A strategic window is an opportunity in the marketplace, an opportunity that no competitor has yet recognized, and one that fits well with the firm's competencies. Strategic windows often last for only a short time before they are filled by alert competitors, but sometimes they may be more lasting if competitors deem it difficult to enter the particular niche. Potential competitors may pass because of price or image advantages they see the first firm as having, or perhaps because they judge-correctly or incorrectly- that the niche does not have sufficient potential.

SWOT Analysis

Strategic windows may be found by systematically analyzing the environment, examining the opportunities and threats it poses. The firm's competencies, its strengths and weaknesses, should be assessed. These competencies would include its physical and financial resources and, not the least, its people resources-management and employees.The objective is to determine whether the competencies of the firm might be appropriate for a particular course of action.

This then is the SWOT analysis:

Analyzing: Strengths and

eaknesses of the firm, and

Opportunities and

Threats in the environment

Although SWOT analysis may be a formal part of the planning, it may also be informal and even intuitive. We suspect that Jim Koch, having worked six-and-a-half years with a prestigious consulting firm would have formalized this analysis. In the two previous cases, Schultz of Starbucks and Brin and Page of Google may have been more informal and intuitive in their assessment of entrepreneurial opportunity.

Why do you think all the big brewers overlooked the possibilities of the highest-priced end of the market?