Dérive: 2021-2025 Business Plan and S.W.O.T. Analysis

Abstract

The following capstone project saw the completion of a comprehensive 5-year strategic business plan and S.W.O.T. analysis for a cultural exchange business and organization. In order to create such a plan, an intense amount of research was done in order to inform business planning decisions. Twenty detailed annotations on cultural exchange businesses and organizations were completed prior to the creation of the strategic plan. This research focused on each organization’s business model, Mission, Vision, Objectives, and their current cultural exchange initiatives and programs. Some of the prominent thinkers that influenced and inspired this project included Guy Debord, Chiamanda Ngozi Adichi, Claude Levi-Strauss, Richard A. Rogers, Pierre Bourdieu, and Robert Putnam. By pulling from a canon of sources relating to the field of Cultural Sustainability, this was viewed through a variety of lenses such as: Identity, Cultural Appropriation, Cultural Competency, Cultural Commodification, Cultural Capital, Social Capital, Cultural Dominance, Cultural Exploitation, Transculturation and the Bridging and Bonding of Community. The end result was the creation of a strategic plan or manifesto for a future cultural exchange business grounded in Cultural Sustainability named Dérive. The multi-phased plan begins with Dérive’s genesis, moves toward fostering creative community efforts, and ultimately culminates in the creation of 501c(3) organization. Above all else, the Dérive 5-year manifesto is a product and reflection of one person’s desire to effect change in the world by supporting meaningful cultural exchange and cultural sustainability. Forged during a time of a global pandemic, social and political unrest, growing international tensions, and an economic crisis, Dérive reflects a growing need for more community, empathy, and meaningful exchange.