Identify New Opportunities. Handle and Eliminate Threats.

The SWOT analysis is a helpful method that allows identifying and understanding own strengths and weaknesses, along with new opportunities and existing threats. In a business context, it helps find the right niche for entrepreneurial needs. In a personal context, it helps shape the career while leveraging talents, skills and opportunities. The following section will show how to conduct the SWOT analysis in a company.

SWOT Analysis or Corporate Analysis – Discover Opportunities. Set Goals.

Enabling the company to identify new possible directions and opportunities besides weaknesses and threats makes the SWOT analysis really strong. It allows reacting to threats before they escalate out of control. This brings a competitive advantage and creates the optimal conditions for building a strategy that will stand out from the competition.

SWOT Analysis Excel template

How Does SWOT Analysis Work?

The following questions facilitate a comprehensive strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis (SWOT) in the company while helping develop a strategy in line with corporate objectives. An integral way of viewing the points both from own and other company’s perspective provides scope for strategic solutions to set the company apart from the rest of the competition.

Strengths – What are your strengths?

• What advantages does your company have?
• What makes you better than the others?
• What unique/most favourable resources do you have?
• What do other people see as your strengths?
• Which factors lead to success?
• What is your unique selling proposition?

Weaknesses – What are your weaknesses?

• What can you improve?
• What should you avoid?
• What do you assume the people working in the same field see as your weaknesses?
• Which factors or weaknesses lead to failure?

Opportunities – What are the opportunities?

• What good opportunities do you discover?
• What interesting trends are you aware of?
• How looks technology market like?
• What legislative amendments concern you directly and to what extent?
• What impacts do have social developments?
• What local events are interesting and offer opportunities?

Threats – What are the risks or threats?

• What obstacles or risks stand in the way?
• What do the competitors do?
• Do quality standards, products or services change?
• Do changing technologies threaten your position?
• Do you have debts or other financial difficulties?
• Do weaknesses present a serious threat?

A wide range of the example SWOT analyses is available online and in book format. In a few steps, using above-mentioned key questions, you can create your own example SWOT analysis. The more often you practise by making use of fictional or real ideas and corporate situation, the more familiar you become with the SWOT concept.

Key Points, Strategies, SWOT Analysis Goals.

The SWOT analysis (also known as corporate analysis) is a simple and useful tool to strategically examine the strengths and weaknesses of your company. Likewise, it uncovers the opportunities and threats your company is faced with. In this way, it places a special focus on your strengths, minimises threats, and allows turning to advantage the opportunities arising from your current business. Let build on your strengths and help your company to seize the opportunities while overcoming the weaknesses and threats.

SWOT Matrix

The internal and external corporate analysis is usually compared by means of so-called SWOT matrix. On this basis, an overall strategy for the company can be developed, which simultaneously addresses different areas influenced by different factors. Moreover, the comparison of the SWOT analysis and the stakeholder analysis outcomes in form of the SWOT matrix can facilitate a productive discussion to select suitable courses of action.

Possible strategies that may be derived therefrom are as follows:

• SO (Strengths-Opportunities) strategy: Its motto is to ‘expand’.
• WO (Weaknesses-Opportunities) strategy: It shows the company’s need to ‘catch up’.
• ST (Strengths-Threats) strategy: It uncovers the necessity to ‘hedge’.
• WT (Weaknesses-Threats) strategy: It pays attention to the things to be ‘avoided’.

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