How long is a swot analysis

Once you have identified and prioritized your SWOT results, you can use them to develop short-term and long-term strategies for your business.

After all, the true value of this exercise is in using the results to maximize the positive influences on your business and minimize the negative ones.

But how do you turn your SWOT results into strategies? This is sometimes called a TOWS analysis. For example, look at the strengths you identified, and then come up with ways to use those strengths to maximize the opportunities these are strength-opportunity strategies.

Then, look at how those same strengths can be used to minimize the threats you identified these are strength-threats strategies. Continuing this process, use the opportunities you identified to develop strategies that will minimize the weaknesses weakness-opportunity strategies or avoid the threats weakness-threats strategies.

The following table might help you organize the strategies in each area:. Follow him on Twitter Timberry. Read Managing By: Tim Berry. What is a SWOT analysis? Strengths internal, positive factors Strengths describe the positive attributes, tangible and intangible, internal to your organization. What do you do well? What internal resources do you have? Think about the following: Positive attributes of people , such as knowledge, background, education, credentials, network, reputation, or skills.

Tangible assets of the company , such as capital, credit, existing customers or distribution channels, patents, or technology. What advantages do you have over your competition? Do you have strong research and development capabilities? Manufacturing facilities?

What other positive aspects, internal to your business, add value or offer you a competitive advantage? Weaknesses internal, negative factors Weaknesses are aspects of your business that detract from the value you offer or place you at a competitive disadvantage.

What factors that are within your control detract from your ability to obtain or maintain a competitive edge?

What areas need improvement to accomplish your objectives or compete with your strongest competitor? What does your business lack for example, expertise or access to skills or technology? External influences, such as monetary policies, market changes, and access to suppliers, are categories to pull from to create a list of opportunities and weaknesses. Potential questions to list external factors are:.

Use a SWOT analysis to identify challenges affecting your business and opportunities that can enhance it. However, note that it is one of many techniques, not a prescription.

However, it also noted weaknesses and threats such as foreign currency fluctuations, growing public interest in "healthy" beverages, and competition from healthy beverage providers. Its SWOT analysis prompted Value Line to pose some tough questions about Coca-Cola's strategy, but also to note that the company "will probably remain a top-tier beverage provider" that offered conservative investors "a reliable source of income and a bit of capital gains exposure.

To get a better picture of a SWOT analysis, consider the example of a fictitious organic smoothie company. To better understand how it competes within the smoothie market and what it can do better, it conducted a SWOT analysis. Through this analysis, it identified that its strengths were good sourcing of ingredients, personalized customer service, and a strong relationship with suppliers.

Peering within its operations, it identified a few areas of weakness: little product diversification, high turnover rates, and outdated equipment. Examining how the external environment affects its business, it identified opportunities in emerging technology, untapped demographics, and a culture shift towards healthy living.

It also found threats, such as a winter freeze damaging crops, a global pandemic, and kinks in the supply chain. In conjunction with other planning techniques, the company used the SWOT analysis to leverage its strengths and external opportunities to eliminate threats and strengthen areas where it is weak. SWOT strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis is a method for identifying and analyzing internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats that shape current and future operations and help develop strategic goals.

SWOT analyses are not limited to companies. Individuals can also use SWOT analysis to engage in constructive introspection and form personal improvement goals. Home Depot conducted a SWOT analysis, creating a balanced list of its internal advantages and disadvantages and external factors threatening its market position and growth strategy.

High-quality customer service, strong brand recognition, and positive relationships with suppliers were some of its notable strengths; whereas, a constricted supply chain, interdependence on the U. Closely related to its weaknesses, Home Depot's threats were the presence of close rivals, available substitutes, and the condition of the U. It found from this study and other analysis that expanding its supply chain and global footprint would be key to its growth.

Creating a SWOT analysis involves identifying and analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a company. It is recommended to first create a list of questions to answer for each element. The questions serve as a guide for completing the SWOT analysis and creating a balanced list. The SWOT framework can be constructed in list format, as free text, or, most commonly, as a 4-cell table, with quadrants dedicated to each element.

Strengths and weaknesses are listed first, followed by opportunities and threats. Threats are external forces that may adversely affect the success of a company.

They consist of competitive advantages of rivals, uncontrollable influences such as natural disasters, governmental policies, and more. Identifying threats can help expose barriers to success and position companies to develop strategies to overcome them.

Strengths in a SWOT analysis are the favorable internal activities, processes, and behaviors of a company what a company does well. These are the factors that contribute to the success of the company and its brand. Strengths, such as highly-rated customer service and effective supply chain management, help companies sustain and enhance their competitive advantage. A SWOT analysis is a great way to guide business-strategy meetings. It's powerful to have everyone in the room discuss the company's core strengths and weaknesses, define the opportunities and threats, and brainstorm ideas.

A company can use a SWOT for overall business strategy sessions or for a specific segment such as marketing, production, or sales. This way, you can see how the overall strategy developed from the SWOT analysis will filter down to the segments below before committing to it. Although a useful planning tool, SWOT has limitations. It is one of several business planning techniques to consider and should not be used alone.

Also, each point listed within the categories is not prioritized the same. SWOT does not account for the differences in weight. Therefore, a deeper analysis is needed, using another planning technique.

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Image via Fundera. For one, conducting a comprehensive SWOT analysis provides a unique opportunity to gain greater insight into how your business operates. Another benefit of SWOT analyses is that this technique can be applied to a wide range of scenarios, not just as an overview of your business. You could use SWOT analyses to evaluate the potential strengths and weaknesses of a forthcoming advertising campaign, a planned content project, or even whether your company should be represented at a trade show or industry event.

Obviously, it almost goes without saying that conducting a SWOT analysis allows you to identify what your company does well, where it could improve, and the opportunities and threats facing your business. However, conducting a SWOT analysis provides you with the opportunity to not only identify these factors, but also develop and implement tangible roadmaps and timelines for potential solutions.

This can be beneficial in the creation of budgetary plans, identifying hiring needs p. Whatever you choose to call them, SWOT analyses are often presented as a grid-like matrix with four distinct quadrants — one representing each individual element. This presentation offers several benefits, such as identifying which elements are internal versus external, and displaying a wide range of data in an easy-to-read, predominantly visual format.

For example, we can see that a great location, strong reputation , and seasonal menu are strengths in this particular analysis. Conversely, we can see that heightened competition from chain restaurants and the rising costs of ingredients are two of the four weaknesses identified by our fictional restaurant business. Ideally, there are two stages of action you should take upon completing a SWOT analysis.

First, you should attempt to match your strengths with your opportunities. Next, you should try to convert weaknesses into strengths. This tells the fictitious company that it should continue to experiment with its popular seasonal menu. Acting on the weaknesses you identified in your SWOT analysis is a little trickier, not least because you have to be honest enough with yourself about your weaknesses in the first place. Going back to our example, some of these weaknesses are very challenging to act upon.

Going up against the considerable purchasing power of rival chain restaurants can be very difficult for smaller, family owned businesses. The restaurant is also struggling with its limited reach, the restrictions of a modest advertising budget, and is also failing to leverage the potential to increase sales by allowing customers to order food online through delivery apps like Foodler or GrubHub. In the example above, increasing consumer appetites for ethically produced, locally grown ingredients is a major opportunity.

In this example, this may involve investing in technical expertise to take advantage of the opportunities presented by food delivery apps, or sourcing locally grown produce more aggressively in an attempt to reduce costs. Even if you have an iron-clad advantage over every other business in your industry, failing to devote sufficient time, money, or personnel resources in maintaining that advantage may result in you missing out on these opportunities over time.