SWOT from Johnson et al Exploring Corporate Strategy
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DIAGNOSING STRATEGIC CAPABILITY
3.6.4 SWOT33
ww w cs k/e The key ‘strategic messages’ from both the business environment (Chapter 2) and this chapter can be summarised in the form of an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). SWOT summarises the key
SWOT summarises the key issues from the issues from the business environment and the strategic capability of an organbusiness environment and isation that are most likely to impact on strategy development. This can also be the strategic capability of useful as a basis against which to generate strategic options and assess future an organisation that are courses of action. most likely to impact on strategy development
The aim is to identify the extent to which strengths and weaknesses are relevant to, or capable of dealing with, the changes taking place in the business arso ned.co. u
.pe
environment. However, in the context of this chapter, if the strategic capability
KEY
CONCEPT of an organisation is to be understood, it must be remembered that it is not absolute but relative to its competitors. So SWOT analysis is really only useful if it is comparative – if it examines strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in
SWOT
relation to competitors. Illustration 3.5 takes the example of a pharmaceuticals firm (Pharmcare).34 It assumes that key environmental impacts have been identified from analyses explained in Chapter 2 and that major strengths and weaknesses have been identified using the analytic tools explained in this chapter. A scoring mechanism (plus 5 to minus 5) is used as a means of getting managers to assess the interrelationship between the environmental impacts and the strengths and weaknesses of the firm. A positive (+) denotes that the strength of the company would help it take advantage of, or counteract, a problem arising from an environmental change or that a weakness would be offset by that change. A negative (–) score
22/10/2007
11:16
Page 119
DIAGNOSING STRATEGIC CAPABILITY
3.6.4 SWOT33
ww w cs k/e The key ‘strategic messages’ from both the business environment (Chapter 2) and this chapter can be summarised in the form of an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). SWOT summarises the key
SWOT summarises the key issues from the issues from the business environment and the strategic capability of an organbusiness environment and isation that are most likely to impact on strategy development. This can also be the strategic capability of useful as a basis against which to generate strategic options and assess future an organisation that are courses of action. most likely to impact on strategy development
The aim is to identify the extent to which strengths and weaknesses are relevant to, or capable of dealing with, the changes taking place in the business arso ned.co. u
.pe
environment. However, in the context of this chapter, if the strategic capability
KEY
CONCEPT of an organisation is to be understood, it must be remembered that it is not absolute but relative to its competitors. So SWOT analysis is really only useful if it is comparative – if it examines strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in
SWOT
relation to competitors. Illustration 3.5 takes the example of a pharmaceuticals firm (Pharmcare).34 It assumes that key environmental impacts have been identified from analyses explained in Chapter 2 and that major strengths and weaknesses have been identified using the analytic tools explained in this chapter. A scoring mechanism (plus 5 to minus 5) is used as a means of getting managers to assess the interrelationship between the environmental impacts and the strengths and weaknesses of the firm. A positive (+) denotes that the strength of the company would help it take advantage of, or counteract, a problem arising from an environmental change or that a weakness would be offset by that change. A negative (–) score