SWOT Analysis
A SWOT Analysis is one of the most useful tools you can have in planning, because it helps you establish your present position and evaluate your potential.
SWOT is an anagram for:
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
ThreatsWe can plot them on a simple matrix containing four quadrants, like this:
Positive
Negative
Internal Strengths
Weaknesses
External Opportunities
Threats
Depending on the aspect of your business – or the people under consideration – it can be a useful exercise to brainstorm with your management team and employees, open slather, no holds barred.
Like any kind of brainstorming, you should avoid getting emotionally sensitive or defensive. Let people have their say, express their ideas and opinions. You may be surprised – even pleasantly!
Write everything with felt tip markers on burchers paper – B-I-G! Then stick the sheets up around the room where everyone can see them. Don’t edit or censor… write everything down.
Once you’ve identified those Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, consider them individually. Do they withstand scrutiny? Keep the ones that everyone considers valid and discard the rest.
Then start brainstorming strategies for…
Improving on your Strengths.
Offsetting those Weaknesses with other peoples’ strengths.
Making the most of those Opportunities (but ensure that they timing of each is appropriate to your needs and resources!)
Eliminating or reducing those Threats.
Not only will you have all those additional insights, ideas and resources helping to complete the process, your people will have a sense of ownership – of being intimately involved in the management of the business itself, not just of being small cogs in a faceless, unfeeling machine.
Use your browser’s BACK button
to return to the previous window
