TABLE OF CONTENTS You may remember that in Section 3 we considered the example of To m Robertson's second-hand bookshop. The business came under threat when another bookshop opened up down the road selling many titles at lower prices than those charged by Tom. Tom's rival, Meera, then increased her profits and made her position more secure by starting to sell her more valuable books on the Internet. Tom's response was eventually to give up and go out of business. But To m could have decided to seize his opportunities and actually compete. He, too, could have used the Web to sell his more valuable books. He had an excellent stock so there was a good chance that taking this route could have saved his business.
A particular set of changes in the external environment can represent both threats and opportunities for an organization. Ovaltine, a malt and egg powder drink stopped being manufactured in Britain in 2002. Marketed as a drink that is both good for you and helps to put you to sleep, it lost its appeal in a society where people lead increasingly busy lives and want drinks and snacks to keep them going rather than knock them out. Ironically, the original Swiss version of Ovaltine was renowned for its ability to increase energy and was the official drink at the 1948 Olympics. But the manufacturers of Ovaltine failed to capitalize on this while other soft drink manufacturers, such as Lucozade, responded to the growing...
