SWOT analysis 

What SWOT stands for

Conclusion

 What the business does well

 how it could improve 
 whether it is making the most of the opportunities available
 whether there are any changes in the environment that could need similar changes in business strategy

Threats
Questions to ask

 are customer needs changing away from your product? 

 is new competition coming?
 are rivals improving their product's offerings/price?
 what factors beyond your control could place your business at risk

 a SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture
 it involves monitoring marketing environment internal and external to the organization or individual 
 Strengths and Weaknesses are internal 
 Opportunities and Threats are external 
 after examining an organization's SWOTs, the organization should take its SWOTs and use it to its
advantage by forming strategies
 matching Strengths to Opportunities, converting Weaknesses to Strengths, and converting Threats to
Opportunities are strategies an organization should apply in order to excel against rivals

What does SWOT Discover?

Strength
Threats are external and negative factors. A threat is any external development that may affect the
organization in achieving its objectives. You have no control over these threats, but you may benefit
by having contingency plans to address them if they were to occur. 
Questions to ask

 what advantages does this organization has over other competitions

 what this organization does better than other organizations
 how strong the organization's brand and reputation is

The 4 Elements of S.W.O.T

Examples

 a change in customer's taste or needs

 new regulations
 economic downturn
 higher input prices
  competitive price pressure
 Avian flu-a threat to poultry producers
 continuing rise of the supermarket giants-a threat to convenience stores especially as the major players
have moved into this market
 prohibition on smoking in enclose public places-a threat to some pubs

Strengths are the internal and positive factors of an organization. These factors place an organization
at a competitive advantage. Strengths describe the positive attributes, tangible and intangible, internal
to your organization. They are within your control. Identifying an organization's strengths mean
identifying skills and capabilities that this organization has. An organization should protect and
continue to build its strengths to out compete other organizations.
Examples

 high productivity,
 low cost production
 good leadership & management skills
 high quality
 high market share
 brand reputation
 employee skills
 research and development capabilities

Opportunity
Weakness
An organization's opportunities are external and positive factors. An opportunity is any feature of the
external environment which creates positive potential for the organization to achieve its objectives.
They are external factors the project can capitalize on or use to its advantage.
An organizations weaknesses are internal but negative factors. They are aspects of your business
that detract from the value you offer or put you at a competitive disadvantage. Issues that may
interfere or constrain the business in achieving its objectives. In order to compete with your best
competitors, these factors and areas need to be improved and enhanced. 
Questions to ask

 what do you do poorly?

 what can you improve?
 what should you avoid?
 what does the competition do better than you?
 what generates most of the customer's/employee's complaints and dissatisfaction?
 what factors cause the lost of sales?

Examples

 new demands
 market growth
 technological innovations
 social or lifestyle change
  higher economic growth
 liberalization of postal market-opportunities for private sector firms
 concern about health food-opportunities for organic food producers

Examples

 low market share

 old/inefficient plant
 poor reputation
 high costs 
 low productivity
 lack of skills
 low productivity
 lack of innovations

Why SWOT is important

What is Swot Analysis?
Why do a SWOT analysis
Swot analysis helps with the exploration of possibilities for new efforts or solutions to problems. It
helps in making decisions best for an organization, and also determines where change is possible so
that organization can make adjustments on that area. 
A successful organization will build upon its strengths, correct its weaknesses. The organization will
protect itself from internal weaknesses and threats while keeping watch on their overall business
environments and take advantage of available opportunities faster than its rivals. 

Convert Threats to Opportunities

Threats such as new waste management laws can be converted to opportunities by selling waste
management services to other firms. Prohibition on smoking in enclosed public spaces can be an
opportunity to change the pub's ambiance to a healthy and family friendly environment to place it in
health conscious markets. Customers worrying about health and demand for healthy options can be
an opportunity to develop snacks with low fat or low calorie counts.
SWOT analysis is a useful technique organizations, companies, or businesses use to figure out its
internal strengths, weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats.
It is an organized list of your business's greatest strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
SWOT helps you and your business to understand your strengths and weaknesses while it also helps
you identify both the opportunities open to you and the threats you face. 

Match Opportunities to strengths

People often look at SWOT analysis as an opportunity to make a list of strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats, but SWOT analysis should be more than just a list. It is a system of
analysis for forming a strategy, and the strategy should be constructed around an organization's
strengths and opportunities. To form a strategy, the keywords "match" and "convert" are important.
While strengths should be matched with opportunities available in the market, weaknesses should be
converted to strengths, threats should be converted to opportunities. 
New businesses should apply a SWOT analysis as a part of their planning process. "One size fits all"
plans for your business doesn't exist, so figuring out your new business's individual SWOTs will place
the business onto the right track and secure its position right away. Applying a SWOT analysis will
save troubles further down this new business's road

Strategies
The strengths of an organization should be matched with opportunities acquaint in the market.
Strengths have limited use if they don't match presented opportunities. For example, a firm with the
most efficient producer of a product won't have any use if there are no demand for the product. At the
same time, opportunities that doesn't match the strengths of the organization has insignificant use.
Great opportunities available in the market will be unusable if the organization cannot take advantage
of them.

Convert Weaknesses to Strengths

S.W.O.T
 S-O Search for opportunities that fits the organization's strengths and will benefit the organization 
 W-O Overcome weaknesses to seek for opportunities for the organization
 S-T Distinguish ways an organization can utilize its strengths to diminish its vulnerability against
external threats
 W-T Innovate a defense strategy to prevent weaknesses from 

If an organization has technological weaknesses, it can study and invest in the newest and latest
technology to eliminate this weakness and turn it into a strength by staying ahead of competitors. Skill
gaps within managers or employees can be fixed with investment in training. Organization that
depends excessively on a single product can create a diversity in the product portfolio. Weakness in
the brand of an organization can be improved by re-launching the product. The organization can
reposition or possibly rename the brand. An organization's high unit costs can be changed by
exploring outsourcing non-core activities as an option
Questions to ask

 where can you apply your strengths?

 are your rival's customers displeased? If yes, why are they displeased?
 Are there new markets for your strength? (e.g. foreign)