Conduct your own SWOT analysis

A BNET Professional Development Tool Version 2.0 January 29, 2007

Competitive Analysis
Who are my competitors? How do I analyze them?

SWOT Porters Five Forces

Strategic Group Maps

PEST analysis

SWOT analysis and SWOT matrix

A SWOT analysis helps you match your companys resources and capabilities to threats and opportunities in the competitive environment. SWOT analysis can be very subjective, but adding weighting and criteria to each factor increases the validity of the analysis. Also completing the SWOT matrix can help you pick the best strategy to implement.
Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities

StrengthOpportunity strategies

WeaknessOpportunity strategies

Threats

Strength-Threat strategies

WeaknessThreat strategies

Competitive Analysis
Who are my competitors? How do I analyze them?

SWOT Porters Five Forces

Strategic Group Maps

PEST analysis

SWOT analysis and SWOT matrix

A SWOT analysis helps you match your companys resources and capabilities to threats and opportunities in the competitive environment. SWOT analysis can be very subjective, but adding weighting and criteria to each factor increases the validity of the analysis. Also completing the SWOT matrix can help you pick the best strategy to implement.
Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities

StrengthOpportunity strategies

WeaknessOpportunity strategies

Threats

Strength-Threat strategies

WeaknessThreat strategies

Why use SWOT analysis?

Methodically and honestly assessing your companys strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats it faces gives you a rare opportunity for objective analysis. The SWOT technique:
is easy to use combines quantitative and qualitative analysis encourages interdepartmental collaboration

To make sure your analysis is put to good use, include these before and after steps in your analysis process:
Set an objective for the analysis Set aside adequate time for research and information-gathering Evaluate the results of your analysis against your original objective

This competitive analysis tool guides you through the SWOT technique and will help you create your own analysis that can help you set a strategic plan or present new ideas to your team.

Competitive Analysis
Who are my competitors? How do I analyze them?

SWOT Porters Five Forces

Strategic Group Maps

PEST analysis

SWOT analysis and SWOT matrix

A SWOT analysis helps you match your companys resources and capabilities to threats and opportunities in the competitive environment. SWOT analysis can be very subjective, but adding weighting and criteria to each factor increases the validity of the analysis. Also completing the SWOT matrix can help you pick the best strategy to implement.
Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities

StrengthOpportunity strategies

WeaknessOpportunity strategies

Threats

Strength-Threat strategies

WeaknessThreat strategies

Why use SWOT analysis?

Methodically and honestly assessing your companys strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats it faces gives you a rare opportunity for objective analysis. The SWOT technique:
is easy to use combines quantitative and qualitative analysis encourages interdepartmental collaboration

To make sure your analysis is put to good use, include these before and after steps in your analysis process:
Set an objective for the analysis Set aside adequate time for research and information-gathering Evaluate the results of your analysis against your original objective

This competitive analysis tool guides you through the SWOT technique and will help you create your own analysis that can help you set a strategic plan or present new ideas to your team.

Conducting a SWOT analysis

There are eight steps required to complete a SWOT analysis and create a SWOT matrix (also known as a TOWS matrix).
1. List external opportunities

Pixar Animation Studios

To illustrate the SWOT analysis technique, weve used Pixar of Finding Nemo fame as a sample case. As you learn about SWOT analysis, youll see what results Pixar might have if it used the same technique.

2.
3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

List external threats.

List internal strengths. List internal weaknesses. Match internal strengths with external opportunities and list the resulting Strengths-Opportunities strategies in the matrix chart. Match internal weaknesses with external opportunities and list the resulting Weaknesses-Opportunities strategies. Match internal strengths with external threats and list the resulting Strengths-Threats Strategies.

Match internal weaknesses with external threats and record the resulting Weaknesses-Threats Strategies.

At this point in the process, youll have a significant list of potential strategies. Youll need to weigh the impact of the various factors in your analysis and select the most feasible strategy to implement. Ideally, youll select a SO strategy, but often youll need to implement one of the other three types of strategies to overcome a weakness or address a threat before being in a position to implement a S-O strategy.

Assessing your strengths

The first two elements of your analysis focus on internal capabilities. Strengths can come from many sources, including your team members, your product line, your bank account, your production process, your patents, or your market share. List your strengths in these and any other relevant categories.
Products People

Pixars strengths
Excellent use of technology Strong brand Talented team Great track record

Performance

Assessing your weaknesses

Focus on the root causes of long-standing problems, not individual mistakes or failures. List your weaknesses in these and any other relevant areas:
Products People Performance

Pixars weaknesses
Product line is narrowly defined Production time is long Digital piracy can cut into profits

Assessing your opportunities

This part of your analysis reviews external forces, including socioeconomic, political, environmental and demographic changes that could effect your company. Consider these questions when reviewing your opportunities.
Products People Performance

Pixars opportunities
Develop online products to build on existing technology strengths Continue to use technology strength to develop and sell animation software Develop games to build on strengths of characters

Assessing your threats

Threats can be hard to define, so this portion of the analysis can be the most difficult and the most illuminating, both in terms of pointing out what needs to be done, and in putting problems into perspective.
Products People Performance

Pixars threats
Digital piracy may threaten profits One product failure could be a serious set back Other film companies may target the animated film market

Use the SWOT Matrix to pick a strategy

At this point in the analysis, you should have a list of strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. To develop strategies based on this list, use the SWOT matrix. This matrix lists all the information youve gathered to this point and helps you to match up internal strengths and weaknesses with external threats and opportunities and develop a plan for addressing the strongest forces. Four strategy types from the SWOT Matrix S-O strategies pursue opportunities that match the companys strengths. These are the best strategies to employ, but many firms are not in a position to do so. Companies will generally pursue one or several of the other three strategies first to be able to apply SO strategies. W-O strategies overcome weaknesses to pursue opportunities. S-T strategies identify ways that the firm can use its strengths to reduce its vulnerability to external threats. W-T strategies establish a defensive plan to prevent the firms weaknesses from making it susceptible to external threats.

SWOT Matrix
Strengths
List 4-5 internal strengths here

Weaknesses
List 4-5 internal weaknesses here

Opportunities
List 4-5 external opportunities here

S-O strategies

W-O strategies

Threats
List 4-5 external threats here

S-T strategies

W-T strategies

Examples of each strategy type

Strength-Opportunity Strategies Strength-Threat Strategies

Expand globally
Increase sales staff Increase advertising Develop new products

Diversify
Acquire competitor Liquidate Expand locally

Diversify
Weakness-Opportunity Strategies Joint venture Acquire competitor Expand nationally Backward integration Forward integration

Re-engineer
Weakness-Threat Strategies Divest Increase promotion Retrench Restructure Downsize

Learn more about SWOT analysis

Use these BNET and other online resources to improve your understanding of how to use this technique.
SWOT Analysis This article explains SWOT analysis and details the changes that SWOT analysis could make in a companys competitive, socio-cultural, political and legal strategies. SWOT Analysis This short article explains how to conduct a SWOT analysis and includes some of the techniques limitations.

Analyzing Your Business's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

This document explains how to build a matrix and includes several examples.
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