What is a swot analysis?
A SWOT analysis is a planning framework widely used to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of a company’s current business model, market rivalry, or project planning.
SWOT analysis is an acronym that represents these four components:
● Strengths
● Weaknesses
● Opportunities
● Threats
The Importance of A Swot Analysis
Strengths and weaknesses are internal to your organization – items you have some control over and which you may influence. This could include information about your team members, your primary resources, the amount of available funding, and your intellectual property.
External to your organization include movers and shakers in the market and shifts like the market occurring within your industry. You can take advantage of opportunities and defend yourself against threats, but you have little influence over the situations you find yourself in. Competitors, raw material pricing, and client shopping tendencies are all examples of what you should look for.
When To Use a Swot Analysis
Before committing to any athletic activity, you may use a SWOT analysis to consider new projects, overhaul internal policies, pivot, or change a strategy in the middle of its execution.
It’s sometimes a good idea to do a comprehensive SWOT analysis only to check on your company’s present state and make necessary improvements. The research can reveal the critical areas in which your company is working at its best and where activities need to be tweaked.
The Benefits of using Swot Analysis
At this stage of the article, you might be asking yourself – why put in all of this effort? What benefits might it provide to your company?
You may believe you understand all you need to succeed, but a SWOT analysis will compel you to look at things from a different perspective. Following are some of the many benefits that a well-put SWOT analysis can bring to your business:
● Providing helpful information: All constraints will provide the clarity required to expand and diversify and leave no stone unturned when embarking on a new project.
● Team strangling: Even though SWOT analyses need a great deal of subjectivity, they can bring teams together and build a strong work ethic when employed collectively. This is critical when it comes to putting goals into action. Each department will feel invested in the process and buy into it, resulting in increased productivity.
● Maintain awareness: SWOT analysis helps seize new chances before competitors are critical in a fast-paced market where competition is fierce. The information gathered from a SWOT analysis may be utilized to monitor the market and identify new opportunities, allowing you to get – and stay — one step ahead of the competition.
Example for Swot Analysis
To understand better what a SWOT analysis is, Consider the term “FireFitness.” They intend to develop a new mobile program that will include over 200 workouts, individualized diet plans, and interactive videos with certified physical therapists, among other features.
According to their SWOT analysis, they might have the following:
Strengths
● Meets the market needs: Because of the coronavirus pandemic, home fitness has seen a significant increase in popularity.
● Management: their team is committed to hard labor and strict discipline.
Weaknesses
● Lack of capital: they obtain all initial funds through loans.
● Anonymity: They have a limited reputation in the virtual fitness sector because they are relatively new.
Opportunities
Market: It is anticipated that the mobile app economy will grow to $188.9 billion by the end of 2020.
Profitability: The company’s profit has increased by 75% since 2016. In-app transactions have increased by 75% since 2016.
Threats
Fitness apps: They are becoming increasingly popular in a crowded market.
Loyalty: acquisition fees could be too expensive.
So, what are your thoughts? Is the project still on track?
The information in this example is a little thin on the ground (you should have at least five bullets in each category), but it demonstrates the fundamentals of a good SWOT analysis and how it can swiftly examine the feasibility of a new proposal.
How To Use a Swot Analysis
The SWOT analysis will take on different forms depending on the company and industry, but you must complete several fundamental steps.
Step one – Identify the goal or purpose
First and foremost, you must be very clear about what you hope to accomplish with your SWOT analysis before you begin writing it down.
For example, you might want to investigate the possibilities of a new product, gain a deeper understanding of changes in the existing market, or determine the worth of a completely new product. Whatever the goal, you must clearly understand what you want to achieve and how you intend to use the SWOT analysis to get there.
Step two – Assemble your group of people
While executive insight is always valuable, it is also critical to include a variety of points of view to ensure that all viewpoints are considered.
Depending on your objective, you may want to solicit input from line managers across the firm, including sales, human resources, and manufacturing. For starters, this will aid in developing robust and communal knowledge. However, it also stimulates more staff participation – and if you’re embarking on a daring new quest, you’ll need all of the assistance you can get!
Step three – Create your SWOT matrix and fill it up with relevant information.
It is common to provide a SWOT analysis in an essential two-by-two grid. SWOT analysis depicts a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in an organized list.
Your team can now begin brainstorming, arguing, and discussing their opinions on the proposed project regarding each of the four categories that have been assigned to them. While each point might be based on truth or belief, each fact must be clear and concise to make the review process as frictionless as feasible.
If you are soliciting opinions, make it clear that you distinguish between things you know (i.e., fact) and something you think you do (i.e., belief) – a simple change in pen color will do this. While gut instinct can sometimes be proven correct, you’ll want to distinguish between the two if you plan to revisit your analysis shortly.
And on that note, SWOT analysis is most effective when used honestly. Instead of simply listing inferior product features, acknowledge your shortcomings — for example, don’t merely list their shortcomings, but also disclose your weaknesses. A feature audit could be beneficial in this situation.
Step four – Evaluate and make a plan
This exercise is about developing a strategy that you can implement in the following months. Therefore, you must transform your SWOT findings into specific goals that you can work toward.
First, think about your strengths and how you can use them to take advantage of your opportunities. Next, consider how those opportunities might assist you in overcoming your weaknesses and how your strengths might be able to overcome market dangers.
The critical question is whether or not the possible advantages and advantages are likely to exceed the disadvantages and risks. If this is the case, it may be worthwhile to go back to the drawing board and develop a more manageable idea to begin. If the answer is affirmative, you can get to work.
What do you hope to accomplish in each of the twelve calendar months for the foreseeable future? When do you want to have these things completed? When do you want them completed? What is your contingency plan?
Conclusion
SWOT technique may assist you in analyzing what your organization does well right now and developing a successful plan. Furthermore, SWOT may also reveal aspects of your business holding you back or that your rivals could take advantage of if you don’t defend yourself.
