Organising Information: The SWOT Analysis

Below are the instructions, including a comprehensive list of general questions for each quadrant.  Adapt, edit and add questions to suit your organisation, category, industry or situation.

Instructions for the SWOT Analysis

Step 1:  Determine the business objective.

Why are you doing it?  What do you hope it helps accomplish?

Step 2:  Determine your internal attributes:  Strengths and Weaknesses.

Use the following questions to determine the Strengths (the existing internal assets you have or own already) and Weaknesses (the existing internal liabilities, problems, issues or debts you have) which are directly associated with the objective or goal states in Step 1.

To do so, you may need to conduct your research

For example, of your business, an industry, a market.  You might conduct actual market research.  Your research might be informal, getting a range of opinions and perspectives by talking to people yourself, such as employees, supervisors, clients, actual or potential customers, business partners.  No matter how you gather your research, don’t judge the information.  Try to prove yourself wrong as much as you try to prove yourself right.  Here are some questions to help you frame, gather and consider your information.

Internal Questions of Strengths and Weaknesses

• • Areas in which we excel?
  • Leading capabilities?
  • Resources, assets?
  • Products, services?
  • Price, value and quality?
  • Intellectual property?
  • Skills, talents, knowledge of our employees?
  • Key areas of differentiation?
  • Unique selling point?
  • Trends to capitalise upon?
  • Competitive advantage or strength?
  • Experience, case studies, best practices?
  • Data, information, insights?
  • Equipment, logistics, operations, supply chain?
  • Financial performance, cash flow, reserves, returns?
  • Brand: research, awareness, loyalty of customers or audience?
  • Innovation?
  • Location and geographical?
  • Management: breadth, depth, continuity, stability, succession?
  • Proprietary methodologies, processes, systems?
  • IT, communications?
  • Reputation, marketing, presence and reach?
  • Vision, mission, philosophy and values?
  • Employee retention, recruitment?
  • Culture, morale, commitment?

Step 3:  Determine the external attributes:  Opportunities and Threats.

Use the following questions to determine the Opportunities (external trends, circumstances, events) and the Threats (external problems, issues or debts) which may influence your objective or goal in Step 1.

External Questions of Opportunities and Threats

• • New areas of demand?
  • New markets (vertical or horizontal, niche)?
  • New technologies, products, services, ideas (ours, theirs)?
  • Cultural advantages?
  • Lifestyle influences?
  • Influences of seasons, weather, fashion, culture?
  • Technology advantages, developments, innovations?
  • Legislation, regulation, political environment?
  • Environmental effects?
  • Market developments?
  • Competitors (existing v. new, real v. perceived)?
  • Industry or category trends?
  • Influences at geographical levels (global, regional, local)?
  • Import, export?
  • Joint ventures, partnerships, alliances, associations, agencies?
  • Marketing tactics: digital, ambush, direct, communications?
  • Awards, accreditations, qualifications, certifications?
  • Third-party data, information and research?
  • IT developments?
  • Market demand?
  • Vital contracts and partners?
  • Staff: gains or losses?
  • Economic environment (home, abroad, regional)?

Step 4:  Analyse the quadrants,

Once the key points of information are sorted into the appropriate quadrant, analyse each area using the questions listed below.  Again, tailor the questions to suit your needs.

How can we leverage or capitalise on each Strength or Opportunity?

• • Can individual Strengths be combined to make them stronger?
  • Can individual Opportunities be combined to do the same?
  • Can any Strength be matched to an Opportunity to do the same?
  • Can learnings from one Strength be applied or transferred to another?  (For ex: from one department to another)
  • How can we exploit or benefit from each Strength/Opportunity?

How can we improve a Weakness or Threat?

• • How do we address, eliminate or neutralise each Weakness or Threat?
  • How can we mitigate or minimise each Weakness or Threat?
  • Can any Strength/Opportunity be used to address a specific Weakness/Threat?

Step 5:  Translate any defined “task” from Step 4 into either a strategy or an idea.

What next?

Once you get to the Analysis part – Question #4 & #5 above – the three additional steps may be necessary to extract further insights.

1. Are your questions actually finding insights?

To the list of questions above, add:

• So what?
• Who cares?
• Yes, and?

Anyone who’s developed a SWOT knows it’s easy to dive so deeply into the research that honesty, objectivity and realism can float away.

If the questions themselves don’t spur a hard look at SWOT, try this step.  Take a literal and figurative step back from the analysis, and ask yourself and/or the team:

• What is the single message the SWOT is telling us to do?  Or not do?
• What was surprising?
• What turned out to be a bigger (____) than we thought?
• What did not turn out to be as big an (____) as we thought?
• What didn’t we expect?
• What did we expect, but didn’t see it from the analysis – and why?

2.  Brainstorm tasks and turn them into action steps.

The biggest issue with a SWOT analysis is that there is no action step. Consider “finishing” a SWOT by:

• Brainstorming tasks
• Turning tasks into action steps or tactics

3.  Give action steps detail.

Action plans are typically comprised of several elements.

• What are the next steps?
• Who is responsible?  Also, do we need to bring in others?  Who and when?
• What resources are needed?  In particular, what’s the budget?
• What’s the timeline?
• What are the deliverables?