Reference no: EM133388941

SWOT Analysis
As discussed in the chapter, the primary purpose of the SWOT analysis is to identify and assign significant factors that affect the business to one of the four categories to analyze where it stands in the market and help guide an organization's strategic planning process.

Don't worry about elaborating on the nature of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; bullet points are sufficient at this stage of the analysis. Just capture the factors that are relevant in each of the four areas using two or three words to describe them.

After listing factors in all four areas, compare your lists side by side to get an overall picture of how the businesses is performing and what issues need to be addressed. Create four prioritized lists by prioritizing the issues by importance and ease of implementation by asking yourself "What needs to and can be addressed now?" and "What can and will have to wait until later?"

Finally, review the prioritized lists by asking:

How can we use our strengths to take advantage of the opportunities identified?
How can we use these strengths to overcome the threats identified?
What do we need to do to overcome the identified weaknesses to take advantage of the listed opportunities?
How can we minimize our weaknesses to overcome the identified threats?
When you have your finalized lists, the SWOT analysis is ready to guide the process of developing corporate and IT strategies. The value of a SWOT analysis depends on how well the analysis is performed. To gain the greatest value from performing a SWOT, carrying out the SWOT early on in the strategic planning process and following these rules helps:

Be realistic about the strengths and weaknesses of your organization.
Be realistic about the size of the opportunities and threats.
Be specific and keep the analysis simple or as simple as possible.
Evaluate your company's strengths and weaknesses in relation to those of competitors (better than or worse than competitors).
Expect conflicting views because SWOT is subjective, forward-looking, and based on assumptions.
Have Fun with a Personal SWOT
To identify the actions you can take to best meet the requirements of the job or promotion you are seeking, conduct a personal SWOT analysis. To help you understand yourself, picture yourself as a competitive product in the marketplace, and list your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats from the perspective of a prospective "customer," that is, your employer. Comparing your strengths and weaknesses to job requirements will help you identify gaps, prepare you to be the best candidate for the position you are seeking, and alert you to issues that could arise in the interview process.