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How to Do a SWOT Analysis

Avoid relying on your own, partial understanding of your organization. Your assumptions could be wrong. Instead, gather a team of people from a range of functions and levels to build a broad and insightful list of observations.

Then, every time you identify a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, or Threat, write it down in the relevant part of the SWOT analysis grid for all to see.

Let's look at each area in more detail and consider what fits where, and what questions you could ask as part of your data gathering.

Strengths

Strengths are things that your organization does particularly well, or in a way that distinguishes you from your competitors. Think about the advantages your organization has over other organizations. These might be the motivation of your staff, access to certain materials, or a strong set of manufacturing processes.

Then turn your perspective around and ask yourself what your competitors might see as your strengths. What factors mean that you get the sale ahead of them?

Remember, any aspect of your organization is only a strength if it brings you a clear advantage. For example, if all of your competitors provide high-quality products, then a high-quality production process is not a strength in your market: it's a necessity.

Weaknesses

Weaknesses, like strengths, are inherent features of your organization, so focus on your people, resources, systems, and procedures. Think about what you could improve, and the sorts of practices you should avoid.

Once again, imagine (or find out) how other people in your market see you. Do they notice weaknesses that you tend to be blind to? Take time to examine how and why your competitors are doing better than you. What are you lacking?

Be honest! A SWOT analysis will only be valuable if you gather all the information you need. So, it's best to be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible.

Opportunities

Opportunities are openings or chances for something positive to happen, but you'll need to claim them for yourself!

They usually arise from situations outside your organization, and require an eye to what might happen in the future. They might arise as developments in the market you serve, or in the technology you use. Being able to spot and exploit opportunities can make a huge difference to your organization's ability to compete and take the lead in your market.

Think about good opportunities that you can exploit immediately. These don't need to be game-changers: even small advantages can increase your organization's competitiveness. What interesting market trends are you aware of, large or small, which could have an impact?

You should also watch out for changes in government policy related to your field. And changes in social patterns, population profiles, and lifestyles can all throw up interesting opportunities.

Threats

Threats include anything that can negatively affect your business from the outside, such as supply-chain problems, shifts in market requirements, or a shortage of recruits. It's vital to anticipate threats and to take action against them before you become a victim of them and your growth stalls.

Think about the obstacles you face in getting your product to market and selling. You may notice that quality standards or specifications for your products are changing, and that you'll need to change those products if you're to stay in the lead. Evolving technology is an ever-present threat, as well as an opportunity!

Always consider what your competitors are doing, and whether you should be changing your organization's emphasis to meet the challenge. But remember that what they're doing might not be the right thing for you to do. So, avoid copying them without knowing how it will improve your position.

Be sure to explore whether your organization is especially exposed to external challenges. Do you have bad debt or cash-flow problems, for example, that could make you vulnerable to even small changes in your market? This is the kind of threat that can seriously damage your business, so be alert.

A SWOT Analysis Example

Imagine this scenario: a small start-up consultancy wants a clear picture of its current situation, to decide on a future strategy for growth. The team gathers, and draws up the SWOT Analysis shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. A Completed SWOT Analysis.

Strengths What do you do well? What unique resources can you draw on? What do others see as your strengths?

Weaknesses What could you improve? Where do you have fewer resources than others? What are others likely to see as weaknesses?

We are able to respond very quickly as we have no red tape, and no need for higher management approval.

We are able to give really good customer care, as the current small amount of work means we have plenty of time to devote to customers.

Our lead consultant has a strong reputation in the market.

We can change direction quickly if we find that our marketing is not working.

We have low overheads, so we can offer good value to customers.

Our company has little market presence or reputation.

We have a small staff, with a shallow skills base in many areas.

We are vulnerable to vital staff being sick or leaving.

Our cash flow will be unreliable in the early stages.

Opportunities What opportunities are open to you? What trends could you take advantage of? How can you turn your strengths into opportunities?

Threats What threats could harm you? What is your competition doing? What threats do your weaknesses expose to you?

Our business sector is expanding, with many future opportunities for success.

Local government wants to encourage local businesses.

Our competitors may be slow to adopt new technologies.

Developments in technology may change this market beyond our ability to adapt.

A small change in the focus of a large competitor might wipe out any market position we achieve.

As a result of the team's analysis, it's clear that the consultancy's main strengths lie in its agility, technical expertise, and low overheads. These allow it to offer excellent customer service to a relatively small client base.

The company's weaknesses are also to do with its size. It will need to invest in training, to improve the skills base of the small staff. It'll also need to focus on retention, so it doesn't lose key team members.

There are opportunities in offering rapid-response, good-value services to local businesses and to local government organizations. The company can likely be first to market with new products and services, given that its competitors are slow adopters.

The threats require the consultancy to keep up-to-date with changes in technology. It also needs to keep a close eye on its largest competitors, given its vulnerability to large-scale changes in its market. To counteract this, the business needs to focus its marketing on selected industry websites, to get the greatest possible market presence on a small advertising budget.

Frequently Asked Questions About SWOT Analysis

1. Who Invented SWOT Analysis?

2. What Does SWOT Analysis Stand For?

SWOT Analysis stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

3. What Can a SWOT Analysis Be Used For?

SWOT analysis is a useful tool to help you determine your organization's position in the market. You can then use this information to create an informed strategy suited to your needs and capabilities.

4. How Do I Write a SWOT Analysis?

5. How Do SWOT Analysis and the TOWS Matrix compare?

6. What Are the Biggest SWOT Analysis Mistakes?

Making your lists too long. Ask yourself if your ideas are feasible as you go along.

Being vague. Be specific to provide more focus for later discussions.

Not seeing weaknesses. Be sure to ask customers and colleagues what they experience in real life.

Not thinking ahead. It's easy to come up with nice ideas without taking them through to their logical conclusion. Always consider their practical impact.

Being unrealistic. Don't plan in detail for opportunities that don't exist yet. For example, that export market you've been eyeing may be available at some point, but the trade negotiations to open it up could take years.

Relying on SWOT Analysis alone. SWOT Analysis is valuable. But when you use it alongside other planning tools (SOAR, TOWS or PEST), the results will be more vigorous.

How to Use a SWOT Analysis

Use a SWOT Analysis to assess your organization's current position before you decide on any new strategy. Find out what's working well, and what's not so good. Ask yourself where you want to go, how you might get there - and what might get in your way.

Once you've examined all four aspects of SWOT, you'll want to build on your strengths, boost your weaker areas, head off any threats, and exploit every opportunity. In fact, you'll likely be faced with a long list of potential actions.

But before you go ahead, be sure to develop your ideas further. Look for potential connections between the quadrants of your matrix. For example, could you use some of your strengths to open up further opportunities? And, would even more opportunities become available by eliminating some of your weaknesses?

Finally, it's time to ruthlessly prune and prioritize your ideas, so that you can focus time and money on the most significant and impactful ones. Refine each point to make your comparisons clearer. For example, only accept precise, verifiable statements such as, "Cost advantage of $30/ton in sourcing raw material x," rather than, "Better value for money."

SWOT Analysis Tips

Here are four tips for getting more out of a SWOT analysis:

1. Be specific. The more focused and accurate you are about the points you write down, the more useful your SWOT analysis will be.

2. Work backwards. Experiment with filling in the four sections of your SWOT analysis in a different order, to stimulate new ways of thinking. Working backwards, in particular, from threats to strengths, may cast new light on the situation.

3. Get together. Highlight the most useful people to contribute to your SWOT analysis, then gather information and ideas from them all.

4. SWOT your competition! To stay ahead of your competitors, carry out a regular SWOT analysis on them. Use everything you know about them to evaluate their situation, and use SWOT analysis to plan your competitive strategies accordingly.

SWOT Analysis Infographic

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SWOT Analysis With SWOT Templates and Examples !

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SWOT Analysis is a simple but powerful framework for analyzing your organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Includes template. Access on-demand resources, expert videos by becoming a Mind Tools member now!!

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whole child approach
sarah

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people may feel threatend by lack of letter grades for children -sarah

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builds a community for focus on learning-sarah

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Providing purposes of assessment should begin with discussions and get feedback from all the stakeholders. - Isabel

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Student-led conferences where students share their learning growth and goals, gather and show evidence of both and where their families can support them.

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Younger children are not great test takers and could be labeled incorrectly

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Letter grades can be seen as a threat .
There is little evidence that grades or scores listed on the report cards of young children contribute positively to those most in need of improvement.

report cards with letter grades or achievement scores are not appropriate for children at and below the third grade

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Expand early years growth learning

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"Decisions regarding the purposes of assessment should begin with discussions among all the stakeholders--parents, educators, and other members of the community, as appropriate."

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Eliminating grades can be a mind shift to the learning community.

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Being conscious when assessing in the early childhood years- students will make many errors. ~Isabel

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Defining the purpose of a given monitoring tool

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Maintains focus on the positive and constructive feedback rather than from a deficit mindset which will help to improve student anxiety or stress related to academic performance.
-Tasslyn

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"There is little evidence that grades or scores listed on the report cards of young children contribute positively to those most in need of improvement."

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children as a group can be encouraged to develop some criteria concerning what they want their classroom life to be like. These criteria are not simply lists of classroom rules. Rather they should be a thoughtful examination of what kind of community the class should be

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Provide kindergarten students to assess their own learning progress. - Isabel

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Encourage students to take ownership of their learning and growth by assessing their own work and monitoring their progress. Students are also encouraged to a voice within their classroom.

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Younger children should not be receiving scores and grades. A label can stay with a student.

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Awareness of the potential errors of each evaluation or

assessment strategy can help minimize errors in interpretation. It is a good idea to strive for a balance between global or holistic evaluation and detailed specific assessments of young

children.

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Policy may prevent elimination of grades.

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Opportunities for student (and teacher) agency.

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Letter grades are a fast and easy way to communicate to education partners, but are not effective. Moving away from what saves time and what the community is comfortable with, to a format that actually provides beneficial information to everyone regarding student growth.

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Revamping the way we look and things and delegate our time. Moving in a direction that best supports our students.

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Being mindful- that there is little evidence of grades or scores listed on the report cards of young children who contribute positively to those most in need of improvement. ~ Isabel

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There is still a place for documenting, measuring, and reporting on students' growth. We need to continue to find opportunities/strategies for doing this in a meaningful way for students, teachers, and families.

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Making sure we give younger students opportunities to assess their own progress and evaluate the class community.

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A letter or number grade doesn't give much information - what are the strategies for feed forward/next steps?

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Thinking about reducing the ways in which we label students. We think are thinking about children on a continuum and taking in multiple forms of assessment information to understand student growth.

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Self reflection, goal setting, and meaningful feedback will allow more opportunities for students to have agency in their learning and will provide information that can guide student growth.

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Student growth collaboration needs to be further developed. We do not spend enough time digging into the information that we have about students to have systems in place that include students.

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New assessment tools for our littles that have them on devices where they may not know what is being asked of them or they guess. Information is inaccurate.

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Thinking about how students are involved in progress monitoring, goal setting and then sharing their learning progress with their families.

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Teaching and nurturing children at a young age how to assess and evaluate their own work and progress, as well as, the work of their class community.
-Beth

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If testing in not in place some children will be deprived of needed intervention with special services at a time when these services can do the most good.
-Beth

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Lack of a "typical or familiar" report card might be a problem for families.
-Beth

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This developmental approach could be the paradigm shift that is so needed in education. Clearly operating under the same broken system for the past 50+ years is not supporting and advancing today's scholars.
-Beth

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The younger the child being assessed the greater margin of error. If teachers do not realize this, they can "label" students bringing harm to their ability to grow.

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Understanding that grades are a small part of who are children are or what they are capable of. The report card will be a difficult system to change.

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Teachers clarifying the purpose of monitoring student growth and ensuring that their students learn to do this for themselves. Students can then share this with their parents.

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With this information, we can now give our students assessments that are more equitable. We can work to reach all of our students with multiple ways of showing their growth instead of one assessment for the entire class. In doing this, I believe we will better help them prepare for the "high stakes assessments" that we must give each year.

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The longer a child lives with a label, the harder it is to lose it

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It is a good idea to strive for a

balance between global or holistic evaluation and detailed specific assessments of young

children.

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For several reasons, report cards with letter grades or achievement scores are not appropriate

for children at and below the third grade. Therefore, we should take this research and ditch the grades in K-3!

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There is little evidence that grades or scores listed on the report cards of young children contribute positively to those most in need of improvement. So why do we use them in the USA?

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"Depending on their ages, children as a group can be encouraged to develop some criteria concerning what they want their classroom life to be like"...."Periodically, the teacher or a child can lead the group in a discussion concerning how well

they are doing on these criteria as a class, and what additions or modifications of the criteria might be tried." Work environment for teacher and learning environment for students are key to all stakeholders--teacher, students, parents, administrators, and support staff. Consistent dialogue between the student community and teacher throughout the year to fine tune community agreements and also, to address evolution of social dynamics that occur during the school year. Also, it provides the student community a sense of student agency and self-management (individually as well as collectively).

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"Another principle may also be appropriate: the longer children live with a label (a true or false one), the more difficult it may become to discard it." This worries me constantly as a 4th grade teacher. Whether state testing, district benchmarks, or teacher created assessments, by the time the student arrives in year 4 of the academic journey, it becomes more difficult to pitch growth mindset because the student community has been subjected to multiple measures of assessments, which results in homogenous groups, and their self awareness of which group they have been placed in makes it challenging to make progressions and growth.

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"Assessment procedures should therefore indicate which of the strategies and resources available and judged appropriate have been employed to help each individual child."  If there is to be a paradigm shift in the way society views assessments, who should judge and justify which assessment procedures or which strategies/resources? All stakeholders involved, the educators, the parent community, outside entities, and the student have different perspectives. If the goal is to help each individual child maximize potential learning and growth, the least restrictive assessment (just like LRE) should be applied.

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Educational Reform/Policy-- Could there ever be a way in which assessments,especially standardized testing, would be optional for grades K-4th? I am not sure how this would look--provided we seek other alternative documentation or evidence to measure progressions or growth to provide feedback for student, parents, and other educators that service the student.

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Without assessment, intervention might not be implemented. Inappropriate or overstandardized assessments might not yield accurate information. (Why is a grown up asking me information that he/she already knows?)

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Student agency and the use of scholar-led conferences. Allow students to be apart of the goal-setting, growth, and reflection process.

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Grades and scores may lead to inaccurate understanding of child's learning growth and need for extra support/intervention.

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Assessment can help: determines progress of developmental achievements, placement and promotion decisions and assists and child with assisting in his or her progress.

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Opportunity to give students access to involvement and understanding of their learning growth.

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Finding appropriate ways to communicate student growth to learning community.

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Assessments before 3rd grade aren't developmentally aligned.

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Children can build the ability to assess themselves and to evaluate their community. With this skill, they can be refining the skills to build the type of interactions that create the community and relationships that make them healthier and successful.

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Developmental mindset over deficit mindset.

Involving the children in the process.

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Important to consider why, what, and how we are assessing. Love the understanding that assessment isn't inherently helpful.

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Wish there were more: considerations for additional research and some more concrete solutions.

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We are so used to our current structure in the U.S. public school system. There is so much money and ideaology involved. Any change is a threat to long-held beliefs.

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Would LOVE to read more about how we can fine tune assessment.

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Grades and scores on assessments can inaccurately shape the identity of a child in their eyes (and the teacher's) and become a roadblock to providing necessary support.

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Not anchoring success in school to letter grades and their subsequent labels can feel challenging to a community and society that has come to value the grade more than the learning. (i.e. extra credit)

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Scholar and teacher agency over the learning process and how learning is measured. Partnership in the process creates an opportunity for all of the scholars to have a voice in the assessment process.