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Davies - Strategic planning in Schools- An oxymoron

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Porter's Five forces

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Executive Summary

In 1979, a young associate professor at Harvard Business School published his first article for HBR, "How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy." In the years that followed, Michael Porter's explication of the five forces that determine the long-run profitability of any industry has shaped a generation of academic research and business practice. In this article, Porter undertakes a thorough reaffirmation and extension of his classic work of strategy formulation, which includes substantial new sections showing how to put the five forces analysis into practice.

The five forces govern the profit structure of an industry by determining how the economic value it creates is apportioned. That value may be drained away through the rivalry among existing competitors, of course, but it can also be bargained away through the power of suppliers or the power of customers or be constrained by the threat of new entrants or the threat of substitutes. Strategy can be viewed as building defenses against the competitive forces or as finding a position in an industry where the forces are weaker. Changes in the strength of the forces signal changes in the competitive landscape critical to ongoing strategy formulation.

In exploring the implications of the five forces framework, Porter explains why a fast-growing industry is not always a profitable one, how eliminating today's competitors through mergers and acquisitions can reduce an industry's profit potential, how government policies play a role by changing the relative strength of the forces, and how to use the forces to understand complements. He then shows how a company can influence the key forces in its industry to create a more favorable structure for itself or to expand the pie altogether. The five forces reveal why industry profitability is what it is. Only by understanding them can a company incorporate industry conditions into strategy.

Editor's Note: In 1979, Harvard Business Review published "How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy" by a young economist and associate professor, Michael E. Porter. It was his first HBR article, and it started a revolution in the strategy field. In subsequent decades, Porter has brought his signature economic rigor to the study of competitive strategy for corporations, regions, nations, and, more recently, health care and philanthropy. "Porter's five forces" have shaped a generation of academic research and business practice. With prodding and assistance from Harvard Business School Professor Jan Rivkin and longtime colleague Joan Magretta, Porter here reaffirms, updates, and extends the classic work. He also addresses common misunderstandings, provides practical guidance for users of the framework, and offers a deeper view of its implications for strategy today.

In essence, the job of the strategist is to understand and cope with competition. Often, however, managers define competition too narrowly, as if it occurred only among today's direct competitors. Yet competition for profits goes beyond established industry rivals to include four other competitive forces as well: customers, suppliers, potential entrants, and substitute products. The extended rivalry that results from all five forces defines an industry's structure and shapes the nature of competitive interaction within an industry.

A version of this article appeared in the January 2008 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy

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Executive Summary In 1979, a young associate professor at Harvard Business School published his first article for HBR, "How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy." In the years that followed, Michael Porter's explication of the five forces that determine the long-run profitability of any industry has shaped a generation of academic research and business practice.

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IB Leadership intelligences - literature review

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IB Leadership intelligences - literature review

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Click link below to read

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Learning From the Best Nonprofit Orgs and Leaders

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Organizational Health and Robust School Vision

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Organizational Health and Robust School Vision

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How to Help Your School Thrive without breaking the bank

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How to Help Your School Thrive without breaking the bank

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by John G. Gabriel and Paul C. Farmer

Imagine that you have a rare weekend without any professional responsibilities: no papers to grade, no lessons to plan, no activities to cover. To take advantage of this unexpected free time, you and three friends decide to go on a fishing excursion to a lake known as one of the best largemouth bass habitats in the eastern United States. Through e-mail messages, telephone conversations, and brief get-togethers, the four of you coordinate transportation, lodging, the time of departure, and other details.

It would seem reasonable to assume that you were all going with ambitions to catch largemouth bass. However, what would happen to the trip's camaraderie and outcome if each person's vision of the weekend differed from that assumption? What if one person plans to spot eagles, another is looking for lakefront property, and a third hopes to catch anything that will pull on the line, while you are there for sun and leisure?

You could have avoided any confusion and better harnessed efforts by explicitly asking your companions during the planning stages,

What is the actual purpose of the trip?

What are the goals of the attendees?

What does everyone envision for the weekend?

Has everyone shared these things with one another?

Whatever the context, the point is the same: if a group wants to move forward, it needs to develop an understood, agreed-on purpose. With a couple of word substitutions, you could ask those bulleted questions of any leadership team or department in your school. If the team has a healthy culture, its members would likely give similar answers.

Developing strong vision and mission statements can help stakeholders in your school reach such a common understanding. A vision is your school's goal-where you hope to see it in the future. The mission provides an overview of the steps planned to achieve that future. A vision is concise and easy to recall, whereas a mission is lengthier and more explanatory in nature. Your school may also want to establish targets along the way to measure progress toward its vision. We begin this chapter with developing your school's vision, because you need to know where you want to be before you can determine how you plan to get there.

Drafting the Vision Statement

According to the Task Force on Developing Research in Educational Leadership (2003), "Effective educational leaders help their schools to develop or endorse visions that embody the best thinking about teaching and learning. School leaders inspire others to reach for ambitious goals" (p. 3). Your school must have a vision that all staff members recognize as a common direction of growth, something that inspires them to be better. An effective vision also announces to parents and students where you are heading and why they should take the trip with you.

Without a vision, your school lacks direction. As the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca observed, "If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind." If you don't have a common, agreed-on destination, then everyone is left to his or her own devices to imagine one-a scenario that results in unharnessed and unfocused efforts, with everyone believing that what he or she is doing is right. A common understanding of the destination allows all stakeholders to align their improvement efforts. And the best part of planning for this journey is that it doesn't cost anything to decide where you want to go.

As important as the vision is, we have found that keeping it alive throughout the year is not an easy task. For you to get the most out of your vision, you must first remove the barriers from making it an integral, vibrant facet of the school community.

Eliminate Obstacles

One of the first obstacles that will come up is people's fear of change. Creating or adjusting a vision statement is an unmistakable indicator of imminent change. It is helpful to have an idea of the internal dialogues your staff members will likely be having before, during, and even after the development of the new vision. (This also applies to the development of a new mission.) Listening to and validating staff members' thoughts will help them cope with the change as they ask themselves the following questions:

What is the need for a new vision?

Will I be able to live with the new vision?

Will I be able to support the new vision?

What will the new vision expect of me?

How will my world change as a result?

Will I be able to continue doing what I've always done? Why or why not?

Do I believe in this new vision?

Do I believe in my school's ability to achieve this vision?

Do I believe I can help make the vision happen?

Another potential obstacle to creating a powerful vision is the reality that vision statements are often created perfunctorily and lack follow-through. They are usually the result of a directive to "get it done" by a certain date and delivered to a central office supervisor.

Such directives often lead to vision statements that have been created in a rush by one person or by a small group of individuals with no input from other stakeholders. Such statements are rarely understood or acknowledged by others in the school, and who can blame them? The process precludes genuine buy-in. Although school leadership must have a vision for the future, it should be used as a way to open up a dialogue rather than be handed down from on high.

Because these closed approaches to developing vision statements are incredibly common, most staff members are turned off by the mere mention of the words vision and mission and groan at the prospect of yet another initiative that will eventually be forgotten-that after a flurry of activity, the vision will be shelved alongside the school improvement plan, out of the reach and off the minds of staff members. Because they had little involvement in it, they see no real reason to dedicate themselves to it. If setbacks occur along the way, most will shrug their shoulders because they weren't committed and invested in the first place.

You can avoid these obstacles by creating a fresh and meaningful vision statement with the involvement of the entire faculty. The collective force and talent of the faculty is more likely to be realized when there is a common understanding of a shared vision. As Bamburg (1994) notes, "The schools that have been most successful in addressing and increasing the academic achievement of their students have benefited from a clarity of purpose that is grounded in a shared set of core values" (p. 14). We define values as the behaviors, beliefs, and actions that a school finds important.

The size of most schools' faculties prevents them from being as productive or as effective as smaller groups, but their full investment is still crucial. We recommend that you first form a team that, with training and guidance, will introduce the concept of a vision, facilitate and engage faculty in the process of writing one, and synthesize the multiple values and visions that the faculty develops. Ultimately, this team is the one putting together the pieces of the puzzle. This team may be made up of the members of the shared leadership team, or it could be composed of other staff members in the building as long as all departments are represented. Opting for the latter provides leadership opportunities for staff members who are not already formal teacher leaders. For our purposes here, we will refer to this collection of leaders as the vision oversight team.

Share Examples of Vision Statements

When you meet with the vision oversight team, sharing examples of vision statements with them is an important first step. This will help them better understand what a vision statement is, which in turn will help them assist the faculty when they facilitate its work. It's easy to find examples of real vision statements on the Internet. Here are a few to start with:

Every Battlefield High School student will achieve personal success and become a responsible and productive citizen.

The Richard Montgomery cluster will work collaboratively to ensure all students succeed. Placing the highest priority on reading and writing instruction will support consistent student achievement so that all students attain grade-level or higher performance levels annually, as measured by county, state, and national assessments. Partnerships across the cluster will sustain student success so that all students will read fluently by the end of Grade 2, write proficiently in both narrative and expository modes, pass algebra by the end of Grade 8, pass all High School Assessments on the first attempt, and graduate on schedule with the skills and knowledge required for success in higher education and/or the workplace.

Our vision, as a community, is to inspire a passion for learning.

All Potomac Senior High School students will achieve personal success in their learning and become responsible and productive citizens.

At Brentsville District we believe that all students can learn to their fullest potential. Student learning will be enhanced by national, global, and multicultural perspectives. Graduates will possess the basic knowledge and skills that will assure their proficiency in problem solving and technology. They will be responsible citizens, lifelong learners, and will be prepared for a variety of postgraduation options.

We will devote our human resources and technology to create superior products and services, thereby contributing to a better global society.

Our vision for the future is to be the customer's first and best choice in the products and services we provide.

There is a "Marriott Way." It's about serving the associates, the customer, and the community. Marriott's fundamental beliefs are enduring and the keys to its continued success.

-Battlefield High School, Prince William County Public Schools, Virginia

-Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland

-John T. Baker Middle School, Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland

-Potomac Senior High School, Prince William County Public Schools, Virginia

-Brentsville District High School, Prince William County Public Schools, Virginia

-Samsung Electronics, America

-State Farm Insurance

-Marriott

After presenting these examples to the vision oversight team members, give them time to discuss their impressions of them with one another, and then lead a discussion with the entire team. You can ask the following questions to generate some dialogue on the statements:

What patterns do you see in the statements?

What do you like or dislike in the statements?

Are the statements easy to understand?

Are the statements too vague, or are they specific enough?

Are they too long? Too short?

Do the statements express an idea or a hope for the future?

Are they too unambitious? Too "pie in the sky"?

Do they contain adjectives or goals that are more appropriate for a mission statement?

Do they clarify a direction for the school and for its improvement efforts?

You should also make sure to have copies of your school's current vision statement at the meeting so that participants can compare it with the examples. By discussing the current statement, the sample statements, the bulleted questions, and pertinent articles that you might wish to share as well, the vision oversight team should be able to reach an understanding of what makes a strong vision statement. You might also urge team members to explain to the faculty how the vision is a reflection of the school's values and hopes: it offers an opportunity to dream bigger, so stress to the team that it shouldn't let the faculty develop a "get-by statement," something that expresses a notion of mere adequacy. Tell team members to get the faculty to articulate what it is they truly want from their students and school. Graduation or job attainment is the bare minimum of what most educators hope for their students. The vision oversight team might consider having teachers brainstorm a list of adjectives or values and beliefs that will help them come up with an inspirational, compelling vision.

Present Data to the Vision Oversight Team

Before you involve the entire school in working toward a vision, you should first share some data with the vision oversight team. Doing so is important for two reasons. First, you want the vision oversight team to be familiar and comfortable with the data; since team members will in turn be sharing the data with the faculty, they should have a strong working knowledge of them so they are equipped to answer questions and help the staff understand what they are looking at. Second, as Bamburg (1994) observes, "Only when schools develop a shared understanding of current reality can a commitment to change be initiated and sustained" (p. 23). Reviewing data as an oversight team and then as a faculty is essential to help everyone identify where the school currently stands while also determining where they would like to be. Without a general understanding of the current data, the development of the vision could go in as many directions as there are opinions. The data provide a common, objective understanding and a solid foundation to build on.

Important data can be found everywhere in the daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly life of a school community. Too often, however, we associate data solely with student test results when there are other, sometimes more significant, data to examine. The vision oversight team and, eventually, the faculty should review

Student attendance rates.

Student tardies.

Staff attendance rates and days most often missed.

Department or grade-level staff absenteeism.

Staff turnover rates.

Student enrollment in sports or clubs.

Disciplinary incidents (including types of referrals and where they occur among teachers, teams, and departments) and dispositions (including detention, in-school suspension, suspension, and expulsion).

State assessment results.

Local common assessment results.

Standardized achievement test results.

Advanced Placement (AP) test or International Baccalaureate (IB) test results.

Preloading the vision oversight team with these data will give team members the background knowledge they need to develop a vision in collaboration with the entire faculty.

Involve Staff in Developing the Vision

It is now time for the vision oversight team to involve the rest of the faculty in developing the vision statement. However they choose to present the examples of vision statements, data, and professional literature, be sure they give staff clear directions, specific questions, and definite time limits; the faculty will quickly discern fluff or a lack of organization, which will immediately turn them off. After they have had an opportunity to review and discuss the above items, they can craft their vision statement (see Resource 5).

First, the vision oversight team divides the staff into groups of no more than eight people. Then they ask each group to discuss the following questions:

What evidence can you think of that we are meeting our current vision?

What kind of school do we hope to be?

What do you think should be reflected in our vision statement?

What do we need to do differently to achieve this vision?

How are we different from other schools?

Each group should have a scribe whose responsibility it is to record responses, ideas, and key terms and phrases that come up during group discussions. It is not necessary for groups to develop full sentences or statements at this point.

After group members have had a sufficient amount of time to share their thoughts with one another, each group should select someone to present the information to the rest of the staff. At this point, you also need to select a "master scribe" to maintain a master list of group responses on poster paper. The master scribe does not need to record duplications or similar phrases, although he or she may add checks or tally marks to indicate patterns or common ideas emerging from the faculty. The groups' presentations are an ideal time to validate responses, affirm staff members' commitment to education, and reinforce key ideas and values.

After each group has had the opportunity to share its information, the vision oversight team takes the master list and wordsmiths the key concepts and phrases into a vision statement-a one- or two-sentence statement that captures the faculty's image of the future. Some members of the team will be so excited by the good information they received from working with the faculty that they might find it hard to limit the vision to something so short. If so, you might have them work with the faculty to create a school "philosophy"-a lengthier paragraph that would extrapolate the vision. Next, each department receives a copy of the vision oversight team's draft vision to review, discuss, edit, and return to the team, which then makes appropriate adjustments to the statement.

The vision oversight team then unveils the vision statement to the entire staff at the next faculty meeting. At this point, you should celebrate your staff's considerable accomplishment in guiding school improvement efforts.

Drafting the Mission Statement

A mission statement is the wind that brings you to your desired harbor. It guides your travel and powers your momentum. Mission statements "give educators stronger motivation and provide parents with a clearer picture of what the school values. ... A clear vision and a common mission that identify the kind of learning to be achieved can help keep the school and the efforts of its staff and students on target" (Peterson, 1995). Mission statements are the "how-to" statements or action plans that help schools achieve their vision. They prompt change and growth. The mission is the touch point that can help you determine whether what should be happening is, in fact, happening.

Share Examples of Mission Statements

The responsibility of crafting the mission statement can also lie with an oversight team or with the shared leadership team. Ideally, you would implement a process that echoes the vision development process by preloading the group with the information necessary to guide the staff in the development of a mission statement. Consider the following sample mission statements:

At Battlefield Senior High School, we believe that student learning is the chief priority and all students can learn to their fullest potential. Students will develop their individual talents, critical thinking, and technology skills by being actively engaged in the learning process. Continuous commitment to improvement ensures that our students are well-rounded, self-directed, lifelong learners. By maintaining a safe and optimum learning environment, we provide the opportunity for students to be successful. Promoting high standards and expectations, teachers, administrators, parents, and the community share the responsibility for advancing the school's mission.

In order to prepare students to live in and contribute to a changing world and engage in active, lifelong learning, Richard Montgomery High School provides a balanced, varied school curriculum designed to meet the academic, cultural, and social needs of individuals from the diverse backgrounds of our community.

John T. Baker Middle School seeks to be an exemplary learning community school. We build the foundation of this community through meaningful relationships, relevant and engaging learning, and effective communication. We challenge ourselves to be better than we think we can be, and advocate for the greater good of our multidimensional community. Our success in this mission will build lifelong, confident learners, who have the tools necessary for success in a changing world.

Our mission is to empower all students to apply their acquired skills and knowledge, and to rely upon their personal attributes to lead productive lives and to become contributing members of the global community.

Our mission is to provide a high-quality, comprehensive, and meaningful education for all students. Each student will be expected to succeed within the bounds of their abilities and chosen educational goals. Each student will be treated as an individual, given the tools to be a lifelong learner, and taught to function as a member of a group and as a productive member of society.

State Farm's mission is to help people manage the risks of everyday life, recover from the unexpected and realize their dreams.

FedEx will produce superior financial returns for shareowners by providing high value-added supply chain, transportation, business and related information services through focused operating companies. Customer requirements will be met in the highest quality manner appropriate to each market segment served. FedEx will strive to develop mutually rewarding relationships with its employees, partners and suppliers. Safety will be the first consideration in all operations. Corporate activities will be conducted to the highest ethical and professional standards.

To continually provide our members with quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices.

-Battlefield High School, Prince William County Public Schools, Virginia

-Richard Montgomery High School, Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland

-John T. Baker Middle School, Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland

-Potomac Senior High School, Prince William County Public Schools, Virginia

-Brentsville District High School, Prince William County Public Schools, Virginia

-State Farm Insurance

-FedEx

-Costco Wholesale

This range of examples should spark some discussion among mission oversight team members. You can ask the following questions to generate dialogue on the statements:

What patterns do you see in the statements?

Are the statements specific enough?

Do the statements simply state a belief, or do they express a purpose for existence?

Do the statements clarify what action steps students and staff will be expected to take to achieve the vision?

Do the statements clarify how staff will engage in improvement efforts?

The mission statement should encompass the values of the staff, the actions that the school will take, and the areas it will address (e.g., curriculum, assessments, data) to achieve its vision. The mission statement should be longer than the vision statement because it is a specific plan for driving the school to fulfill its potential (see Resource 6).

After the faculty has worked on the mission using the same procedures they used in developing the vision, the mission oversight team again attempts to blend key words, phrases, and concepts into a viable statement. During this process, they need to ensure that the mission they are crafting aligns with the new vision statement-specifically, that the steps, actions, and values stated in the mission are things that will help them achieve the vision. The relationship between the mission and the vision must be clear.

After the mission oversight team has completed the draft, it is sent back to the faculty for review and discussion. Then the team meets again to review the feedback and make necessary adjustments before a final unveiling to the staff.

After the school has adopted the final drafts of both the mission and the vision, invite multimedia or art classes to design posters prominently displaying the statements. Soliciting these classes' assistance saves money and is a good way to make the vision and mission a meaningful part of students' lives. The vision and mission should be sent home in newsletters and posted in prominent gathering places throughout the school-classrooms, the mailroom, the lunchroom, and so on-to keep it at the forefront of people's minds.

Define What You Intend to Accomplish

The school's next step is to devise a plan to fulfill its mission. The SMART format-a widely used method for developing goals in schools and businesses-provides a framework for developing goals and action steps to help you focus on what really needs to be done. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and T ime Frame. Figure 2.1 demonstrates the difference between traditional goals and progressive SMART goals. You can use this table as a guideline to develop your goals, checking to make sure that they meet the five parameters.

After creating your goals, the next step is to develop SMART action steps-tasks or activities that you will engage in to achieve the goals. Figure 2.2 depicts an action step developed to help meet the SMART goal in Figure 2.1.

Specificity and clarity are key elements. When developing each goal and action step, consider the following questions:

Why does it need to be done?

Who will be affected, who is responsible, and who will participate? Who is the audience, and who are the stakeholders?

What needs to be done? The "what" should be in direct relation to the purpose.

When will this take place? When will we know we are done? When can our progress be measured?

How will it be measured? How will you know it was successful?

Using Vision and Mission to Focus School Improvement

The school improvement plan (SIP) is the tool that will help you get the most out of your vision, mission, and goals. It is a more detailed document than the mission and vision statements. Like the mission statement, it falls within the scope of the vision.

The SIP is a blueprint for the school's progress toward its goals. It helps propel grade-level teams, curriculum teams, and departments toward meaningful improvement. It provides detailed expectations for administrators, teachers, counselors, and other stakeholders and includes specific plans that guide improvement efforts throughout the year. Although the majority of school improvement plans focus on improving student achievement through such measures as high-stakes tests, advanced placement exams, and the SAT, we recommend enriching the document to include several areas outside the realm of assessment. For example, you might add a section about improving student attendance or reducing the number of disciplinary infractions. You could seek to increase participation in extracurricular activities and athletics and improve the delivery of student services offered by the guidance department, the career center, and the library. Use your SIP as an opportunity to develop goals, plans, and actions to improve all facets of your school's life.

Keep in mind the following points as you develop your school improvement plan:

Make sure the plan includes a proposal for staff development. If teachers aren't learning and growing, it is not likely that students are either.

An improvement plan is only useful when it is doable. All goals that are developed by each department in the school should fall under the umbrella of the school system's goals and objectives; if not, you could be trying to do too much or go in too many directions and will end up accomplishing very little.

The SIP should help you not only look forward but also evaluate what has been done in the past. Without such reflection, your efforts will be random, unfocused, and unsupported.

Building the School Improvement Plan

A high-quality school improvement plan is essential for establishing and maintaining a healthy culture. Because of its importance, the shaping of and responsibility for the SIP must not rest in the hands of a select few. In successful schools we have worked in, a group of representative staff members referred to as the SIP team is assigned to work with school staff to identify areas of need and develop action plans, which are the specific steps and tasks articulated to achieve the stated goals. The SIP team typically consists of department chairs, team leaders, administrators, a parent representative, and at least one support staff member, such as a secretary or an instructional assistant. However, we recommend involving potential teacher leaders in the development of the SIP as well. You should conduct the selection process for the SIP team each year to allow everyone the opportunity to participate. In some schools where we have worked, these positions were highly sought after because they offered opportunities for professional growth.

We recommend that the team include stakeholders who will be affected by the content of the SIP. At the very least, the team should include a representative from each department, whether it's the department chair or another staff member (although we do not suggest recruiting a novice teacher). The representative does not hold sole responsibility for developing his or her department's portion of the SIP; rather, he or she facilitates the collection of the information that the department will include. The representative is expected to conduct meetings with department members to discuss what should be included in the SIP, establish deadlines for submitting this information, polish the information, and return it to his or her departmental colleagues for final approval before submitting it for inclusion in the school's master SIP document.

Formatting the School Improvement Plan

The best way to identify the essential details for your school's SIP is to consult school staff during the SIP development process. If your school does not already have a prescribed format, you can use the following list as a starting point. These are all items that will add value to your SIP. Note that we are not suggesting you include everything in the list below in your SIP, nor do we claim that the list is a complete list of everything your school or school system needs to consider when developing its improvement plan:

1. Cover page. This should include the title, your school's name, and the date.

2. Committee member list. This should include the name and title of each member of the SIP team.

3. State department vision and mission statements. Most state departments of education have a published vision and mission.

4. School system vision and mission statements. Most school systems have a published vision and mission.

5. The school's vision and mission statements. The overarching components of the school's vision and mission should fall within the parameters of the school system's vision and mission. If the school system does not have vision and mission statements, we still recommend that your school develop its own.

6. School details and demographics. This includes school statistics on ethnicity; gender; English proficiency; economic status; educational designation (e.g., general education, gifted, special education, and twice exceptional); graduation rates; percentage of last year's students who enrolled in a two-year or four-year college or trade school; and enrollment in AP/IB courses.

7. NCLB AYP Report Card or High-Stakes Report (depending on the state). If provided by the state, include a report of the most recent AYP results for your school by subject, grade, and subgroup status.

8. School system goals and objectives (if available). These are typically created by the school board and/or the superintendent's office. They may be referred to as objectives or targets, among other descriptors.

9. SIP calendar. The calendar should include the dates and times when the SIP team is expected to meet and when it is expected to deliver content and evidence of efforts and completion.

10. Departmental goals. These goals focus on improving student achievement or delivery of services (for example, from the guidance department, the main office, and so on) specific to each department or team.

11. Indicators of achievement. These are specific indicators or results that will be reviewed to determine effectiveness.

12. Areas of focus. These include specific content areas, skills, standards, anchors, populations, and services that are targeted in the SIP.

13. Action plans for each department or grade-level team. Each department's specific action plan includes data sources, point of contact, potential costs, staff development efforts, required materials, activities, and time line to put the action plan in place and measure its effect.

The sections of the school improvement plan that are specific to individual departments and grade-level teams should provide focus for each of the areas with regard to content delivery. For example, in our version, items 10-13 would include any department in the building. In this case, we use the math department as an example, which might have an overall goal such as "Student passing rates on the Geometry Standards of Learning [Virginia's year-end high-stakes assessment] will improve from 81 percent to 86 percent in the following year." In some cases, the goal may target certain populations, such as "The percentage of African American students successfully completing geometry will increase from 73 percent to 80 percent by the end of the following school year." Departments and grade-level teams should measure their efforts and indicators of effectiveness against these goals on a monthly basis to obtain objective information to fuel their discussions.

We purposely mention "areas of focus" in item 12 to hone efforts and add value to departmental discussions about curriculum delivery. In this section of the SIP you would find statements such as "During the 2008-2009 school year, the mathematics department will increase focus on (1) patterns, functions, and algebra and (2) numbers and number sense." At least once a month, the department or team should assess the extent to which its content delivery hit these specific areas of focus.

Reviewing the School Improvement Plan

When the SIP is finalized, it should become a public document, accessible to all staff. Posting the SIP electronically will save paper and photocopying expenses, although you might want to divide the document by department or team and print a hard copy of each section.

We encourage schools to conduct quarterly reviews of the SIP and periodically monitor their progress. Item 13 of the SIP includes timelines for completion and evidence of attainment. These checkpoints are a good time to assess the extent to which teams are following through on their action plans. Waiting until the end of the year to conduct reviews will prevent staff from making needed changes along the way, and the following year may start with a stagnant, less-than-effective SIP.

Realizing Your Vision and Mission

Vision and mission statements provide schools with an essential overview of where they want to go and what they want to be. Few thriving schools or companies attained their success without developing such statements as elements of their school improvement plans or business plans. But merely drafting statements is not enough. To realize your school's vision and mission, you must model your school's beliefs, values, and collective commitments while demonstrating enthusiasm for what will come next. Perhaps most important, your vision and mission establish clear expectations and standards for your staff. We further discuss how to get the most out of your staff in the following chapter.

Getting Started

Identify and train vision and mission oversight teams.

If there are existing vision and mission statements, review them to determine their relevance and accuracy.

Devise a meaningful plan to involve the staff in either revising the existing vision and mission statements or creating new ones.

Ask probing questions to guide staff in developing their vision and mission.

Use data to identify areas that need improvement and establish SMART goals.

Recruit members for a school improvement plan team.

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by John G. Gabriel and Paul C. Farmer Imagine that you have a rare weekend without any professional responsibilities: no papers to grade, no lessons to plan, no activities to cover. To take advantage of this unexpected free time, you and three friends decide to go on a fishing excursion to a lake known as one of the best largemouth bass habitats in the eastern United States.

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What makes a good vision statement - Article 1

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What makes a good vision statement - Article 1

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A vision statement is the anchor point of any strategic plan. It outlines what an organization would like to ultimately achieve and gives purpose to the existence of the organization. A good vision statement should be short, simple, specific to your business, leave nothing open to interpretation, and should have ambition. This comprehensive guide will take you through the entire process of writing a good vision statement, with examples and resources to help along the way. Let's start off by reminding ourselves of what our end-game looks like in terms of our finished plan:

What is a Vision Statement for?

Here's a quick reminder of what we're trying to achieve when writing a good vision statement (not everything will apply to every organization, but you'll get the gist...)

Creating the pinnacle of the funnel, which every significant action we do going forward will ultimately be contributing towards.

A memorable and inspirational summary that describes our reason for existence as an organization - one that will help to motivate existing employees and even attract high-quality new ones.

A succinct statement about what our organization is trying to achieve to help third parties such as investors or the media better understand us.

A 'limiter' that helps us to rule out certain opportunities which do not ultimately contribute to our vision.

This article is part of our mini-series 'Strategic Planning 101'. You can find the entire series of articles we have on Strategic Planning 101 here:

1. Strategic Planning 101 - The Basic Foundations

2. How to Write a Good Vision Statement (this article)

3. Writing Your Organizational Values

4. Creating Focus Areas for your Strategy

5. Writing Good Strategic Objectives

Due to the popularity of this article, we've also written an eBook that you can download which includes an expanded version of this post.

You can use these guides either alongside a free trial of Cascade Strategy (our cloud-based strategy platform) or standalone.

What a good Vision Statement SHOULD be:

There are a few common rules that pretty much every good Vision Statement will follow:

1. They should be short - two sentences at an absolute maximum. It's fine to expand on your vision statement with more detail, but you need a version that is punchy and easily memorable.

2. They need to be specific to your business and describe a unique outcome that only you can provide. Generic vision statements that could apply to any organization won't cut it (see our examples below for more on this point).

3. Do not use words that are open to interpretation. For example, saying you will 'maximize shareholder return' doesn't actually mean anything unless you specify what it actually looks like.

4. Keep it simple enough for people both inside and outside your organization to understand. No technical jargon, no metaphors, and no business buzz-words if at all possible!

5. It should be ambitious enough to be exciting but not too ambitious that it seems unachievable. It's not really a matter of time-framing your vision, because that will vary by organization, but certainly, anything that has a timeframe outside of 3 to 10 years should be challenged as to whether it's appropriate.

6. It needs to align to the Values that you want your people to exhibit as they perform their work. We'll talk more about Values in a future article - but once you've created those Values later on, revisit your Vision to see how well they gel.

Following these rules should give you a pretty good starting point for creating a good vision statement. To help refine things further, we'll now look at some examples of vision statements that did not follow these rules. We've also created a free PDF eBook that you can download: 100 of the World's Greatest Vision Statements.

Some not-so-good Vision Statements (and why)

Here are some examples of real-life vision statements that in our opinion, could do with a little tweaking. For each one, we'll try to justify our thinking...

Our company vision is to make every brand more inspiring and the world more intelligent.

Well, this one gets a tick on the 'ambitious' test if nothing else. But.....is it realistic that 'every brand' will use the services of this company? How about 'making the world more intelligent.' Let's try to quantify what that might actually look like. Or let's not. Because it's impossible. Not to be too harsh though - there are strong elements here; 'making brands more inspiring' makes a lot of sense and has some depth.

Provide maximum value for our shareholders whilst helping our customers to fulfil their dreams.

This 'vision' could pretty much apply to any company, anywhere (it's an insurance company in this case - but would you have guessed that?). It's sort of like saying 'Our Vision is to succeed as a business'. Not wrong - but certainly not inspiring or unique.

Last one...

We are committed to achieving new standards of excellence by providing superior human capital management services and maximizing the potential of all stakeholders - clients, candidates and employees - through the delivery of the most reliable, responsive ....[and it goes on, but that's probably enough]...

It would be quite hard to write a vision statement filled with less tangibility and more subjectivity than this one. 'New standards of excellence'. 'Superior human capital management'. 'Maximising the potential'. There are simply far too many buzzwords, intangibles, and vaguery here for this to be either memorable or inspiring.

We are of course being rather harsh. But hopefully, the above examples illustrate well some of the pitfalls to avoid when creating your own vision.

What is the Process of Writing a Good Vision Statement?

There are literally hundreds of articles out there that give examples of bad and good vision statements. There's also plenty of articles that give a high-level overview of what to consider when creating your own. However, what we noticed was lacking was a concrete process to go through to help you create one. As such, we've outlined a process that we have used with clients in Cascade that might work for you too.

There are plenty of great vision statements out there that will not conform to the process below. But if you're struggling or just need a place to start, then hopefully this will help.

Step 1: Define what you do as an output

Start by being exceptionally clear about what it is your organization actually does. Be careful to remain 'output focused' rather than 'input focused'. For example, Microsoft famously had a vision statement to Put a Microsoft powered computer on every desk in the world (slightly paraphrased). Strictly speaking what Microsoft 'do' is make computer software, but for the purposes of their Vision, they looked forward to the actual outcome of this process - i.e. computers on desks.

Let's look at some other hypothetical examples:

A bakery makes bread. But the outcome is consumers enjoying that bread.

A consulting company gives advice. But the outcome is the success of others based on that advice.

A government department does...lots of things. But the outcome is better lives for the citizens they serve.

Whilst this process may seem obvious - you would be surprised by how rarely organizations actually go through this process in a formal, written way. Doing so will take you a long way towards creating your vision statement - BUT it's not enough alone! If it was, all bakeries, for example, would have the same vision statement - which is hardly inspiring!

Step 2: Define what unique twist your organization brings to the above outcome

Very few products or services these days are truly new - most are more like reinventions of something that exists already, but with a different approach, focus or spin.

At some point in your organization's lifespan - someone will have believed that the reason that THIS organization would be successful where others have failed, was because of.........something.

You need to define that something!

Let's take our bakery example. So far, our vision statement is looking pretty generic, along the lines of customers enjoying our bread. But why will they enjoy our bread MORE than the bread from the place next door? Is it because we use centuries-old traditions passed through generations of our family? Because we only use premium grade locally sourced ingredients? Whatever your unique selling point is - let it shine through in your vision statement.

Step 3: Apply some high-level quantification

A common problem with a not so good vision statement is ironically, that it's too visionary! With no possible end in sight (or a totally unrealistic one) - the initial inspiration derived from a good vision statement can quickly turn to frustration or even cynicism among employees and customers.

That said - don't be too specific or apply specific metrics at this stage (they will come later in our planning process).

Sticking with our bakery example - we might want to refine our target audience to 'every customer who walks through the door' - that's fine, or maybe we want to be bolder: 'every customer within walking distance of a store'.

The quantification we apply could also be industry specific if you're a B2B - are you shooting for SMEs or multinationals for example?

Step 4: Add relatable, human, 'real world' aspects

OK, your vision statement by this point should be getting pretty close to finished. But one final trick you can apply to help make it even more memorable is to add a real-life aspect. This will allow people to conjure up a solid mental image to associate with your vision statement. Let's look at an example - which of the following statements is likely to be more memorable:

a) To have every working person in the world using Microsoft product.

b) A Microsoft powered computer on every desk.

I would argue that (b) is more memorable because as I read this, I'm actually visualizing a computer (in my case) sitting on a wooden desk in a room. There's nothing wrong with (a) but it's highly conceptual and thus difficult to transform into a mental picture. Let's look at another example:

Ensure that every customer who leaves our store, does so smiling.

Here, using the word 'smiling' as opposed to 'happy' is powerful, because it conjures a mental image of a person smiling.

It won't always be possible to bring this level of tangibility to a good vision statement - but if it is, I would strongly encourage doing so.

How to Bring your Vision Statement all together

Let's finish off with a look at what a completed good vision statement could look like for our bakery. Based on the above:

Producing and selling locally sourced cakes and pies that are so delicious and satisfying, that every customer who leaves our store does so with a smile.

If we deconstruct this into our various steps, we can see each at work as follows:

Producing and selling locally sourced cakes and pies that are so delicious and satisfying, that every customer who leaves our storedoes so with a smile.

Step1 - The output
Step2 - The twist
Step3 - The quantification
Step4 - The human connection

Let me reiterate - there are other ways to construct a good vision statement. Even if yours doesn't look like this at the end, following the process above will help you to bring structure and purpose to your effort.

In our next article, we'll be looking at creating a great set of corporate values. The article will discuss how values should link to your vision statement, and how they can support your strategic planning. You can download this entire series as a free eBook here.

We'd love to hear your own thoughts about the above process of creating a good vision statement. Comment your own examples of a bad or good vision statement that really stuck with you!

Further reading & resources:

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A vision statement is the anchor point of any strategic plan. It outlines what an organization would like to ultimately achieve and gives purpose to the existence of the organization. A good vision statement should be short, simple, specific to your business, leave nothing open to interpretation, and should have ambition.

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Our clients consistently rate our work as excellent. As focused experts in planning and analysis, we have time tested methods that allow groups to come to consensus and ownership of a shared vision and strategies. We believe in and adhere to getting a team to focus, not to create a long to-do list.

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What makes a good vision statement - Article 2

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What makes a good vision statement - Article 2

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Writing a vision statement for your business is a daunting task. For one thing, it must define your company and, more importantly, its future. For another, you don't want it to be relegated to a forgotten poster hanging in the office lobby.

A powerful vision statement stays with you, such as Disney's "to make people happy" or Instagram's "capture and share the world's moments." If you are intentional in your efforts and committed to doing the hard work, you can create a vision statement that encapsulates your organization's core ideals and provides a roadmap to where it wants to go.

What is a vision statement?

Similar to a mission statement, a vision statement provides a concrete way for stakeholders, especially employees, to understand the meaning and purpose of your business. However, unlike a mission statement - which describes the who, what and why of your business - a vision statement describes the desired long-term results of your company's efforts. For example, an early Microsoft vision statement was "a computer on every desk and in every home."

"A company vision statement reveals, at the highest levels, what an organization most hopes to be and achieve in the long term," said Katie Trauth Taylor, CEO of writing consultancy Untold Content. "It serves a somewhat lofty purpose - to harness all the company's foresight into one impactful statement."

Why does this matter? Research shows that employees who find their company's vision meaningful have engagement levels of 68%, which is 18 points above average. More engaged employees are often more productive, and they are more effective corporate ambassadors in the larger community.

Given the impact that a vision statement can have on a company's long-term success and even its bottom line, it is worth taking the time to craft a statement that synthesizes your ambition and mobilizes your staff.

What is the difference between a vision statement and a mission statement?

Before determining your vision statement, you need to understand what it is not. It should not be confused with a mission statement. Those statements are based in the present and designed to convey why the business exists to both members of the company and the external community.

Vision statements, on the other hand, are future-based and meant to inspire and give direction to employees of the company rather than customers.

"The vision is about your goals for the future and how you will get there, whereas the mission is about where you are now and why you exist," said Paige Arnof-Fenn, founder and CEO of Mavens & Moguls, a global strategic marketing consulting firm. "The vision should motivate the team to make a difference and be part of something bigger than themselves."

"While a mission statement focuses on the purpose of the brand, the vision statement looks to the fulfillment of that purpose," added Jessica Honard, co-owner of North Star Messaging + Strategy, a copywriting and messaging firm that serves entrepreneurs.

Although both mission and vision statements should be core elements of your organization, a vision statement should serve as your company's guiding light.

"A vision is aspiration. A mission is actionable," said Jamie Falkowski, managing director at marketing and communications company Day One Agency.

Who shapes your vision?

The first step in writing a vision statement is determining who will play a role in crafting it. In a small business, it is simple enough to gather the insight of every member of the organization. In a larger operation, you may need to be more selective while still ensuring that you capture a range of employee voices.

To accomplish this, Brandon Shockley, director of research at branding and marketing firm 160over90, recommends hosting a series of workshops with key stakeholders who represent a cross-section of your organization. You can assemble teams to create alternate versions of the statement and receive feedback from the rest of the company.

Falkowski also suggests individual stakeholder interviews as an effective way to encourage candor among all invested parties and to gather real and honest feedback. Employees can identify common themes and describe the organization's future in words or pictures as a basis for a vision statement.

Key Takeaway: The first step in writing a vision statement is determining who will play a role in crafting it.

How to use your vision statement

You should determine early on where your vision statement will appear and what role it will serve in your organization. This will make the process more than a mere intellectual exercise, said Shockley. It is pointless to hang a vision statement in the lobby or promote it on social media if it is never truly integrated into company culture.

"The vision business statement should be thought of as part of your strategic plan," said Shockley. "It is an internal communications tool that helps align and inspire your team to reach the company's goals."

As such, a vision statement should be viewed as a living document that will be revisited and revised. Most importantly, it must speak directly to your employees.

"If your employees don't buy into the vision, you'll never be able to carry it out," said Keri Lindenmuth, marketing manager with the Kyle David Group, a web and tech solutions provider. "The vision statement should be something your employees believe in. Only then will they make decisions and take actions that reflect your business's vision."

One way to help employees take ownership of the vision is to hold company workshops and brainstorming sessions. In these meetings, encourage employees to identify ways they can incorporate the values of the vision statement into their day-to-day jobs. You can then acknowledge and reward employees when they are caught living the vision.

How to write a vision statement

Creating the perfect vision statement may seem like an overwhelming task, but it does not have to be. You don't have to reinvent the wheel to develop a powerful vision statement. Instead, use the information you already have to guide your work, suggests Alison Brehme, founder of Virtual Corporate Wellness, a provider of employee health and wellness programs.

"A company's mission, purpose, goals and values are all involved in the creation of a company vision," Brehme said. "Weave these concepts and beliefs into your vision statement."

Lindenmuth advises also looking at the vision statements of your competitors to determine how you can differentiate your business from theirs.

A vision statement should be concise, no longer than a sentence or two. As Falkowski says, you want your entire organization to be able to quickly repeat it and, more importantly, understand it. However, a vision statement needs to be more than a catchy tagline. "[It] can be smart and memorable, but this is for your team and culture, not for selling a specific product," Falkowski said.

Tip: A vision statement should be concise, no longer than a sentence or two.

Don't fret if you feel that a short vision statement doesn't fully express the intricacies of your vision. You can create a longer version, but it should not be the one you broadcast to the world.

"Let's be honest - most business leaders, not to mention boards of directors, won't be able to sum up their vision in a pithy sentence or two. That's OK," said Shannon DeJong, owner of brand agency House of Who. "Have a full-length version of your vision for the leadership's eyes only. Think of the long version as your reference guide to why you're in business in the first place."

You can start by mapping out your business's most audacious goals, Taylor suggested. "Reviewing your long-term goals in a collaborative setting will help you then zoom out on what your organization and the world will look like if you achieve them. That zoomed-out view of your success is really the heart of your vision statement."

Taylor said her team established a foundational understanding of their company vision by asking probing questions about the core of the business, such as what deliverables they most enjoyed working on, the partners they loved working with and the atmosphere they hoped to create when collaborating.

"It's important to start with the big questions - after all, this type of statement establishes your organization's vision for what impact your business makes on the world," said Taylor.

Honard advises asking questions that reflect the eventual scale and impact your business will have when constructing a vision statement. These are a few of the questions she uses in guiding clients to identify their vision statement:

What ultimate impact do I want my brand to have on my community, my industry or the world?

In what way will my brand ultimately interact with customers and clients?

What will the culture of my business look like, and how will that play out in employees' lives?

"Once you've answered these questions, you've created a roadmap between your present and your future," said Honard.

Don't be afraid to dream big once you gather all the information and get down to writing. Don't worry about practicality for now - what initially looks impossible could be achieved down the road with the right team and technologies. Work on shaping a vision statement that reflects the specific nature of your business and its aspirations.

Shockley said there is nothing wrong with a vision statement that is daring, distinct or even disagreeable. "If a vision statement sets out a generic goal that anyone can agree with, it is likely to produce mediocre results. A goal like 'delivering an exceptional experience' applies equally to a hospital, bank or fitness club."

If you're interested in taking your vision one step further, Taylor suggests creating a brand vision board. A vision board includes your company's tagline, a "who we are" statement, a "what we do" section, a business vision statement, an overview of your ideal clients, client pain points, your content mission statement, advertising, products and SEO keywords.

"A vision board serves as a one-page business plan that anyone in a company can reference quickly to remember the key concepts that drive the work," said Taylor.

Vision statement templates and resources

If you are still stuck on how to create a vision statement and cannot afford to hire professional help, you can easily access a host of downloadable worksheets and templates that offer a framework for developing a vision statement. These five worksheets can help you refine your vision statement:

These free resources offer step-by-step instructions to help you identify your company's key values, priorities and goals, bringing you closer to articulating your unique vision. You can use them yourself or collectively with your staff.

20 examples of inspiring vision statements

Checking out some memorable and distinct vision statements may be all the inspiration you need to write your own. Here are some of the best.

1. Amazon: "To be Earth's most customer-centric company where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

2. Ben & Jerry's: "Making the best ice cream in the nicest possible way."

3. Caterpillar: "Our vision is a world in which all people's basic needs - such as shelter, clean water, sanitation, food and reliable power - are fulfilled in an environmentally sustainable way, and a company that improves the quality of the environment and the communities where we live and work."

4. Google: "To provide access to the world's information in one click."

5. Habitat for Humanity: "A world where everyone has a decent place to live."

6. Hilton Hotels & Resorts: "To fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality."

7. IKEA: "To create a better everyday life for the many people."

8. Intel: "If it's smart and connected, it's best with Intel."

9. LinkedIn: "Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce."

10. Oxfam: "A world without poverty."

11. Patagonia: "Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis."

12. Prezi: "To reinvent how people share knowledge, tell stories, and inspire their audiences to act."

13. Samsung: "Inspire the world, create the future."

14. Smithsonian: "By 2022, the Smithsonian will build on its unique strengths to engage and to inspire more people, where they are, with greater impact, while catalyzing critical conversation on issues affecting our nation and the world."

15. Southwest Airlines: "To become the world's most loved, most flown and most profitable airline."

16. Sweetgreen: "To inspire healthier communities by connecting people to real food."

17. TED: "Spread ideas."

18. Walgreens: "To be America's most loved pharmacy-led health, well-being and beauty company."

19. Warby Parker: "To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses."

20. Wyeth: "To lead the way to a healthier world. By carrying out this vision at every level of our organization, we will be recognized by our employees, customers and shareholders as the best pharmaceutical company in the world, resulting in value for all."

Did You Know? Often, the hardest part of creating a vision statement is coming up with wording that truly defines your values and shines a light on your corporate identity without sounding too vague.

Tips for crafting your vision statement

A vision statement should stretch the imagination while providing guidance and clarity. It will inform your company's direction and set priorities while challenging your employees to grow. Above all, a vision statement must be compelling - not just to the high-level executives of your company, but to all employees.

Often, the hardest part of creating a vision statement is coming up with wording that truly defines your values and shines a light on your corporate identity without sounding too vague. A specific and unique vision statement is a good place to begin distinguishing your business from the rest of the industry.

"Vision statements should demonstrate how the world will be different now that your business is in it," said DeJong. She believes there needs to be legitimate passion behind a vision statement in order for it to be effective. "So many leaders play it too safe with their vision, and this is a big mistake when it comes to developing a brand people actually care about."

Based on our expert sources' advice, here's a quick recap of what to do when formalizing a vision statement that reflects the uniqueness of your organization:

Project five to 10 years in the future.

Dream big and focus on success.

Use the present tense.

Use clear, concise, jargon-free language.

Infuse it with passion and make it inspiring.

Align it with your business values and goals.

Create a plan to communicate your vision statement to your employees.

Prepare to commit time and resources to the vision you establish.

Your completed vision statement should offer a clear idea of your company's path forward. Honard said that many of her clients have used their vision statements to direct their overall plans for the future. For example, they've adopted new marketing initiatives to move them closer to their vision, pivoted their focus to clearly reflect their desired outcome, or doubled down on one particular aspect of their brand that is working in service of their vision.

Visions don't need to be set in stone

Now that you know all the rules of creating a vision statement, there is only one lesson left to learn: Sometimes you need to break some of the rules in your company's journey to define its own vision.

Many companies benefit from having a vision statement right from their inception, but maybe that's not the case for yours. If you have a very young company, it is perfectly acceptable not to commit to one specific vision from day one.

"Getting too tied into one master statement can really mess with the learning and creation process in the early stages," said Sonia Langlotz, CEO and founder of marketing and communications collective Round Twelve. She encourages her clients to write a vision statement every month, save the previous drafts, and see what sticks and what doesn't over time.

"After the first year, you can look back and see how much you have evolved," Langlotz said. "What parts or words within the statement stuck around and what was dropped? Those key words tend to end up being major brand pillars you can always come back to and eventually become part of the brand ethos."

Tying yourself down to a particular vision statement in the early days of your business may limit your opportunities for growth or blind you to the need for change.

"At the end of the day, trust your gut, test and check, look at the analytics, invest in the feedback your customer is giving you," Langlotz said. "If you aren't willing to step outside of your initial vision for your business, you might miss a huge opportunity!"

Regardless of how many years you have been in business or how long you have had your vision statement, you are not stuck with it. Don't be afraid to change it, even if you spent time and money developing it, if it stops feeling right.

DeJong recalls how her agency developed a new vision statement a few years ago that just didn't fit. "While the words sounded beautiful and it seemed accurate, our vision was simply too intangible to lend itself toward a mission that felt real." As a result, she reworked her vision to better align with her brand, and she couldn't be happier with it.

"Having a tack-sharp, specific vision has helped me and my entire team double down on our efforts, think more creatively, and feel more motivated every single day," she said.

Above all, your vision statement should be a constant reminder to you and your team that the end goal is bigger than the everyday. This message is an important one to hold on to, especially on the most difficult days.
Paula Fernandes contributed to the reporting and writing in this article. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.

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Writing a vision statement for your business is a daunting task. For one thing, it must define your company and, more importantly, its future. For another, you don't want it to be relegated to a forgotten poster hanging in the office lobby.

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How to write a good vision statement - Article 3

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ProjectManager.com

A vision statement almost sounds mystical. But it's not supernatural, far from it. Rather, a vision statement is a foundational business document.

There is a lot paperwork that clutters the office of any organization, but the vision statement is unique from the rest. Often confused with a mission statement, the vision statement has a different purpose. A vision statement looks towards the future, but a mission statement talks about what the company is doing in the present.

Because the vision statement is a foundational document that will guide the company's direction for years to come, consider using collaboration tools and brainstorming techniques to get input from everyone on the team. That way, you'll get greater buy-in from the company, and you'll widen your net for collecting ideas.

What Is a Vision Statement?

A vision statement is a document that states the current and future objectives of an organization. The vision statement is intended as a guide to help the organization make decisions that align with its philosophy and declared set of goals. It can be thought of as a roadmap to where the company wants to be within a certain timeframe. A vision statement is not only used in business, as nonprofits and governmental offices also use them to set goals.

That doesn't mean a vision statement is set in stone. They can be returned to, reviewed and revised as necessary. Though it is true that any changes should be minimal because a vision statement should have been given a great deal of thought before finalizing it.

A vision statement doesn't have any particular length. It can be as short as an aspirational sentence or pages long, depending on how much detail you want to give it. However long it is, the vision statement is formally written and is used as reference in company documents to serve as a guide for actions now and in the future.

What Is the Purpose of a Vision Statement?

A vision statement isn't a pie-in-the-sky document that collects the shared fantasies of the organization and then is filed away. It's a living document that is referred to as a lodestar to lead a company to its next innovation.

Some might think a vision statement is a waste of time, but it fills a vital need for the company. For instance, it sets a broader strategic plan for the organization. It's very easy to get bogged down on the day-to-day details of running an organization. The vision statement helps you plan long-term.

You can set whatever goals you want, but, without motivating your employees to achieve that goal, chances are you're not going to get anywhere. A motivational vision statement will both motivate existing employees and also drive talent to the company. They'll want to work at a place with vision.

A strong vision statement also works to help differentiate your company from others. All companies want to become profitable, but a company that can set an agenda to achieve that goal is going to set itself apart and inspire others. Use a vision statement to focus the efforts of the organization on the core competencies it needs to achieve its goals.

Best Practices for Writing a Vision Statement

There is no template to writing a vision statement, however a common structure for successful ones includes these traits:

Be Concise: This is not the place to stuff a document with fluff statements. It should be simple, easy to read and cut to the essentials, so that it can be set to memory and be repeated accurately.

Be Clear: A good rule of thumb for clarity is to focus on one primary goal, rather than trying to fill the document with a scattering of ideas. One clear objective is also easier to focus on and achieve.

Have a Time Horizon: A time horizon is simply a fixed point in the future when you will achieve and evaluate your vision statement. Define that time.

Make it Future-Oriented: Again, the vision statement is not what the company is presently engaged in but rather a future objective where the company plans to be.

Be Stable: The vision statement is a long-term goal that should, ideally, not be affected by the market or technological changes.

Be Challenging: That said, you don't want to be timid in setting your goals. Your objective shouldn't be too easy to achieve, but also it shouldn't be so unrealistic as to be discarded.

Be Abstract: The vision statement should be general enough to capture the organization's interests and strategic direction.

Be Inspiring: Live up to the title of the document, and create something that will rally the troops and be desirable as a goal for all those involved in the organization.

Examples of Great Vision Statements

These examples prove that a vision statement isn't a templated document that only differs from another organizations by the branded logo on top of it.

IKEA

"Our vision is to create a better everyday life for many people." That's aspirational, short and to the point. More than that, it sets the tone for the company and makes it clear that they're in the market to offer low-priced good furnishings that suit everyone's lifestyle.

Nike

"Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. (*If you have a body, you are an athlete.)" Nobody cared much for sneakers in the past. They were just another piece of sports equipment. But Nike saw a future that had not yet existed, in which they delivered products that inspired and motivated people. Notice how they include everyone as an athlete. It's clever and inclusive.

McDonald's

"To be the best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness and value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile." The power of this vision is that it's constructed like a checklist. The word best is a word that requires definition, and McDonald's provides it with qualifiers, making the roadmap to success clearly marked with signposts.

Patagonia

"Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis." Talk about inspiring, Patagonia first outlines what the best product means for them as a company. Then takes it one step further by stating they'll run their business to carry that environmental policy to a global level.

Oxfam

"A world without poverty." This may seem to contradict one of the traits of a good vision statement in that it feels unrealistic. But as challenging visions go, it's hard to see how anyone wouldn't be inspired and motivated by this short and powerful one.
Once you've crafted a vision statement, the real work begins. To achieve that vision, you'll need the right tools. ProjectManager.com is a cloud-based project management software that helps team members collaborate and gives team leaders accurate data on project progress to act decisively. See how it can help you realize your vision by taking this free 30-day trial.

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A Guide to Writing the Perfect Vision Statement (with Examples)

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ProjectManager.com A vision statement almost sounds mystical. But it's not supernatural, far from it. Rather, a vision statement is a foundational business document. There is a lot paperwork that clutters the office of any organization, but the vision statement is unique from the rest.

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Definition

Vision Statement: (Desired End-State) A one-sentence statement describing the clear and inspirational long-term desired change resulting from an organization or program's work.

The following vision statements were selected from the top 100 nonprofits (based on a series of web, social, and financial metrics).

Details on how this list was compiled can be found by scrolling down to the bottom of the page.

Be sure to also check out our Guide to Creating Vision and Mission Statements as well as our 50 Example Mission Statements for more related help.

Key Findings of 30 Example Vision Statements

The best visions are inspirational, clear, memorable, and concise.

Avg length for the full 30 organizations listed here is only 14.56 words (excluding brand references)

Avg length for the first 15 organizations is only 10.5 words (excluding brand references).

The shortest contains only three words (Human Rights Campaign)

The longest contains 32 words (Amnesty International)

30 Example Vision Statements

Human Rights Campaign: Equality for everyone (3)

Feeding America: A hunger-free America (4 words)

Alzheimer's Association: A world without Alzheimer's (4)

Oxfam: A just world without poverty (5 words)

National Multiple Sclerosis Society: A World Free of MS (5)

The Nature Conservancy: To leave a sustainable world for future generations. (8)

Make-A-Wish: That people everywhere will share the power of a wish (10)

Habitat for Humanity: A world where everyone has a decent place to live. (10)

San Diego Zoo: To become a world leader at connecting people to wildlife and conservation. (12)

NPR, with its network of independent member stations, is America's pre-eminent news institution (12)

Ducks Unlimited is wetlands sufficient to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever. (13)

Oceana seeks to make our oceans as rich, healthy and abundant as they once were. (14)

In Touch Ministries: proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people in every country of the world. (14)

Cleveland Clinic: Striving to be the world's leader in patient experience, clinical outcomes, research and education. (14)

Save the Children: A world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development, and participation. (15)

Teach for America: One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education. (16)

Smithsonian: Shaping the future by preserving our heritage, discovering new knowledge, and sharing our resources with the world (17)

ASPCA: That the United States is a humane community in which all animals are treated with respect and kindness. (18)

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. (18)

World Vision: For every child, life in all its fullness; Our prayer for every heart, the will to make it so (19)

Clinton Foundation: To implement sustainable programs that improve access worldwide to investment, opportunity, and lifesaving services now and for future generations. (19)

Goodwill: Every person has the opportunity to achieve his/her fullest potential and participate in and contribute to all aspects of life. (21)

Boy Scouts of America: To prepare every eligible youth in America to become a responsible, participating citizen and leader who is guided by the Scout Oath and Law. (24)

WWF: We seek to save a planet, a world of life. Reconciling the needs of human beings and the needs of others that share the Earth... (25)

Kiva: We envision a world where all people - even in the most remote areas of the globe - hold the power to create opportunity for themselves and others. (26)

Amnesty International: A world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments. (26)

charity: water believes that we can end the water crisis in our lifetime by ensuring that every person on the planet has access to life's most basic need - clean drinking water. (28)

Special Olympics: To transform communities by inspiring people throughout the world to open their minds, accept and include people with intellectual disabilities and thereby anyone who is perceived as different. (28)

Creative Commons: Nothing less than realizing the full potential of the Internet - universal access to research and education, full participation in culture - to drive a new era of development, growth, and productivity. (30)

VFW: Ensure that veterans are respected for their service, always receive their earned entitlements, and are recognized for the sacrifices they and their loved ones have made on behalf of this great country. (32)

What does this mean for you?

Is your vision statement longer than 20 words? Can you get it below 15? Below 10? Design your vision statement to clearly communicate what you are working to achieve in a way that people can remember it and communicate this to others. If you can't get your full vision below 15 words, consider also creating a vision tagline (2-6 words) which people can more easily remember.

How the list was compiled

Vision statements were gathered for each of the top 100 nonprofits that had published version and then evaluated for content and length.

30 were then selected for this list based on length and organized roughly from shortest to longest (based on number of characters).

The number in parenthesis at the end of each line depicts the number of non-branded words included in their vision statement.

In order to standardize the list, we removed things like "[Brand's] vision is" or "The vision statement of [Brand]" when it created redundancy in the beginning of a vision statement.

Also Check Out:

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Vision Statement: (Desired End-State) A one-sentence statement describing the clear and inspirational long-term desired change resulting from an organization or program's work. The following vision statements were selected from the top 100 nonprofits (based on a series of web, social, and financial metrics).

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Developing leaders for an IB World School

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Developing leaders for an IB World School

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Peter Diamandis and The Best Way to Predict The Future | Singularity University

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Peter's Abundance Espresso Shot #10 - Launching Your Idea Above the Line of Super-Credibility

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How to Write a Vision Statement that Inspires

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What's the Difference Between Mission and Vision?

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What Makes A Mission Statement Good (or Bad)?

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Short description of SWOT

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If you've ever worked in a corporate office environment, you may have come across the term "SWOT analysis." This has nothing to do with evaluating militarized law enforcement response units, and everything to do with taking a long, hard look at your company.

Conducting a SWOT analysis is a powerful way to evaluate your company or project, whether you're two people or 500 people. In this article, you'll learn: what a SWOT analysis is, see some SWOT analysis examples, and learn tips and strategies for conducting a comprehensive SWOT analysis of your own. You'll also see how you can use the data a SWOT exercise yields to improve your internal processes and workflows, and get a free, editable SWOT analysis template.

The Complete Guide to SWOT Analysis:
Table of contents
What is a SWOT analysis?

A SWOT analysis is a technique used to determine and define your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats - SWOT.

SWOT analyses can be applied to an entire company or organization, or individual projects within a single department. Most commonly, SWOT analyses are used at the organizational level to determine how closely a business is aligned with its growth trajectories and success benchmarks, but they can also be used to ascertain how well a particular project - such as an online advertising campaign - is performing according to initial projections.

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.

Breaking down the SWOT analysis definition

We know that SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats - but what does each of these elements mean? Let's take a look at each element individually.

Strengths

The first element of a SWOT analysis is Strengths.

Things your company does well

Qualities that separate you from your competitors

Internal resources such as skilled, knowledgeable staff

Tangible assets such as intellectual property, capital, proprietary technologies, etc.

As you've probably guessed, this element addresses things that your company or project does especially well. This could be something intangible, such as your company's brand attributes, or something more easily defined such as the unique selling proposition of a particular product line. It could also be your people, your literal human resources: strong leadership, or a great engineering team.

Weaknesses

Once you've figured out your strengths, it's time to turn that critical self-awareness on your weaknesses.

Things your company lacks

Things your competitors do better than you

Resource limitations

Unclear unique selling proposition

What's holding your business or project back? This element can include organizational challenges like a shortage of skilled people and financial or budgetary limitations.

This element of a SWOT analysis may also include weaknesses in relation to other companies in your industry, such as the lack of a clearly defined USP in a crowded market.

Opportunities

Next up is Opportunities.

Underserved markets for specific products

Few competitors in your area

Emerging needs for your products or services

Press/media coverage of your company

Can't keep up with the volume of leads being generated by your marketing team? That's an opportunity. Is your company developing an innovative new idea that will open up new markets or demographics? That's another opportunity.

In short, this element of a SWOT analysis covers everything you could do to improve sales, grow as a company, or advance your organization's mission.

Threats

The final element of a SWOT analysis is Threats - everything that poses a risk to either your company itself or its likelihood of success or growth.

Emerging competitors

Changing regulatory environment

Negative press/media coverage

Changing customer attitudes toward your company

This could include things like emerging competitors, changes in regulatory law, financial risks, and virtually everything else that could potentially jeopardize the future of your company or project.

SWOT analysis internal and external factors

The four elements above are common to all SWOT analyses. However, many companies further compartmentalize these elements into two distinct subgroups: Internal and External.

Internal factors

Typically, Strengths and Weaknesses are considered internal factors, in that they are the result of organizational decisions under the control of your company or team. A high churn rate, for example, would be categorized as a weakness, but improving a high churn rate is still within your control, making it an internal factor.

External factors

Similarly, emerging competitors would be categorized as a threat in a SWOT analysis, but since there's very little you can do about this, this makes it an external factor. This is why you may have seen SWOT analyses referred to as Internal-External Analyses or IE matrices.

Subcategorizing your four primary elements into Internal and External factors isn't necessarily critical to the success of your SWOT analysis, but it can be helpful in determining your next move or evaluating the degree of control you have over a given problem or opportunity.

Now that we know what each of the elements of a SWOT analysis means, let's take a look at how to go about creating and conducting a SWOT analysis.

How to do a SWOT analysis

You can get the full experience in our video below, and this entire post is dedicated to answering that question, but for simplicity's sake, here's how to do a SWOT analysis:

1. Gather your team together-ideally bring candy.

2. Set up your quadrants-on a whiteboard or projector (perhaps using our template).

3. Start with strengths-ask the below list of questions.

4. Follow suit with weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

5. Organize the information collected into a neat and tidy document.

6. Send out to the team with notes.

7. Organize a second meeting to come up with action items and owners.

SWOT analysis questions

Like feature-benefit matrices, there are several ways to conduct a SWOT analysis. However, regardless of how you choose to structure your analysis, we need to start by asking a series of questions. Here is a breakdown of the questions you should seek to answer when performing your SWOT analysis.

Strengths questions

Let's take our first element, Strengths, for example. To determine what your strengths are as an organization, you could begin by asking some of the following questions:

1. What do your customers love about your company or product(s)?

2. What does your company do better than other companies in your industry?

3. What are your most positive brand attributes?

4. What's your unique selling proposition?

5. What resources do you have at your disposal that your competitors do not?

By answering these questions, you'll be in great shape to start identifying and listing your organization's strengths.
Positive brand attributes associated with WordStream, as identified by our customers
Weakness questions

We can use the same principle to determine your company's weaknesses:

What do your customers dislike about your company or product(s)?

What problems or complaints are often mentioned in your negative reviews?

Why do your customers cancel or churn?

What could your company do better?

What are your most negative brand attributes?

What are the biggest obstacles/challenges in your current sales funnel?

What resources do your competitors have that you do not?

You may find that determining the strengths and weaknesses of your organization or project is considerably easier or takes less time than figuring out the opportunities and threats facing your company. This is because, as we said earlier, these are internal factors. External factors, on the other hand, may require more effort and rely upon more data, as these are often beyond your immediate sphere of influence.

Opportunities questions

Identifying opportunities and threats may require you to conduct in-depth competitive intelligence research about what your competitors are up to, or the examination of wider economic or business trends that could have an impact on your company. That's not to say that opportunities and threats cannot be internal, however; you may discover opportunities and threats based solely on the strengths and weaknesses of your company. Some possible questions you could ask to identify potential opportunities might include:

How can we improve our sales/customer onboarding/customer support processes?

What kind of messaging resonates with our customers?

How can we further engage our most vocal brand advocates?

Are we allocating departmental resources effectively?

Is there budget, tools, or other resources that we're not leveraging to full capacity?

Which advertising channels exceeded our expectations - and why?

Threat questions

When it comes to threats, you could certainly begin by asking a series of questions like those above. However, it's often quite easy to come up with a list of potential threats facing your business or project without posing questions beforehand. This could include "branded" threats such as emerging or established competitors, broader threats such as changing regulatory environments and market volatility, or even internal threats such as high staff turnover that could threaten or derail current growth.

What is PEST analysis?

While we're on the topic of internal versus external factors, I wanted to mention a tangential but entirely separate type of analysis closely relevant to SWOT analyses, known as a PEST analysis.

Earlier, I mentioned that external factors such as changing regulatory policies and market volatility could be considered threats in a standard SWOT analysis. However, despite their importance, challenges like this are often highly nuanced and driven by dozens or hundreds of individual factors. This can place them beyond the scope or intent of a typical SWOT analysis. This is why many companies also conduct PEST analyses.

This type of analysis is not what an exterminator does upon arriving at a roach-infested tenement. Rather, a PEST analysis functions very similarly to a SWOT analysis, only they're concerned with four external factors:

Pros of PEST analysis

One of the main reasons it's worth looking at PEST analyses is because many of the factors that could end up in a PEST matrix could also be relevant to the Opportunities and Threats in our SWOT analysis. The kind of political and economic turmoil we've seen in the United States during the past year, for example, could very well pose legitimate and serious threats to many businesses (as well as some opportunities), but these kinds of obstacles tend to be much more complicated than the opportunities and threats you'd see in most SWOT analyses, given their broader scale and often-complex underlying factors.
Image via Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue/Hofstra University
Cons of PEST analysis

Obstacles identified in a typical PEST analysis also tend to be on much longer timeframes - it's a lot easier and quicker to try and overcome internal challenges like high staff turnover than it is to wait and see if the economy picks up (or if the bubble will burst again). That's why many larger companies conduct both SWOT and PEST analyses simultaneously - the SWOT analysis provides them with more immediate, potentially actionable roadmaps, whereas PEST analyses can be highly valuable when it comes to formulating longer-term plans and business strategies.

Benefits of SWOT analysis for small businesses

If you're a marketer or small-business owner, you might be wondering if SWOT analyses are practical or even feasible for smaller companies and organizations. Although there is definitely a resource overhead involved in the creation of a SWOT analysis, there are many benefits in doing so, even for the smallest of companies.

Get a bird's eye view: For one, conducting a comprehensive SWOT analysis provides a unique opportunity to gain greater insight into how your business operates. It's all too easy to get lost in the weeds of the day-to-day workings of your company, and conducting a SWOT analysis allows you to take a broader, bird's eye view of your business and the position it occupies in your industry.

Improve specific campaigns and projects. 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.

Here's an example of a project SWOT analysis:

Develop tangible roadmaps. 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 and other mid- to long-term strategic planning.

A full SWOT analysis example

So, now we know what each element of a SWOT analysis is concerned with and the kinds of exploratory questions we can ask to get the ball rolling, it's time to actually get to work and create your SWOT analysis.

To illustrate how it works, we'll create our own SWOT analysis example: a family-owned restaurant, with a single location, operating in an urban area.

Here's the SWOT analysis example based on our fictional restaurant:

As you can see, this matrix format allows you to quickly and easily identify the various elements you've included in your analysis.

Strengths examples

Excellent, well-trafficked location

Good reputation in local community

Seasonal menu, locally sourced.

Weakness examples

Higher costs than comparable chain restaurants

Single location means limited reach

Modest advertising budget

Not currently using food delivery apps/technology

Opportunity examples

Growing interest in/support for locally sourced ingredients

Seasonal menu keeps things fresh and interesting

Potential growth via food delivery apps/technology

Threat examples

Intensifying competition from established chain restaurants

Uncertain economic environment

Rising cost of ingredients

SWOT analysis example: Acting on your results

So, you've finally got your hands on a completed SWOT matrix. You've identified internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats. You've begun to see your company in a whole new light.

Now what?

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. Let's take a look how this works.

1. Harness your strengths

One of the best things about the strengths you identified in your SWOT analysis is that you're already doing them.

In our example above, the restaurant's location, reputation, and seasonal menu are all strengths. This tells the fictitious company that it should continue to experiment with its popular seasonal menu. It also tells the company it should continue to develop and nurture the strong relationships with its regular customers that have strengthened the restaurant's reputation in the community.

Essentially, acting upon your business' strengths consists of "do more of what you're already good at."

2. Shore up your weaknesses

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.

However, that's not to say all hope is lost. It might be harder for our example business to compete with a chain, but there are plenty of other ways small companies can be more competitive - such as by developing strong, meaningful relationships with customers, which was not only one of the company's strengths, but also something chain restaurants simply cannot offer.

3. Seize opportunities

The Opportunities section of your SWOT analysis is by far the most actionable, and that's by design. By identifying opportunities by evaluating your organization's strengths, you should have a ready-made list of targets to aim for.

In the example above, increasing consumer appetites for ethically produced, locally grown ingredients is a major opportunity. However, our restaurateurs cannot rest on their laurels - there's still work to be done. 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.

It's also important to avoid hubris or complacency in your opportunities. 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.

Every business' opportunities will differ, but it's vital that you create a clearly defined roadmap for capitalizing upon the opportunities you've identified, whether they be internal or external.

4. Mitigate threats

Anticipating and mitigating the threats identified in your SWOT analysis may be the most difficult challenge you'll face in this scenario, primarily because threats are typically external factors; there's only so much you can do to mitigate the potential damage of factors beyond your control.

Every threat, and the appropriate reaction to that threat, is different. Regardless of the specific threats you've identified in your SWOT analysis, responding to and monitoring those threats should be among your very top priorities, irrespective of the degree of control you have over those threats.

In the example above, all three threats are particularly challenging. To compete with the prices of its chain competitors, our restaurateurs may be forced to either compromise on their values to secure cheaper ingredients, or willingly cut into their profit margins to remain competitive. Similarly, economic uncertainty is virtually impossible to fully mitigate, making it a persistent threat to the stability of our example restaurant business.

In some SWOT analyses, there may be some overlap between your opportunities and threats. For example, in the analysis above, the popularity of locally sourced ingredients was identified as an opportunity, and heightened competition was identified as a threat. In this example, highlighting the restaurant's relationships with local farmers - further reinforcing the restaurant's commitment to the local community and regional economy - may be an effective way for our restaurateurs to overcome the threat posed by the increasingly desperate chain restaurants vying for their customers.

When compiling the results of your SWOT analysis, be sure to look for areas of crossover like this and see if it's possible to seize an opportunity and reduce a threat at the same time.

Free SWOT Analysis template

Ready to put it all into practice for your own business? Here's our free, editable, SWOT analysis template.

It's a Google Sheet so you can add and remove rows, edit and answer the questions, paste into a slide deck, and more.

We've also thrown a blank one in there too:

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How to Do a SWOT Analysis (Examples & Free Template!)

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What is a SWOT analysis? With this guide, learn how to do a SWOT analysis with a real small business example and an editable, free SWOT analysis template.

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If you've ever worked in a corporate office environment, you may have come across the term "SWOT analysis." This has nothing to do with evaluating militarized law enforcement response units, and everything to do with taking a long, hard look at your company.

Conducting a SWOT analysis is a powerful way to evaluate your company or project, whether you're two people or 500 people. In this article, you'll learn: what a SWOT analysis is, see some SWOT analysis examples, and learn tips and strategies for conducting a comprehensive SWOT analysis of your own. You'll also see how you can use the data a SWOT exercise yields to improve your internal processes and workflows, and get a free, editable SWOT analysis template.

The Complete Guide to SWOT Analysis:
Table of contents
What is a SWOT analysis?

A SWOT analysis is a technique used to determine and define your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats - SWOT.

SWOT analyses can be applied to an entire company or organization, or individual projects within a single department. Most commonly, SWOT analyses are used at the organizational level to determine how closely a business is aligned with its growth trajectories and success benchmarks, but they can also be used to ascertain how well a particular project - such as an online advertising campaign - is performing according to initial projections.

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.

Breaking down the SWOT analysis definition

We know that SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats - but what does each of these elements mean? Let's take a look at each element individually.

Strengths

The first element of a SWOT analysis is Strengths.

Things your company does well

Qualities that separate you from your competitors

Internal resources such as skilled, knowledgeable staff

Tangible assets such as intellectual property, capital, proprietary technologies, etc.

As you've probably guessed, this element addresses things that your company or project does especially well. This could be something intangible, such as your company's brand attributes, or something more easily defined such as the unique selling proposition of a particular product line. It could also be your people, your literal human resources: strong leadership, or a great engineering team.

Weaknesses

Once you've figured out your strengths, it's time to turn that critical self-awareness on your weaknesses.

Things your company lacks

Things your competitors do better than you

Resource limitations

Unclear unique selling proposition

What's holding your business or project back? This element can include organizational challenges like a shortage of skilled people and financial or budgetary limitations.

This element of a SWOT analysis may also include weaknesses in relation to other companies in your industry, such as the lack of a clearly defined USP in a crowded market.

Opportunities

Next up is Opportunities.

Underserved markets for specific products

Few competitors in your area

Emerging needs for your products or services

Press/media coverage of your company

Can't keep up with the volume of leads being generated by your marketing team? That's an opportunity. Is your company developing an innovative new idea that will open up new markets or demographics? That's another opportunity.

In short, this element of a SWOT analysis covers everything you could do to improve sales, grow as a company, or advance your organization's mission.

Threats

The final element of a SWOT analysis is Threats - everything that poses a risk to either your company itself or its likelihood of success or growth.

Emerging competitors

Changing regulatory environment

Negative press/media coverage

Changing customer attitudes toward your company

This could include things like emerging competitors, changes in regulatory law, financial risks, and virtually everything else that could potentially jeopardize the future of your company or project.

SWOT analysis internal and external factors

The four elements above are common to all SWOT analyses. However, many companies further compartmentalize these elements into two distinct subgroups: Internal and External.

Internal factors

Typically, Strengths and Weaknesses are considered internal factors, in that they are the result of organizational decisions under the control of your company or team. A high churn rate, for example, would be categorized as a weakness, but improving a high churn rate is still within your control, making it an internal factor.

External factors

Similarly, emerging competitors would be categorized as a threat in a SWOT analysis, but since there's very little you can do about this, this makes it an external factor. This is why you may have seen SWOT analyses referred to as Internal-External Analyses or IE matrices.

Subcategorizing your four primary elements into Internal and External factors isn't necessarily critical to the success of your SWOT analysis, but it can be helpful in determining your next move or evaluating the degree of control you have over a given problem or opportunity.

Now that we know what each of the elements of a SWOT analysis means, let's take a look at how to go about creating and conducting a SWOT analysis.

How to do a SWOT analysis

You can get the full experience in our video below, and this entire post is dedicated to answering that question, but for simplicity's sake, here's how to do a SWOT analysis:

1. Gather your team together-ideally bring candy.

2. Set up your quadrants-on a whiteboard or projector (perhaps using our template).

3. Start with strengths-ask the below list of questions.

4. Follow suit with weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

5. Organize the information collected into a neat and tidy document.

6. Send out to the team with notes.

7. Organize a second meeting to come up with action items and owners.

SWOT analysis questions

Like feature-benefit matrices, there are several ways to conduct a SWOT analysis. However, regardless of how you choose to structure your analysis, we need to start by asking a series of questions. Here is a breakdown of the questions you should seek to answer when performing your SWOT analysis.

Strengths questions

Let's take our first element, Strengths, for example. To determine what your strengths are as an organization, you could begin by asking some of the following questions:

1. What do your customers love about your company or product(s)?

2. What does your company do better than other companies in your industry?

3. What are your most positive brand attributes?

4. What's your unique selling proposition?

5. What resources do you have at your disposal that your competitors do not?

By answering these questions, you'll be in great shape to start identifying and listing your organization's strengths.
Positive brand attributes associated with WordStream, as identified by our customers
Weakness questions

We can use the same principle to determine your company's weaknesses:

What do your customers dislike about your company or product(s)?

What problems or complaints are often mentioned in your negative reviews?

Why do your customers cancel or churn?

What could your company do better?

What are your most negative brand attributes?

What are the biggest obstacles/challenges in your current sales funnel?

What resources do your competitors have that you do not?

You may find that determining the strengths and weaknesses of your organization or project is considerably easier or takes less time than figuring out the opportunities and threats facing your company. This is because, as we said earlier, these are internal factors. External factors, on the other hand, may require more effort and rely upon more data, as these are often beyond your immediate sphere of influence.

Opportunities questions

Identifying opportunities and threats may require you to conduct in-depth competitive intelligence research about what your competitors are up to, or the examination of wider economic or business trends that could have an impact on your company. That's not to say that opportunities and threats cannot be internal, however; you may discover opportunities and threats based solely on the strengths and weaknesses of your company. Some possible questions you could ask to identify potential opportunities might include:

How can we improve our sales/customer onboarding/customer support processes?

What kind of messaging resonates with our customers?

How can we further engage our most vocal brand advocates?

Are we allocating departmental resources effectively?

Is there budget, tools, or other resources that we're not leveraging to full capacity?

Which advertising channels exceeded our expectations - and why?

Threat questions

When it comes to threats, you could certainly begin by asking a series of questions like those above. However, it's often quite easy to come up with a list of potential threats facing your business or project without posing questions beforehand. This could include "branded" threats such as emerging or established competitors, broader threats such as changing regulatory environments and market volatility, or even internal threats such as high staff turnover that could threaten or derail current growth.

What is PEST analysis?

While we're on the topic of internal versus external factors, I wanted to mention a tangential but entirely separate type of analysis closely relevant to SWOT analyses, known as a PEST analysis.

Earlier, I mentioned that external factors such as changing regulatory policies and market volatility could be considered threats in a standard SWOT analysis. However, despite their importance, challenges like this are often highly nuanced and driven by dozens or hundreds of individual factors. This can place them beyond the scope or intent of a typical SWOT analysis. This is why many companies also conduct PEST analyses.

This type of analysis is not what an exterminator does upon arriving at a roach-infested tenement. Rather, a PEST analysis functions very similarly to a SWOT analysis, only they're concerned with four external factors:

Pros of PEST analysis

One of the main reasons it's worth looking at PEST analyses is because many of the factors that could end up in a PEST matrix could also be relevant to the Opportunities and Threats in our SWOT analysis. The kind of political and economic turmoil we've seen in the United States during the past year, for example, could very well pose legitimate and serious threats to many businesses (as well as some opportunities), but these kinds of obstacles tend to be much more complicated than the opportunities and threats you'd see in most SWOT analyses, given their broader scale and often-complex underlying factors.
Image via Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue/Hofstra University
Cons of PEST analysis

Obstacles identified in a typical PEST analysis also tend to be on much longer timeframes - it's a lot easier and quicker to try and overcome internal challenges like high staff turnover than it is to wait and see if the economy picks up (or if the bubble will burst again). That's why many larger companies conduct both SWOT and PEST analyses simultaneously - the SWOT analysis provides them with more immediate, potentially actionable roadmaps, whereas PEST analyses can be highly valuable when it comes to formulating longer-term plans and business strategies.

Benefits of SWOT analysis for small businesses

If you're a marketer or small-business owner, you might be wondering if SWOT analyses are practical or even feasible for smaller companies and organizations. Although there is definitely a resource overhead involved in the creation of a SWOT analysis, there are many benefits in doing so, even for the smallest of companies.

Get a bird's eye view: For one, conducting a comprehensive SWOT analysis provides a unique opportunity to gain greater insight into how your business operates. It's all too easy to get lost in the weeds of the day-to-day workings of your company, and conducting a SWOT analysis allows you to take a broader, bird's eye view of your business and the position it occupies in your industry.

Improve specific campaigns and projects. 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.

Here's an example of a project SWOT analysis:

Develop tangible roadmaps. 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 and other mid- to long-term strategic planning.

A full SWOT analysis example

So, now we know what each element of a SWOT analysis is concerned with and the kinds of exploratory questions we can ask to get the ball rolling, it's time to actually get to work and create your SWOT analysis.

To illustrate how it works, we'll create our own SWOT analysis example: a family-owned restaurant, with a single location, operating in an urban area.

Here's the SWOT analysis example based on our fictional restaurant:

As you can see, this matrix format allows you to quickly and easily identify the various elements you've included in your analysis.

Strengths examples

Excellent, well-trafficked location

Good reputation in local community

Seasonal menu, locally sourced.

Weakness examples

Higher costs than comparable chain restaurants

Single location means limited reach

Modest advertising budget

Not currently using food delivery apps/technology

Opportunity examples

Growing interest in/support for locally sourced ingredients

Seasonal menu keeps things fresh and interesting

Potential growth via food delivery apps/technology

Threat examples

Intensifying competition from established chain restaurants

Uncertain economic environment

Rising cost of ingredients

SWOT analysis example: Acting on your results

So, you've finally got your hands on a completed SWOT matrix. You've identified internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats. You've begun to see your company in a whole new light.

Now what?

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. Let's take a look how this works.

1. Harness your strengths

One of the best things about the strengths you identified in your SWOT analysis is that you're already doing them.

In our example above, the restaurant's location, reputation, and seasonal menu are all strengths. This tells the fictitious company that it should continue to experiment with its popular seasonal menu. It also tells the company it should continue to develop and nurture the strong relationships with its regular customers that have strengthened the restaurant's reputation in the community.

Essentially, acting upon your business' strengths consists of "do more of what you're already good at."

2. Shore up your weaknesses

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.

However, that's not to say all hope is lost. It might be harder for our example business to compete with a chain, but there are plenty of other ways small companies can be more competitive - such as by developing strong, meaningful relationships with customers, which was not only one of the company's strengths, but also something chain restaurants simply cannot offer.

3. Seize opportunities

The Opportunities section of your SWOT analysis is by far the most actionable, and that's by design. By identifying opportunities by evaluating your organization's strengths, you should have a ready-made list of targets to aim for.

In the example above, increasing consumer appetites for ethically produced, locally grown ingredients is a major opportunity. However, our restaurateurs cannot rest on their laurels - there's still work to be done. 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.

It's also important to avoid hubris or complacency in your opportunities. 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.

Every business' opportunities will differ, but it's vital that you create a clearly defined roadmap for capitalizing upon the opportunities you've identified, whether they be internal or external.

4. Mitigate threats

Anticipating and mitigating the threats identified in your SWOT analysis may be the most difficult challenge you'll face in this scenario, primarily because threats are typically external factors; there's only so much you can do to mitigate the potential damage of factors beyond your control.

Every threat, and the appropriate reaction to that threat, is different. Regardless of the specific threats you've identified in your SWOT analysis, responding to and monitoring those threats should be among your very top priorities, irrespective of the degree of control you have over those threats.

In the example above, all three threats are particularly challenging. To compete with the prices of its chain competitors, our restaurateurs may be forced to either compromise on their values to secure cheaper ingredients, or willingly cut into their profit margins to remain competitive. Similarly, economic uncertainty is virtually impossible to fully mitigate, making it a persistent threat to the stability of our example restaurant business.

In some SWOT analyses, there may be some overlap between your opportunities and threats. For example, in the analysis above, the popularity of locally sourced ingredients was identified as an opportunity, and heightened competition was identified as a threat. In this example, highlighting the restaurant's relationships with local farmers - further reinforcing the restaurant's commitment to the local community and regional economy - may be an effective way for our restaurateurs to overcome the threat posed by the increasingly desperate chain restaurants vying for their customers.

When compiling the results of your SWOT analysis, be sure to look for areas of crossover like this and see if it's possible to seize an opportunity and reduce a threat at the same time.

Free SWOT Analysis template

Ready to put it all into practice for your own business? Here's our free, editable, SWOT analysis template.

It's a Google Sheet so you can add and remove rows, edit and answer the questions, paste into a slide deck, and more.

We've also thrown a blank one in there too:

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How to Do a SWOT Analysis (Examples & Free Template!)

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What is a SWOT analysis? With this guide, learn how to do a SWOT analysis with a real small business example and an editable, free SWOT analysis template.