THE BEST LEADERS LOOK TOWARD IMPROVEMENT AND EMBRACE OPPORTUNITY FOR ADJUSTMENT

In MKTG 350, Principles of Marketing, we learned a technique called the SWOT analysis. This is a framework used in marketing to analyze a person or organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). This technique is used with the goal of specifying the organization’s objectives and identifying all the factors that may help or hinder it on the road to the end goal. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the organization. Strengths are characteristics of the organization that give them an advantage, while weaknesses are those that put them at a disadvantage. Opportunities and threats are external to the organization; they come from the environment and cannot be controlled. An easy way to remember if something is an opportunity or threat, is the fact that they would exist even if the organization did not. Opportunities are positives in the environment that the organization could use to its advantage, while threats are barriers or things that could hurt the organization. Once these four categories have been defined, the goal is to convert the weaknesses to strengths, and the threats to opportunities, so that in the end the strengths and opportunities match up.

One of my proudest accomplishments is starting the Gamecock Club Beach Volleyball team here at USC. I played competitive beach volleyball throughout all of high school, and when I came to college, I was disappointed there was no club team to try out for. I played four-person sand intramurals, but I was really missing the competitive aspect of doubles beach volleyball. While playing with and against others throughout intramurals, I measured interest in playing competitively, collected contact information, and got started on the process of creating a student organization. After starting the club, I naturally became the president of our organization. I have been the president now for almost 2 and a half years, and have put in countless hours of practice planning, crafting budgets, sport club executive meetings and more. While I always had a few other executive members helping me, I am the only one who has been a consistent officer throughout our entire two years as a club, so naturally it has been my responsibility to keep up with the bulk of the work that goes into keeping a student organization alive and well. Through this entire experience, I’ve learned how to manage different types of people, improve on public speaking by running and coaching every practice, and lead a group of people toward a common goal.

In early March 2020, we had just finished tryouts and had our team finalized for the semester when we went off to spring break. Unfortunately, we never returned to school due to the COVID-19 pandemic cancelling the remainder of the semester for all on-campus activities. When we came back to campus in fall 2020, we still were unable to play or have an active season due to the COVID-19 safety restrictions for sport clubs. Finally, in spring 2021, the restrictions were loosened a bit, and we had the opportunity to start our team back up and play after almost an entire year off. After hearing this news, I was extremely excited to be able to have an active team again, but also very overwhelmed as I had no idea how we were going to jump back in after such a long hiatus.

When I was considering how we would go about this season with all the new elements, I thought back to my marketing class and remembered the SWOT analysis. I realized that if I could analyze our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, I could develop a goal and plan for our season this semester and begin to implement it. Some strengths I thought of were the amount of players we had who showed interest in continuing to play on the team, the continued leadership and commitment of myself and another officer to the organization, and the resources and locations available to us on campus making it possible for us to play. Some weaknesses were the number of players on our team who no longer want to play or had graduated, two of my officers studying abroad this semester therefore not being able to play or help lead, the large amount of time we had spent not playing, and our feeling of uncertainty of how to go about tryouts and developing a cohesive team again. Some opportunities I saw include the entire new freshman class that could hold many interested players, the warm weather in the spring that will allow us to play outside in the sand, and the fact that many players have missed playing the sport and would be eager for an opportunity to play again. Some threats I realized were the complete lack of competitive tournaments being held due to COVID-19, the indoor volleyball club teams who are more established than we are and attract a larger amount of players, and the safety restrictions still in place that prohibit travel and limit the amount of players allowed at practices.

By thinking back to what I learned about the SWOT analysis in MKTG 350, I was able to transfer that knowledge to my leadership position on the club beach volleyball team. I thought about what weaknesses I could convert to strengths, which included making up for lost time by playing now, keeping good communication with our team from last year and encouraging them to continue to play, and starting to develop a plan for tryouts and gaining new members. The  threats I could convert to opportunities included making a plan for interclub tournaments on campus throughout the season, working together with the indoor teams and presenting the idea to players of being a part of both the indoor and beach teams, and while being unable to change the safety restrictions themselves, we can be flexible and redevelop our practice plans around them in order to continue playing while keeping everyone safe and following the guidelines. By seeing how the SWOT analysis can help companies and organizations from my marketing class, I was able to approach this challenge within my organization with a fresh perspective and plan. My fellow officer was appreciative and found my analysis to be useful as we plan for the rest of the semester with our club. Once we get more executive officers, we plan to share these tools and framework with them in order to continue to work together to deal with the changes still happening this semester. The tools within the SWOT analysis offered a framework for me to tackle these issues. I am more capable of leading my organization going forward by implementing this tactic from class. My confidence in myself as a leader increased, because I realized I have the capability to overcome adversity with creativity. I know now that when other challenges come my way in this leadership position or any other, I have the skills and experience to work through them and overcome them. As we continue with our season, and inevitably other weaknesses or threats come our way, I will continue to look to the SWOT analysis to attempt to convert those to strengths and opportunities. By learning this insightful marketing tactic, I have been able to be a better leader for my organization by being open to change and organizational introspection.