SWOT Analysis is a structure of assessment created to highlight a company’s or individual’s competitive position. SWOT is an acronym, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Each section can be directly applied to where a company stands and can be used as a metric of evaluation.
The SWOT analysis structure is beneficial as it allows you to easily and effectively identify areas where an organisation, project, product or individual is doing well, while also taking any potential weaknesses or development areas into account.
For the example below, we will assume we are analysing a company:
- Strengths: This section highlights what is being done well and how the company stands in comparison to its competition. Strengths can also be positive elements that are perceived by individuals outside the company, such as your clients or prospective customers.
- Weaknesses: Where the company falls behind in comparison to its direct competitors. This section highlights the areas there are opportunity for improvements as well as future development areas. As with strengths, these can also be areas perceived by those external to the company.
- Opportunities: This section relates to where the company could potentially benefit, this generally comes from external factors. For example, this could be the opportunity to ride on the success of something which has gone viral. This can also relate to any future increase in demand for what your company has to offer.
- Threats: With threats, you analyse the external factors that may be detrimental to the company. As they are external factors, this is something that the company is unable to completely plan for.
In parallel to opportunities, threats can also relate to the future demand, for example a decrease in demand may require your company adjusting the products or services to accommodate this change.