A SWOT analysis is an essential tool used by businesses across different industries for analyzing their company’s strategic position. Though it does not provide a straightforward solution to problems, it identifies the strategies for creating a business model that utilizes the company’s capabilities and resources. This is one of the many benefits of a SWOT analysis.
It assesses four key factors surrounding a business. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). These factors aim to evaluate the balance between a company’s internal resources and capabilities and external possibilities and threats.
This article will discuss the four main sections and the benefits of a SWOT analysis.
The SWOT Analysis Framework
SWOT analysis analyses a business based on both internal and external factors.
Internal Factors
Strengths and Weaknesses are your company’s internal factors, as they are the skills and experiences readily available to management.
Strengths
Strengths describe the core competencies that give your company an edge over competitors. Your company’s strengths could be tangible or intangible. For example,
- A Strong brand image
- A Loyal customer base
- A Strong balance sheet
- Some Unique technology or skill
These are the attributes and qualities your personnel have that provide consistency to your firm.
Weaknesses
Weaknesses are the qualities that deter your organization from reaching its full potential. These may include:
- A Limited production list
- Unprofessional and Incompetent employees
- Lack of funds for capital expenditures
Weaknesses are manageable, and you may lessen the degree and severity of damage they cause. However, this requires you to recognize your company’s liabilities first. SWOT analysis allows you to identify and reverse these weaknesses.
External Factors
External factors influence every firm, organization, and individual. Whether these characteristics are related to an opportunity or a threat directly or indirectly, it is critical to analyze and document each one.
Opportunities
New opportunities are constantly arising in the environment within the business landscape. These opportunities can arise from the economy, regulatory bodies, emerging markets, and technological innovations. For example, your company may,
- Employ new skills and technologies
- Take advantage of untapped resources
- Tap new and emerging markets
- Leverage the economic situation
Since the business landscape is ever-changing, you can benefit from SWOT analysis to identify new business opportunities.
Threats
Threats are circumstances that have the potential to cause harm to an organization. A drought, for example, poses a risk to a wheat-producing firm since it might destroy or diminish crop production. Other prevalent dangers include:
- Deteriorating economic conditions
- Growing material costs
- Increased competition
- Scarcity of workforce and resources
Benefits of a SWOT Analysis
If you’re running a business/project, the benefits below show the importance of using SWOT analysis:
It’s Cost-Effective
You don’t need to hire external consultants or expensive software to conduct a SWOT analysis. The only investment is your time.
Visual Overview
A SWOT table is designed to provide an easily scannable overview of the company’s situation. This quick overview will help you determine prosperous areas and those that require improvement.
Promotes Discussions and Fosters Collaboration
SWOT analysis promotes effective collaboration, which is crucial for high employee engagement. Since every employee has a role in your company’s success, including them in discussions on company strengths and weaknesses is critical for a detailed and comprehensive analysis.
Diverse Application
Since SWOT analysis allows you to discover environmental aspects that can have positive and negative outcomes, it encompasses a wide range of insights your business can use. For example, competitor analysis, strategic planning, and other analyses’.
Besides business, SWOT analysis is also used for personal development, healthcare, and many other fields.
Provides Market Insights
SWOT analysis is used for market research and allows you to get market knowledge and better understand your competitors. This enables you to develop a strategy for establishing a consistent and competitive market position.
Limitations of a SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis covers only one stage of your business planning. You will need to conduct more thorough research to make the best decisions for more complex matters.
This analysis only addresses situations classified as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats. Consequently, utilizing a SWOT analysis to handle two-sided elements is challenging, such as factors that might be a strength, a weakness, or both.
Here are some of the limitations of using SWOT analysis:
- Does not prioritize issues
- Does not provide solutions or alternative decisions
- Generates too many ideas
- Subjective Analysis
SWOT Matrix
You can use this template to identify the current strengths and weaknesses of your product/service while also locating possible opportunities and threats. This template should give you a vision of the current position of your product/service and some potential paths forward.
Conclusion
There are many benefits of a SWOT analysis, and the biggest one is the ability to derive valuable insights and strategies for reaching your organizational goals. However, although there are many benefits of a SWOT analysis, it has certain limitations that you can overcome by pairing it with other analyses’. For example, you can use PESTEL, MOST, and SCRS analysis. If you liked this article, stay tuned to Fresco to learn more about organizational efficiency.
