Have you ever tried to analyze your work or projects to identify areas of unique value? Or are you looking for ways to improve your business? A SWOT analysis is a simple tool that enables you to find those strengths and weaknesses, and easily communicate them with your teammates or stakeholders.
What is a SWOT Analysis?
SWOT is an acronym that stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This type of analysis is frequently leveraged by executives leaders when evaluating strategy for the future, but can also be used to make a decision.
The goal of a SWOT analysis is to help inform a strategy or decision-making approach by identifying both external and internal factors that have influence. The market or environment the business is operating in, current capabilities and organizational resources should also be taken into account during a SWOT analysis.
What are the Benefits of a SWOT Analysis?
The main benefits include:
- Able to be used by everyone
- Helps create new ideas based on strengths and opportunities
- Highlights any weaknesses for possible future improvements
- Provides insights into the current market
- Gives a helpful general overview of a company
- Promotes team discussion and collaboration
Now let's cover each of the pieces in a SWOT analysis.
Main Components
There are four components in every SWOT analysis, which are laid out in a square format as shown in the example above. Each is filled with a bulleted lists of factors, both tangible and intangible.
- Strengths: These factors are usually positive qualities and include any advantages that make a company or situation stand out. Strengths will help determine the success of the business or decision and can highlight what could drive future growth.
- Weaknesses: These factors are often negative and include hurdles or obstacles that prevent the company or situation from achieving its full potential. Weaknesses can be controlled once addressed; however, they need to be identified first which can be tricky depending on how honest you are being with the company or situation.
- Opportunities: These factors look at the current environment in which the company or situation operates for gaps and opportunities that could be taken advantage of with existing resources. Think of this as the space for any possibilities.
- Threats: These factors highlight areas of vulnerability that might threaten the business, including competitors. These are often inevitable and uncontrollable but should try be addressed to provide the business or situation with a chance to protect itself.
You could create a SWOT analysis by hand, but Minitab Workspace has a SWOT analysis template that makes it easy to collaborate with others or communicate with other stakeholders in your business. The Minitab Workspace template also includes helpful fields like project name, date and summary so important details that help you communicate your analysis are always included.
Interested in trying Minitab Workspace for yourself?
When Should You Use a SWOT Analysis?
A SWOT analysis has a wide range of applications and can be used across many different industries. Times when you should use one include if you are trying to:
- Conduct a competitive analysis of another organization operating in the same market
- Create a strategic plan to help the company grow
- Find new business opportunities that will drive the next set of projects
- Make a well-thought-out and important decision
If you're ready to create your own SWOT analysis, download a free trial of Minitab Workspace to get started today!
(This last sentence will be updated to this once Daniel has his MW Use Cases Blog complete: "For ideas on how to use SWOT analyses across various industries, check our blog "TBD XXXXX from Daniel")