Introduction<br /> When I joined the company the decision to be made was in the final stage. This was to open a new department : the oil and gas department. In fact this was a strategic decision . A turning point in the way of the company . No one made a formal analysis for this strategic event . It is clear for all that the only existing type of “ making decision “ is the common one : the judgment with “ rule of thumb” . Now it seems to me as a merely historical thing . Just a memory . In this papers I tried to go back and take a look at this situation , with use ( but little ) of my new knowledge in the course of(Operation Management) dealing partially with this subject : The SWOT analysis<br />What is SWOT Analysis?<br /> The SWOT Analysis is a useful tool for understanding and decision-making for all situations in business and organizations. The term : (SWOT) is composed from the first letters of the words : Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. The SWOT analysis gives a good device to review strategy, situation of a company or any other idea. SWOT analysis is simple. It works in brainstorming. It can be used for business planning, strategic planning, competitor evaluation, marketing, business and product development and research reports.<br />SWOT Analysis – Real situation<br /> The scenario is based on a business of contracting company historically rely on its power of equipments and machines , especially in construction and transportation works . The opportunity, and therefore the subject for the SWOT analysis, is for the company to create a new department regarding oil and gas works which are not being covered but with very few companies .<br />Subject : “ To create a new department”<br /> <br /> Strengths<br />• High capability (Good power on earth ) <br />• Existence of Good experienced labors <br />• Financial Power <br />• Technical staff with good knowledge<br />• No matter regarding Location <br />• Well known quality in a similar field <br />• Good history and public relations <br /> Weaknesses<br />• Need to new specialized engineers <br />• No name , precisely in this field of work<br />• No enough legally background <br />• Pressures, start needs too much money ! <br />• Unknown Reliability of data(new job) <br />• Weakness in management (Scattering)<br /><br /> Opportunities<br />• Very wide development of Market <br />• Just very small number of Competitors <br />• It is the time really for these trends <br />• New markets, especially the distant ones <br />• Availability of assistant companies <br />• There is a chance to get huge major contracts <br />• It is a chance to make the company growing more <br />• And to be a leader company in the field <br /> Threats<br />• Market demand grows slowly (although constantly)<br />• New ideas ( dealing with foreign companies) <br />• High risk , uncertainty .<br />• Company should serve side works to improve the capability<br />• Need to import materials with high costs<br />Making Actions<br /> Now it's a business, we work on translating: <br /> strengths (maintain), <br /> opportunities (optimize), <br /> weaknesses (remedy or exit), <br /> threats (counter) <br /> Applying this on the example above one can reach to get the following actions:<br />1- Maintain the factors of strengths.<br />2- Improve the performance of management , increasing meetings, employing new engineering staff and spreading legal culture in the organization<br />3- Select an assistant company and choose the more appropriate contracts (those suitable to the major power of the company , equipments and machines)<br />4- Give more and more time to the stage of study and analysis even for the side works and prepare more accurate data about every thing regarding the new works.<br />Conclusion<br /> A SWOT analysis uses a logical order that helps in understanding, presentation, discussion and decision-making. SWOT analysis can be used for all sorts of decision-making, and enables proactive thinking, rather than depending on habitual reactions. With using SWOT Analysis the organizations make one of the good actions upon the endless way of what we call “ continuing improvement “ , for it is one from many other tools by which we can take more clear sight and more trust decision . <br />