How to perform a SWOT analysis?
SWOT analysis is a tool that serves the purpose of strategy formulation and is used in business, project, or personal level analysis to assess Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Here are some tips on how to conduct an effective SWOT analysis:
Define the objective. First, it is vital to spell out the general purpose of a SWOT analysis. For what purpose are you here? It will determine how you compile and analyze your SWOT matrix so that you come up with the best strategy.
Gather key participants. Determine who should be involved in the SWOT analysis discussion. Ask as many people as possible, who have information about your company or project, different questions.
Conduct research & brainstorming. Identify competitors’ data which could influence the goal setting process. SWOT analyses – here, you will be given a set of lists containing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. SWOT analysis Strengths and weaknesses analysis look inside while Opportunities and Threats analysis looks outside.
Dichotomize objects into two categories and analyze them using a two by two grid. Now, place relevant items of SWOT analysis into four fields of the matrix you have constructed. The first quadrant, marked as ‘A’, corresponds to strengths, the second, marked as ‘B’, corresponds to weaknesses, the third, marked as ‘C’, corresponds to opportunities and the last, marked as ‘D’, corresponds to threats.
Prioritize key SWOT items. Out of each of the 5 quadrants, which 2-5 appear to offer the most benefit and have the largest potential? Out of these, pay attention to these ones.
Analyze & interpret data. The next question that arises is: what did you identify in your SWOT analysis? Which quadrants dominate? What can be done to take advantage of strength, avoid or reduce weakness, capitalize on an opportunity and deal with threat?
Develop strategies and objectives. From your SWOT analysis, you should come up with clear objectives and effective plans of action based on this assessment. It is critical to recognize that SWOT analysis is not a stand-alone activity; it is an information-gathering tool used in strategic planning.
Monitor and update. It is also important to look back at your SWOT matrix on some frequency if only to discover that some factors have changed. Modify strategies and objectives to reflect this scenario.
To obtain meaningful results, it is more effective to follow some predefined structures for each step of the SWOT analysis process in the context of business planning. When analyzing your data, ensure that you scale your effort to the resources that you have available.