A SWOT Analysis Helps Define the NOW
The standard SWOT Analysis has four elements:
Strengths and Weaknesses are internal and Opportunities and Threats are external. If you are facing new challenges, your strengths and weaknesses may change in small ways, but the opportunities and threats are likely to change significantly.
A Standard SWOT Analysis Is Deeply Flawed
Simply writing down your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats is where most SWOT's finish. There is no real analysis and more importantly, no actions from any analysis.
This post from MindTools explains this clearly.
SWOT Analysis is a useful technique for understanding your Strengths and Weaknesses, and for identifying both the Opportunities open to you and the Threats you face.
MindTools
This SWOT Analysis stops at Threats and there is no mention of the interaction between the four elements.
Welcome to the Strategic SWOT
The Strategic SWOT is a powerful business tool that includes both analysis and actions.
Once you have used it, you will never go back to using the conventional SWOT that does not have any analysis.
There are four important questions you must answer as part of the analysis.
- How can we use these STRENGTHS to commercialise these OPPORTUNITIES?
- How can we use these STRENGTHS to overcome these THREATS?
- What can we do to make sure that these WEAKNESSES don't spoil the OPPORTUNITIES?
- What corrective action should we take if the WEAKNESSES combine with the THREATS?
Click on the button below to download the template which has full instructions.