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By Patrick Mayoh
The term SWOT (strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) is probably one of the most used acronym in management circles. This framework was introduced between the late 1960s and the early 1970s by a management consultancy from the Stanford Research Institute ;Albert S Humpfrey.
When properly used and implemented by managers Swot has the potential of providing focus and a clear sense of purpose about the strategy an organization should pursue in a given market or industry. It provides clear indications on all the factors likely to affect an organization both from the inside-out and outside-in perspectives.
The SWOT model will help an organization match its internal capabilities and resources with the needs and factors inherent to a specific business environment at a particular period in time.
Of importance though, is the fact that the SWOT model will only deliver the expected results when the objectives have been clearly defined prior to embarking on the exercise. As such an organization in the beauty industry could deliberately choose to attract middle age female customers and as such the purpose of the SWOT in this sense will be to identify those internal factors which when matched to external forces allow the organization to critically assess the validity and pertinence of its strategy. According to Van Assen et al (2009) "the model can be used as an instrument for devising and selecting strategy and is equally applicable in any decision making situation, provided the desired objective has been clearly defined".
It goes without saying that the model has been widely discussed and used in numerous business settings and personal situations. Therefore this article attempts to provide a framework centered around some of the most important questions business managers and their team have to reflect on during the SWOT exercise. Although the questions pertaining to SWOT depends on the specific objectives, therefore the questions listed down are just meant to provide an overview of those elements managers have to take into consideration when devising a strategy.
The term SWOT (strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) is probably one of the most used acronym in management circles. This framework was introduced between the late 1960s and the early 1970s by a management consultancy from the Stanford Research Institute ;Albert S Humpfrey.
When properly used and implemented by managers Swot has the potential of providing focus and a clear sense of purpose about the strategy an organization should pursue in a given market or industry. It provides clear indications on all the factors likely to affect an organization both from the inside-out and outside-in perspectives.
The SWOT model will help an organization match its internal capabilities and resources with the needs and factors inherent to a specific business environment at a particular period in time.
Of importance though, is the fact that the SWOT model will only deliver the expected results when the objectives have been clearly defined prior to embarking on the exercise. As such an organization in the beauty industry could deliberately choose to attract middle age female customers and as such the purpose of the SWOT in this sense will be to identify those internal factors which when matched to external forces allow the organization to critically assess the validity and pertinence of its strategy. According to Van Assen et al (2009) "the model can be used as an instrument for devising and selecting strategy and is equally applicable in any decision making situation, provided the desired objective has been clearly defined".
It goes without saying that the model has been widely discussed and used in numerous business settings and personal situations. Therefore this article attempts to provide a framework centered around some of the most important questions business managers and their team have to reflect on during the SWOT exercise. Although the questions pertaining to SWOT depends on the specific objectives, therefore the questions listed down are just meant to provide an overview of those elements managers have to take into consideration when devising a strategy.
Strengths:
What do customers like about our products, services and processes?
Why do competitors envy us?
What technological advantage(s) do we possess?
Why are we proud of our staff?
Which areas in our system best deliver efficiency to the organization?
Do we have enough resources (financial, human) to meet our objectives?
What can we best use our organizational architecture?
Weaknesses
Weaknesses
Why do customers complain about us?
In what areas are we outsmarted by competitors?
What technological advantage(s) should we acquire?
In what areas should we offer training to staff?
What resources do we need?
Which areas of our system should be optimized in our system?
What are areas of improvement in our architecture?
Opportunities
What recent or upcoming economic, cultural, political, technological trend can we take advantage
of?
Are our competitors experiencing difficulties we could take advantage of?
What can the future offer?
Threats
Are we experiencing problems our competitors are taking advantage of?
Does the future appear dim for us?
What recent or upcoming economic, cultural, political, technological should we be wary of?
References
References
Van Assen Marcel, Van Der Berg Gerben and Pietersma Paul (2009) Key Managements Models: the 60+ models every manager needs to know 2nd Ed Financial Times/Prentice Hall UK
TAM UK profile (2010) Albert S Humpfrey http://www.tamplc.com/Humphsprofile.htm Accessed on the 5th July 2010
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