IB Business Management HLTopic 8 — The Pre-Released StatementPaper 1Toolkit~13 min read
Bringing SWOT and STEEPLE Into Your Answers
SWOT and STEEPLE are the two tools students most often use badly. They are not lists to copy out; they are ways of organising an argument. Used properly they give a 10-mark answer a spine, and they make sure you talk about ABC rather than about business in general.
📚 What you need to know
SWOT splits things two ways: internal versus external, and helpful versus harmful.
Strengths and weaknesses are things ABC controls. Opportunities and threats are things that happen to it.
STEEPLE is a wider version of the O and T in SWOT — the tools overlap on purpose.
Never just list. Every point needs a “so what” attached to it.
In a 10-mark answer, use the tool to structure two or three developed arguments, not to fill a grid.
SWOT applied to Abraca
Here is the grid, but read it as an argument rather than a list. The most useful thing about ABC’s SWOT is how neatly the strengths line up against the weaknesses.
The grid is only the start. The marks come from pairing items up: the recovery process is the strength that answers the “rivals go green first” threat.
🤔 Why “internal versus external” is not fussy detail
If you put “rising gold prices” in strengths, you are saying ABC controls the world gold market. It does not. Getting the box wrong tells the examiner you do not understand the tool, and it usually costs you the analysis mark. Quick test: could ABC change this by making a decision? Yes means internal. No means external.
STEEPLE applied to Abraca
STEEPLE zooms out. It asks what is going on in the world around ABC that will shape its choices whether it likes it or not.
For ABC the heavyweight letters are Environmental, Legal and Ethical. Those three carry nearly every argument you will need.
Going deeper on the letters that matter
Letter
The trend
What ABC should actually do about it
Social
Customers and the public increasingly dislike waste and pollution, and want buildings made from greener materials.
Position the e-waste arm as proof ABC is part of the solution, and offer recycled-aggregate concrete to developers who need a sustainability story.
Technological
Better recovery methods keep appearing, and automation keeps improving production efficiency.
Protect and build on the room-temperature process, and use technology to cut energy use in the kilns.
Economic
Energy prices are high and volatile; construction demand rises and falls with the economy.
Push hard on efficiency to protect margins, and use e-waste income to smooth the construction cycle.
Environmental
Cement is a major emitter; landfill is filling with electronics.
Cut emissions genuinely, not cosmetically, and publish real numbers rather than slogans.
Political
Governments fund infrastructure, and many subsidise recycling and green technology.
Bid for public projects and apply for support for the e-waste operation.
Legal
E-waste handling is tightly regulated, and health and safety rules apply to both businesses.
Treat compliance as a competitive weapon — it is the thing informal recyclers cannot match.
Ethical
Quarrying damages landscapes, poor e-waste disposal harms communities, and exaggerated green claims destroy trust.
Be careful with the marketing. Promise less than you deliver.
If a question says “external factors”, it is asking for STEEPLE. If it says “position” or “should ABC”, it is asking for SWOT. Reading the command word tells you which tool to pick.
How to use these tools without listing
🧩 Turning a grid into a paragraph
Choose two or three items, not twelve. Pick the ones that actually affect the question asked.
State the item in half a sentence. “ABC’s biggest weakness is the carbon intensity of cement.”
Add the case evidence. “It is the largest producer in Country Z, so it is also the largest emitter.”
Explain the consequence. “That invites regulation and makes public contracts harder to win.”
Judge it. “But the effect depends on how quickly Country Z tightens its rules.”
The one-line test. If a sentence in your answer could be written about any company in the world, it is not earning application marks. Add a name, a number or a detail from the case — or delete it.
Worked examples
WORKED EXAMPLE
Explain one weakness of ABC identified by a SWOT analysis. [2]
Step 1: name the weakness properly
ABC has almost no experience in the recycling industry, which is internal and within its control. [1]Step 2: apply it
Because e-waste processing needs different supply chains, safety systems and handling skills from concrete, ABC risks running its 2024 factory inefficiently while it learns. [1]2 / 2Saying “internal” out loud proves you understand the tool, and it costs you three words.
WORKED EXAMPLE
Using STEEPLE, analyse two external factors that could affect ABC’s strategy. [6]
Factor 1 — Legal
E-waste handling is tightly regulated because of the toxic metals involved, so ABC faces compliance costs in training, storage and safe disposal. But the same rules squeeze informal recyclers harder, so tighter law could push material towards ABC and improve its supply.
Factor 2 — Environmental
Cement production is one of the largest industrial sources of carbon dioxide, and as Country Z’s largest producer ABC is the most exposed to any emissions limit. That could raise costs or cap output.
Judgement
The two factors pull in opposite directions: regulation helps the new business and hurts the old one, which strengthens the case for shifting weight towards e-waste over time.
Two developed factors plus a link between themConnecting the two factors at the end is what turns a list into analysis.
💡 Exam tip
Never draw the grid in the exam unless the question asks for it. Write in paragraphs.
Two or three points, developed. A full grid of shallow bullets scores badly at HL.
Say “internal” and “external” explicitly. Free evidence that you know the tool.
STEEPLE points must be external. ABC’s own technology is a strength; the pace of technology change in the industry is a STEEPLE factor.
Use the tool to organise, not to decorate. One tool, well applied, beats three tools name-dropped.
Finish with what it depends on. “The size of this effect depends on…” is the evaluation phrase examiners look for.
⚠ Common mix-up
Opportunities are not plans. “ABC could build five factories” is a strategy. “E-waste volumes are rising” is an opportunity.
Threats are not weaknesses. A competitor’s new product is a threat; ABC’s own inexperience is a weakness.
Environmental in STEEPLE means the natural world, not “the business environment”.
Legal and Political are different. Political is what governments want; Legal is what the law forces.
Ethical is not a spare CSR box. It is about what is right, including things that are legal but still questionable.
A grid is not an answer. Marks come from consequences, not from filling boxes.
Up next: Bringing the Ansoff Matrix Into Your Answers — the four growth routes open to ABC, and how to judge which one it should take.
Want this explained one-to-one?
Book a free session with an experienced IB Business Management tutor and get your trickiest topics made simple.
