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Creating a new division of a company has seemingly endless risks associated with the entire process. These risks do not go away once the division is created. Instead, they can increase, change, and ruin well thought out strategies. Identifying risks is just one part of conducting a SWOTT analysis. A SWOTT analysis as well as an internal and external environmental analysis was performed for the proposed new division of Uber, Uber Services. The following are the findings depicted in a SWOTT table as well an analysis on how the company should adapt to change, and major issues and/or opportunities found.

Table 1-External Forces and Trends Considerations
Factors	Strengths	Weaknesses	Opportunities	Threats	Trends
Industry Changes	Parent company creates many precedents	Not widely accepted as a real competitor in the service industry. Considered a fad.	Will be able to react quickly in the event of big changes	Changes limiting the use of non-experts for certain jobs	Easier for small businesses to be created that could utilize Uber Services
Legal and regulatory	Has a strong legal team that can take action quickly	Could face lawsuits from service providers and customers	Educate community leaders on the benefits of Uber Services	Uninsured workers could create many issues	No significant changes on the horizon
Global	Parent company known overseas	Many of the same weaknesses transfer overseas	Equal potential for success abraod	Local presence would be required	Globalization likely to remain constant
Economic	Strong, growing economy should increase profit	Poor economy means customers could do work themselves	Good economy could make more people willing to try	Highly dependent and sensitive to economic conditions	Rebounding economy should result in more transactions
Technological	Widely used by many companies in different industries	Does not set itself apart from others	Anyone with a smartphone is a potential customer	Hacking payment, customer, service provider information	Access to data centers is increasing
Innovation	Can build on what parent company has created	Cannot learn from the mistakes of others	Has an almost endless test market	Dependent on customer satisfaction	Modify service offerings as needed
Social	Well-known and admired brand	Little interaction with service providers	Winning over the public could yield more investors, service providers, and customers	Susceptible to bad publicity	Continue to be community friendly
Environmental	Little to no impact on environment	Cannot force eco-friendly policies and procedures on service providers or customers	Create environmentally friendly ad campaign for good publicity	Service provider with practices that negatively impact the environment	Work with service providers who are environmentally conscious
Competitive analysis	Lone company offering services in this manner	Lack of competitors makes it difficult to compare strategies	Lack of competition allows Uber Services to set the standard	Relatively easy for competitors to enter the market	Competitors of parent company will likely enter market.

Table 2-Internal Forces and Trends Considerations
Factors	Strengths	Weaknesses	Opportunities	Threats	Trends
Strategy	Launch services quickly	Fast release could be difficult to market	Let word of mouth work for the new division	Service providers could be slow to react/embrace concept	More channels to customers are preferred
Structures	Common and proven heirarchy	Some deem it outdated	Restructure to meet needs and adapt to change	Some positions have too much authority	Round-table planning becoming more popular
Processes and systems	Mimic parent company which is tested and successful	Needs funds for departments such as I.T. which can be costly	Should attract top talent for implementation	Datacenter failure resulting in delays and losses	No significant changes upcoming but flexible enough to keep up with changes
Resources	Few permanent, full-time employees required	Possible high turnover rate of permanent employees	Vast pool of potential service providers	Little control is had over service providers which could hurt business and reputation	Potential service providers would gain interest quickly
Goals	Attainable, clearly communicated	May take time to achieve	New division is well received which would make goals easier to achieve	Too many goals set which makes it difficult to focus	Should achieve goals based on success of parent company
Strategic capabilities	Experienced and talented employees	Difficult to test capabilities beforehand	Mistakes are learning opportunities	Changes could take time	Shared with parent company
Culture	Laid back, low stress culture	Employees could exploit	Could attract new talent	Division could not be taken seriously	Many companies are adapting to this culture
Technologies	Uses well-known platforms	Doesn't own any hardware	Could create its own patent-pending software or apps	Sudden, increased costs to develop and maintain	Getting more reliable
Innovations	New way to find, schedule, and pay for services	Some may prefer traditional methods	People are doing less work themselves	People may not be ready for this style	Customers and service providers should be eager
Intellectual property	Few instances which mean fewer risks	General design/likeness easily imitated	It is easy to identify the owner	Risk of theft/counterfeits	Not a likely target
Leadership	Managers are experienced and respected	Inexperienced on finer details of some services	Hire managers who can relate to user and service providers	Sought after by competition	Current generation wants to stay with companies for long time

Ability to Adapt to Change

One of the strengths found within Uber Services is the ability to handle change. Demand is something that can fluctuate in both volume and variety. Changes in demand can be triggered by different factors such as the weather. For instance, landscaping work won’t be in as high demand during the winter months as the summer months. Some landscaping companies do offer snow removal services but those would come at a different rate and just another example of how Uber Services can adapt to change.

Supply Chain Management of Uber Services

To properly examine the supply chain of Uber Services, all of the key stakeholders need to be identified. First, there is the end customer. The customer has the need of a particular service that he or she cannot or does not want to do. That person will use their smartphone, tablet, or computer to launch the app or website to see if their need can be fulfilled by one of Uber Services many service providers, which leads us to stakeholders two and three. The company as a whole and the service providers are the next two, ultimately last, stakeholders. To complete the supply chain description, another example will be used. This time, a man notices his gutters are overflowing during a moderate rainfall. He logs into his Uber Services account to schedule someone for general labor within the next few days to clean out his gutters. He puts his request out there and much like fishing, he waits for someone to respond. Someone does and the two parties exchange some information and schedule the appointment. No cash is exchanged and is all handled by Uber Services.

Uber Service’s user-friendly app and website make searching and booking services easy. It also makes it easy for service providers to respond quickly. Time is a crucial factor for service providers. They might lose out on a job if they have to wait to an app or website to load. This creates frustration and the company will lose service providers.

Finally, there is the payment process. Uber Services will have account information of both the customer and service provider so each party will demand safe and secure transactions. This is provided through https standards and the latest in mobile technology.

Strategic Plan Development

Like any strategic plan, the one for Uber Services will be the result of many brain-storming sessions of managers and executives of the parent company, Uber. Some of the personnel will transfer to the new division, some will remain with Uber, and some may play a role in both companies. The strategic plan for Uber is proven to be successful and should act as a suitable starting point for the new division. Both facilitate services however the new division will have much broader portfolio of offerings.

Major Opportunities for Uber Services

The biggest opportunity the new division of Uber will likely encounter is a relatively new demographic comprised mostly of millennials. Studies have shown that millennials would rather pay someone to do many services that Gen X and baby boomers would do themselves. Millennials now outnumber baby boomers and many are now graduating from college and will be on their own which could make them a large portion of Uber Services customer base.

Conclusion

A SWOTT analysis is a incredibly important tool that can help any company identify its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends that it will likely face in the short or long-term. The preceding SWOTT table serves as proof of that as it will be used in the launch of Uber’s new division. A SWOTT analysis should not use the only tool in strategic planning and should be updated or at least reviewed frequently.