A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a product, place, industry or person. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective.
Identification of SWOTs is important because they can inform later steps in planning to achieve the objective.
SWOT is traditionally created in the form of a table:
Strengths: |
Weaknesses: |
Opportunities: |
Threats: |
Each of the relevant sections contains all the noteworthy facts. For example see the SWOT-analysis of the company “Ivanov and partners Ltd.”:
Strengths: |
Weaknesses: |
Opportunities: |
Threats: |
At the same time, however, SWOT-analysis does not end there. The next part should be devoted to the analysis and development of solutions based on the facts set out in the table. It is important to figure out how to use strengths to compensate for weaknesses, and how opportunities can affect each of the items in the "threats" section.
For example:
1. Loyal customers can help to solve the advertising budget problem - they may introduce additional loyalty programs, and the creation of the club of loyal customers in order to ensure the dissemination of information on the type of "client - prospect customer."
2. The professionals of our company should not be tempted to be hired by a competitor. We should review the system of motivation, payment, and relationships within the team (especially - in the sales department) so that employees have been personally interested in working with the company.
3. Future availability of a new product by our competitors should be compensated for the expansion of the product positions that we offer. We have to run the existing product on the market with additional features, in order to offset the threat of losing some part of market share.
For each of proposals, as appropriate, you should work out the solutions in which these proposals can be implemented. Thus, SWOT-analysis provides a complete picture of the current situation, the measures and decisions to be taken.