A SWOT analysis is a commonly used tool that helps organisations to understand their current situation, both internally and externally. This is a very important part of the strategy development and planning processes as it helps answer the ‘where are we’ question which informs the question of ‘how to we get from where we are to where we want to be?’. It is the answer to this question that identified the activities that the organisation needs to take to achieve its objectives.
SWOT is an acronym for:
Strengths
Identify and understanding the things that the organisation is good at is an important aspect of the strategy creation process. In particular, the strengths that support the organisations goals and objectives are critical to supporting and sustaining the strategy model.
Weaknesses
Locate issues that the organisation needs to improve upon, especially those that have the potentially to negatively impact upon the future development of the organisation.
Opportunities
Find and evaluate events that are happening or will happen in the external environment that would benefit the organisations strategic future.
Threats
The things that are happening or will happen in the external environment that would have a negative impact on the future development of the organisation.
Not all SWOTs are the same
A conventional SWOT analysis is normally done as stand-alone exercise and consequently, the information is captured as a series of statements that can be used and referred to at a later date but contextual information is not normally captured and the issues that are surfaced are not normally linked to the organisations strategy.
We take a different approach to the SWOT analysis.
While the information we collect is the same, we create causal links amongst the various elements of the SWOT analysis and to the relevant elements of the strategy model. This effectively creates a map of the SWOT as well as integrating that map into the overall strategy model, thereby creating a better understanding of the issues and how they affect the business goals and objectives.
Read ‘How to make the most of a SWOT Analysis’…
