SWOT Analysis
Originated by Albert S Humphrey in the 1960s, SWOT Analysis is a basic,
straightforward model that assesses what an organization can and cannot do as well
as its potential opportunities and threats. The method of SWOT analysis is to take
the information from an environmental analysis and separate it into internal
(strengths and weaknesses) and external issues (opportunities and threats).
Strengths and Weaknesses are often internal to your organization while
opportunities and threats generally relate to external factors. For this reason, the
SWOT analysis is sometimes called Internal-External Analysis. Once this is
completed, SWOT analysis determines what may assist the firm in accomplishing
its objectives, and what obstacles must be overcome or minimized to achieve
desired results.
By writing down answers to the following questions, one should be able to make a
SWOT analysis.
Strengths:
What advantages does your organization have?
What do you do better than anyone else?
What unique or lowest-cost resources can you draw upon that others can't?
What do people in your market see as your strengths?
What factors mean that you "get the sale"?
What is your organization's Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?
Consider your strengths from both an internal perspective, and from the point of
view of your customers and competitors in your market.
Weaknesses:
What could you improve?
What should you avoid?
What are people in your market likely to see as weaknesses?
What factors lose you sales?
Again, consider this from an internal and external basis: Do other people seem to
perceive weaknesses that you don't see? Are your competitors doing any better
than you?
