Swot is the acronym for Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It is a tool, rather an approach to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your business and uncover the potential opportunities and threats that can help devise careful strategies for the future.
A swot analysis examines both, the internal factors and external factors. Meaning, it is an analysis of what’s going on inside the organization and which factors can harm or benefit the organization from the outside.
Strengths:
Typically, strengths are the internal factors that can be controlled and managed. Strategies may include using strengths for better outcomes, and lower risks. for example: team experience to do a project or knowledge in a certain area of work.
Weaknesses:
It also includes internal factors that could impact the success of the organization altogether. Strategies could include avoidance or mitigating through identified opportunities as an action plan. For example, only a single member of a team who holds the knowledge or experience of a certain task assigned could potentially risk the successful outcome of a project.
Opportunities:
Usually, they are considered external factors that could contribute to the success of an organization. It is important to create and implement strategies that could exploit an identified opportunity. For example, there is a marketing event scheduled for December which can be exploited to announce or launch a new product in the market.
Threats:
Also includes external factors which, if not managed, can impact the organization. Strategies should be created to avoid the potential threats to make sure it doesn’t have a negative impact on the business. For example, you’re using a type of tech that requires regulatory approval, which if not gotten in time, can affect product launch.
