productive activities.
How far is Bangladesh lagging behind South Asia and the developed economies?
In this very inception of an in depth analysis readers may find it necessary to have a feel of the
current status of Bangladesh in comparison to the best South Asian economy and a well
performing world economy. Bangladesh is ranked by the World Bank based on efficiency,
effectiveness and simplicity of legal procedures in ten basic parameters associated with a
standard business enterprise. Australia is used as the standard and the best South Asian
economy in each parameter is considered for farther comparison. The legal environment is the
basis of the analysis and rankings. Different South Asian economies have best rank in different
parameters.
6
Stage 3: Hiring and Managing workforce
One of the basic factors of production is human resources. Success of a venture to a large
extent depends on availability of skilled labors at a cheapest possible rate. Since workers are
human beings too as opposed to robots, protecting their rights should also be a major concern of
the businessmen and the policy makers. Policy makers in the developed economies carry on
imposing multi dimensional regulations on the businesses on the other hand businesses attempt
to bypass the laws. The scenario is a bit different in the developing economies, as the elite
entrepreneurs most often lobby with the policy makers and prevent those regulations that
prevent them from exploiting employees.
7
Stage 7: Tax Regulations:
In an efficient economy, tax is a very important cash flow from perspective of both businesses
and the govt. One party engages in endless endeavor to evade taxes and the other one attempt to
maximize tax revenue to fund Government's welfare activities. A country's tax system has
important bearing on the economic growth of a country as taxes determine incentive to invest,
work and perform many other economic activities. A good tax system has some characteristics
like the following:
8
5. Low savings GDP Ratio:
The people of Bangladesh do not save money much as compared to neighboring countries like
India and developed countries like Japan. Their saving power is very low due to low income as
well as lack of saving habit. As savings ensures more investments and the increment of GDP is
heavily dependent on reinvestment, we should more concentrate on increase of savings power
for the middle class of Bangladesh.
Investment is in fact the engine of growth. The spectacular economic performance of East-
Asian countries can in the main be attributed to their high investment-GDP ratio. Conversely, it
is the deficiency of capital or low investment-GDP ratio that is the major weakness of most
developing countries.
9
motivation. Both the persons who are involved in the process of giving and taking the tasks of
project are reluctant as there is no accountability.
In Bangladesh, we mainly suffer from business ethics. Our traders forget their principles and
emphasis on their personal interests. They never sacrifice their little personal interest, for the
great good of the nation. As a result, our overall business environment suffers a lot. The traders
forget to keep their commitment; they sometimes involved themselves with smuggling and
corruption. In this way, our business environment loses its overall image. One trader tries to
falsify another. It becomes a tradition of our traders. The investors always remain in anxiety to
be cheated. So they use their fund to invest in the most secured sectors. They do not want to
involve in risky department where there is a chance of being cheat. So the absence of business
ethics is the red warning for our projects.
10
12. Low literacy rate:
Low literacy rate is a major problem of Bangladesh. Primary education is mandatory in
Bangladesh. Encouraging poor children into education through Cash/Food for education
program has been globally appreciated. Female secondary school assistance program up to class
XII and NGO's non-formal education program have reached Bangladesh in a better level in
human development index.
13. Corruption:
In recent years, Bangladesh has repeatedly been named the most corrupt country in the world.
Crime and corruption-much of which is linked to political parties often brings threats, brutal
physical attacks, and even murder.
11
Opportunity
1. Growing economy, scope for fresh and new projects, need for
infrastructural facilities:
The performance of the Bangladesh economy in the face of a number of unfavorable factors in
FY08 was remarkable indicating the resilience of the economy and its strong growth potential.
Despite two consecutive floods and devastating cyclone Sid, outbreak of avian flu, political
uncertainty, shaken business confidence, labor unrest in the RMG sector and soaring commodity
prices in the international market, the real GDP grew by an estimated 6.2 percent in FY08, only
slightly lower than 6.4 percent growth in FY07.
The project activities in Bangladesh proved more productive than those in India: many new local
partners joined the project, promoting delegation at local level. The project exceeded original
indicators including sales turnover, increased gross margins, partners and jobs created and a
wider country spread.
12
4. Financial Globalization in Bangladesh
The financial system in a country comprises two major financial institutions, the banking
financial institutions (BFIs), the non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) including the stock
exchange.
As a developing country, Bangladesh needs FDI for its ongoing development process. Since
independence, Bangladesh is trying to be a suitable location for FDL Special zones have been
set up and lucrative incentive packages have been provided to attract FDI. However, the total
inflow of FDI has been increasing over the years. In 1972, annual FDI inflow was 0.090 million
USD, and after 33 years, in 2005 annual FDI came to 845.30 million USD and to 989 million
USD in 2006.
13
7. Opportunities from Globalization
Globalization has both positive and negative impacts. Bangladesh is enjoying the following
impacts of globalization:
i. It gains access to much larger markets, both for imports and exports.
On the import side, consumers gain access to a dramatically larger range of goods and
services, raising their real standard of living.
Domestic producers gain access to a wider range and better quality of intermediate inputs
at lower prices.
On the export side, domestic industries can enjoy a quantum leap in economies of scale
by serving global markets rather than only a confined and underdeveloped domestic
market.
ii. It can open itself up to international trade and investment gain access to a much higher level
of technology. This confers on Bangladeshs latecomers advantage rather than bearing
the cost of expensive, up-Front research and development.
iii. Openness to the global economy can provide the infrastructure to the economy needs for
growth. Foreign capital can finance more traditional types of infrastructure, such as port
facilities, power generation, and an internal transportation network, just as British capital
helped to finance Americas network of canals and railroads in the nineteenth century. But
just as importantly, multinational companies can provide an infrastructure of what could be
called enabling services, such as telecommunications, insurance, accounting, and
banking.
Nowadays, the prospect of knitwear is higher than woven sector. Moreover value addition is
more on knit wear export. More than 75% of knitwear products from Bangladesh are exported to
the European Union (EU) market and about 16% to 20% to the US. By contrast, only 34-35% of
Chinas total textile exports go to EU and US. Pointing this out, a BKMEA official says it is time
for Bangladesh to reduce its absolute dependence on EU and diversify its textile export
destinations, adding that the Association is exploring prospects in some markets in Asia and in
the market in Australia. Recently Japanese buyers have shown a huge interest in Bangladesh
market and BKMEA believes export to Japan, which is now worth only about $6 million, can
14
jump to as high as $90 million. The Association is concentrating on strengthening its ties with
Japan and planning to organize a fair there in the near future.
BKMEA also needs to diversify its exports. At present there are only 16 knitwear export items
and the Association is seriously considering increasing the number. So this sector is a huge
potential for Bangladesh.
8.1Jute Goods:
Although jute no longer plays the key role in Bangladesh exports that it once did, the country
remains the worlds second largest producer of this natural fiber. Traditionally, jute has been
used principally as packing material. Today, it may have more diversified future through the use
of new technologies and processes developed by the International Jute Organization in co-
operation with national and international research institutes. Among the new products that might
be developed from jute are products made by blending jute with cotton and other fibers, curtains,
mattress covers, soft luggage bags, etc. Jute can also be reinforced with plastic to produce
molded products and can be used as input for paper pulp. In an environmentally more conscious
age, this cheap annual crop may have a new potential.
15
Speedy communication
Increasing awareness about human rights
Market economy based on efficiency and quality
Strong media or press
Strong local govt. institution with delegated power
Strong viable NGOs to supplement government program
New job opportunities in the lust expanding service sector where young can be absorbed
Sweeping administrative reforms which will minimize corruption & thereby save the
scarce resources for development
Increasing deregulation which will emancipate the individual potentialities of youths to
participate in development or productive activities
Hence the long pending process of development through structural adjustment will be initiated
in many developing countries. This would lead to poverty alleviation and welfare of the majority
including the youths.
Threat
16
1. Climate Change : A Development Challenge For Bangladesh
Bangladesh is among the countries most severely affected by natural disasters. UN statistics
illustrate the extent of these almost-annual catastrophes. Two wind storms killed 300000 and
140000 in 1970 and 1971, while floods affected 38 million in 1974 and 78 million in 1987. Over
a decade from 1998 2007, the five worst-hit countries were Honduras, Bangladesh,
Nicaragua , The Dominic Republic and Haiti.
Climate change is a threat multiplier. It is not that it creates a whole new set of problems its
that it will make things that are already a problem worse. Climate change is likely to make
natural disasters more frequent and more powerful to increase the frequency and extent of
environmental migrations and to increase grievances and the likelihood of state failure both of
which could facilitate terrorism.
3. Poverty in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is one of the poverty stricken countries of the world. She was fortunate enough to
receive constitutional recognition of the need for poverty reduction and also to sec these pledges
reflected in its first five year plan. But the country was equally wretched to find the initiatives
packed up and trashed in to oblivion by the fifty FYP or PRSP, there are a number of serious
gaps in it . So poverty is our one of the most important threats.
17
Emission of huge amount of green house gases is not only a threat to Bangladesh but also to the
whole world.
Global Warming
The broad region encompassing Bangladesh has warmed by about 0.5 degree centigrade over
the past 100 years. Bangladesh may get warmer and wetter in future. The best estimate of
becoming warmer than today by the year 2030 is 0.2 to 2 degree centigrade and 10% to 15 %
increases in average monsoon Rainfall.
We are aware that the ozone layer protects our home planned from potentially damaging doses
of ultraviolet B radiation. In 1985 the first ozone whole was discovered over Antarctica
leading scientists to rush to find the cause as this radiation is responsible for a wide range of
potentially damaging Human and animal health effects.
a) Unplanned Urbanization
b) Shrimp culture & its impact on environment
6. Arsenic Hazards: A great threat
The arsenic hazard in Bangladesh villagers now appeared as a real disaster affecting thousands
physically, physiologically, mentally and economically it is intensifying malnutrition, poverty
and destitution among the already poor villagers.
7. Industrial Pollution
The ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of Bangladesh (1991 ) reveals that
industrial plants are usually located along large rivers which dispose untreated wastes directly
into the rivers, Although the effluents contain 10 to 100 times the allowable levels permissible
for human health Organ metallic compounds have been increasing in commercial use over the
past decade.
18
Globalization: Challenges in front of Bangladesh
Investment Challenges: The proponents of globalization believe that it brings in high rate of
economic growth to the countries which have been able to integrate with the global process of
free trade and that growth would alleviate poverty.
Export Diversification: Despite the offer of the most attractive incentives to foreign investors
Fid has not taken place significantly because of corrupt governance deteriorating law and order
situation and political instability.
Recommendation:
19
From the discussion so fare made, it is clear that there are sample for improvement of project
implementation performance. The following measures may be suggested in order to overcome
the problem of implementation as identified:
Conclusion:
20
We have to capitalize on our strength, remove our weakness, mitigate the impact of threats and
grab the opportunities. This study came up with some suggestion to overcome the problem of
project implementation in Bangladesh. Among these most important are development of
indigenous skills for project implementation, development of technicians sensitive to national
needs, constraints to opportunity instead of imposing a well developed system to suitable for
developed countries.
References:
21
1. CIA the world fact book .
2. Bangladesh Bureau of educational institutional and statistics.
3. Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia.
4. T.C Malhotra is a New Delhi , India based journalist, January/February 2014.
5. Textile world Asia 2014/2015
6. Maid MA, 2002 and Handbook Agricultural Statistics
7. Bangladesh parjatan corporation
8. Survey of Bangladesh
9. Ministry of Environment and Forest
10. Ministry of Disaster Management & Relief
22