The Business
The particular company discussed in the paper is the Living Arts Centre (LAC) which is a charitable organization operating in Canada. LAC exists for almost twenty years and provides businesspeople, instructors, and people of art with an opportunity to give open lessons and hold meetings (“History and Mission” par. 2). As for its mission, LAC strives to become one of the major platforms contributing to the popularization of art and eagerness to learn.
Strengths
As for the aspects related to LAC’s work making it able to meet competition, it is obvious that the organization provides a wide range of services; according to the information from their official website, it offers about three thousand art and educational programs every year.
Another strength stems from this diversity: popularity among people from Canada and other countries. The average number of people visiting the events is about four hundred thousand that proves its importance for the community and good reputation among Canadians.
What is more, discussing the strengths of LAC, it is important to pay attention to the fact that it attracts additional attention to visitors, demonstrating its respect for cultural diversity. Thus, LAC actively collaborates with art communities from China, India, Ukraine, and other countries.
In a radical departure from small local organizations, LAC has managed to garner the support of numerous institutions of learning in Canada and communities of professional artists, and this fact also helps to increase its popularity on a global scale.
There is one more strong point associated with classes for visitors that the discussed organization offers. As is clear from the information on instructors presented on the official website, LAC provides its customers with an opportunity to choose from a wide range of courses in more than ten areas of activity. Enabling its visitors to choose the best instructor, the organization significantly increases attendance and provides employment opportunities for many specialists in Mississauga (“Instructor Bios” par. 1).
Weaknesses
About weaknesses of LAC that can be identified, it needs to be noted that this organization seems to be unable to align its marketing operations with the requirements of the modern society: its representatives assume that it still has challenges related to the choice of the most appropriate marketing strategy.
Another weakness that is closely related to LAC’s rather crude promotion strategy lies in the fact that the organization is not widely presented in social media popular among Canadians.
Also, it is possible to single out a challenge related to location: considering that media outlets in Mississauga lack diversity, it becomes impossible to reach some prospective customers. Due to that, the organization’s opportunities to advertise its services effectively are limited.
Continuing on the topic of weaknesses associated with LAC’s business performance, it is important to mention that its financial success seems to be unstable. In fact, as is indicated in the annual report, the revenue from operations performed by LAC in 2016 has decreased by $24,000 if compared to the previous year (Living Arts Centre 30).
Opportunities
Being an organization that supports different cultures and encourages people to continue exploring the world, LAC has numerous opportunities for further development. For instance, it could help to generate additional profit if LAC’s representatives created its official pages on popular websites such as Tumblr, Linkedln, or Facebook to inform users about upcoming events and improve coverage (Tsu par. 2).
Another opportunity for LAC which is related to the use of social media is inextricably connected with the use of an effective way to popularize products or services – prize drawing. In fact, asking users of popular social media to perform simple tasks to win free tickets could be a useful measure, attracting more attention to upcoming performances and demonstration lessons.
Continuing on the topic, the organization can use various social media targeted at businesspeople (such as Linkedln or PartnerUp) to widen the range of companies and individuals it collaborates with (Van Dijck 200). More importantly, social media activity can help to attract potential investors who know a little about LAC due to its poor media coverage (Luo 146).
Threats
As for external factors that can act as barriers to further development of the discussed organization, it is necessary to consider that LAC can not be called the largest art center in the country. In fact, there is still a competition that exists in the sphere of activity, and organizations located in larger cities usually have more chances to be seen as a national treasure and, therefore, get the financing. NAC that is located in Ottawa can be regarded as one of the primary competitors for LAC as they provide the same services (“About the National Arts Center” par. 1). Even though the centers are located in different cities, further progress and development of NAC may entail an outflow of customers from neighboring cities for LAC.
Besides, there is no doubt that consumer tastes in different spheres are rather unsteady and standing customers from other cities can find more appropriate alternatives to get new experience. Considering that introducing new courses and services regularly is a challenging task, it can be stated that there are risks for LAC which are associated with possible ways to keep customers interested.
Works Cited
“About the National Arts Center.” NAC.
“History and Mission.” LAC. Web.
“Instructor Bios.” LAC. Web.
Living Arts Centre. Annual Report 2016. LAC Mississauga, 2016. Web.
Luo, Xueming, et al. “Social Media and Firm Equity Value.” Information Systems Research, vol. 24, no. 1, 2013, pp. 146-163. Web.
Tsu, Tori. “How Your Small Business Can Make Best Use of Social Media.” Deluxe. Web.
Van Dijck, José. “You Have One Identity: Performing the Self on Facebook and LinkedIn.” Media, Culture & Society, vol. 35, no. 2, 2013, pp. 199-215. Web.