Conducting Swot Analysis
Conducting a SWOT Analysis
What is a SWOT Analysis?
A SWOT analysis is a breakdown of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It takes into account both the internal and external environments of the company.
Benefits of a SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis provides a fairly simple, low-cost way of assessing the company’s position. It provides information that is important in developing business and marketing plans, as well as setting organizational goals and objectives. It tells you where the company currently sits, and where it needs to go in the future.
When conducting your SWOT analysis, you should:
• Examine your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats from a customers’ perspective. If you’re having trouble viewing issues that way, ask customers what they think or conduct surveys.
• Separate internal issues from external issues. The company’s strengths and weaknesses are internal; opportunities and threats are external. The key test to differentiate the two environments is to ask, “Would this issue exist if the firm did not exist?” If the answer is yes, the issue should be classified as external.
Some things to consider about your company when determining your strengths and weaknesses are:
• Size and financial resources
• Scale and cost economies
• Customer Perceptions
You will probably have to do some research on your competitors, your industry, and the environment in order to complete the opportunities and threats portion of your SWOT analysis. Here are some topics to consider:
• Trends in the competitive environment
• Trends in the technological environment
• Trends in the socio-cultural environment
Once you’ve finished a SWOT analysis for your company, include the resulting strategy in your business and marketing plans. Some key actions to take include:
• Transform strengths into capabilities by matching them with opportunities in the environment.
Example
Strength: The company has
What is a SWOT Analysis?
A SWOT analysis is a breakdown of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It takes into account both the internal and external environments of the company.
Benefits of a SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis provides a fairly simple, low-cost way of assessing the company’s position. It provides information that is important in developing business and marketing plans, as well as setting organizational goals and objectives. It tells you where the company currently sits, and where it needs to go in the future.
When conducting your SWOT analysis, you should:
• Examine your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats from a customers’ perspective. If you’re having trouble viewing issues that way, ask customers what they think or conduct surveys.
• Separate internal issues from external issues. The company’s strengths and weaknesses are internal; opportunities and threats are external. The key test to differentiate the two environments is to ask, “Would this issue exist if the firm did not exist?” If the answer is yes, the issue should be classified as external.
Some things to consider about your company when determining your strengths and weaknesses are:
• Size and financial resources
• Scale and cost economies
• Customer Perceptions
You will probably have to do some research on your competitors, your industry, and the environment in order to complete the opportunities and threats portion of your SWOT analysis. Here are some topics to consider:
• Trends in the competitive environment
• Trends in the technological environment
• Trends in the socio-cultural environment
Once you’ve finished a SWOT analysis for your company, include the resulting strategy in your business and marketing plans. Some key actions to take include:
• Transform strengths into capabilities by matching them with opportunities in the environment.
Example
Strength: The company has