Swot and Matched Pair Analysis

The term strategic planning is defined as “the process of determining a company’s long term goals and then identifying the best approach for achieving those goals”. The components of the strategic planning process consists of clearly defining the goals and objectives of an organization, assessing the internal and external environment of an organization, formulating strategies, implementing and evaluate those strategies, and making adjustment as and when needed. The environmental analysis is the vital component in strategic planning process, based on which the strategies will be formulated. SWOT Analysis and Matched pair analysis helps in evaluating the environment in which the company operates, thereby proving opportunities to formulate optimum strategies for achieving company’s short term and long term goals. The SWOT analysis involves defining the objectives and goals of an organization and identifying the environment factors both internal and external those are encouraging in achieving the objectives. SWOT analysis helps in identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats faced by an organization within its environment. Once the strengths and opportunities of an environment are identified, SWOT analysis helps in matching the strengths with the opportunities to create competitive advantages. Also, the weakness and threats identified by SWOT are converted to strengths and opportunities. The Matched pair analysis helps in identifying strategies that helps a company in achieving its long term goals. It extends the reach of SWOT analyzing by adding more alternatives. Thus, matching pairs from the results of SWOT analysis helps in developing optimum strategies for achieving organization goals and