How To Perform A SWOT Analysis For Your Organization

Planning (or updating) your strategy can be challenging without a structured approach that accounts for all necessary internal and external factors. A strategic planning framework like SWOT analysis can help you evaluate your company’s current position and identify areas for growth, as well as comparing internal versus external factors impacting your organization.

This article will cover everything you need to know about a SWOT analysis, covering:

• Definition
• Elements
• Origins
• Use cases
• Example
• Steps
• Benefits

A SWOT analysis is a simple but powerful tool to evaluate a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It provides a clear picture of your current position in the market and helps you identify areas for growth.

The core elements of a SWOT analysis are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

• Strengths: Internal factors that give you an advantage over competitors (e.g., brand reputation, strong distribution network)
• Weaknesses: Internal weaknesses that hinder your performance (e.g., limited product range, weak online presence)
• Opportunities: External factors that present potential for growth (e.g., emerging markets, changing customer needs)
• Threats: External factors that could negatively impact your business (e.g., new regulations, economic downturn, competitor innovations)

The exact origin of the SWOT framework is still being determined, but it gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s as a strategic planning tool. Albert Humphrey, a business and management consultant, is often credited with developing it. During the ’60s and ’70s, Mr Humphrey and his colleagues at the SRI created a “SOFT” analysis, where S stood for what’s satisfactory, O for opportunities, F for faults at present, and T for threats.