SWOT Analysis Guide

Developed by Lydia Tsintzou

Abstract

SWOT consists a strategic management tool (Helms & Nixon, 2010), mainly used to identify risks during the data analysis process (Project Management Institute, 2017). The acronym of the 4-box strategy development framework stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and is possible to be applied to different industries, such as commerce, production, planning and voluntary organizations (Sarsby, 2016). The first emergence of the term in the literature is traced back to 1960 to investigate what went wrong with corporate planning, funded by the Fortune 500 companies while creating a new system to support management change. Over the past decade, SWOT research has focused on analyzing organizations for recommended strategic actions.

As with every tool or technique, SWOT has also its advantages and limitations. On the one hand, it is an interactional analysis technique that makes macro evaluations possible, in a road from the general perspective and solutions to the more detailed, uncovering opportunities. On the other hand, it has been criticized as prone to bias with questioned validity due to the quantity of different identified factors or failure to easily include dynamic and structural changes in a world based on competition.

The following article aims to investigate the process of conducting a SWOT analysis through a literature review, in order to present a short guide for its implementation. By analyzing the potentials of this tool’s usage, some practical implications are presented, mainly relevant to the combination of SWOT with other strategic planning tools. In addition, the author’s reflections are presented in an attempt to discuss the value and potential improvements in the use of the tool.

Introduction

Strategic planning is a set of concepts, procedures and tools to be used in order for a company/organization to achieve its goals (Bryson, 2003) and is a function of all managers at all levels of an organization (Steiner, 1979). While being a process that deals with the futurity of current decisions, it is also a bulwark to support strategic management (Steiner, 1979).

Strategic management is a continuous process of an organization to formulate and evaluate decisions and plans to achieve a competitive advantage by being proactive (David, 2003; Dyer et al., 2017). The strategic management process is a sequential set of analyses and choices which includes the development of a vision and a mission, translated into a set of long-term objectives and followed by a strategy crafting to achieve the targeted performance. The next steps are the strategy’s implementation and execution as well as the necessary performance evaluation to review the situation and initiate corrective adjustments (Preble, 2003).

Shedding light to the step of formulating a strategy, the implementation of a thorough external and internal analysis is involved. By conducting an external analysis, the organization is under a process of identifying potential threats and opportunities, focusing especially on the competition and customer analysis, respectively (Dyer et al., 2017). On the other hand, the internal analysis supports the organization to identify its strengths and weaknesses as well as its competitive (dis)advantages. The combined results are often summarized in a SWOT analysis, which consists a strategic management tool, mainly used to identify risks during the data analysis process (Dyer et al., 2017; Helms & Nixon, 2010; Project Management Institute, 2017).

Based on the direct connection of SWOT with strategic management processes, an important notation is that the implementation of the tool does not lead itself to the development of a strategy (Sarsby, 2016). An analysis interpretation as well as decision making, consist of independent steps to be followed by the stakeholders.