SWOT analysis

In one paragraph

A grid of what you are good at, what you are not, what is out there to go after, and what could hurt you.

Strengths and weaknesses are internal — things about your business you control. Opportunities and threats are external — things in the market you do not.

That internal/external split is the part people get wrong. 'Competitors are cheaper' is a threat, not a weakness. 'Our costs are high' is the weakness.

Making it actually useful

A SWOT that stops at four lists is a description, not an analysis. The value is in reading the boxes against each other:

Which strength can we point at which opportunity? Which weakness does a threat make dangerous, and therefore urgent? Which strength protects us from which threat? Which weakness stops us taking an opportunity we would otherwise want?

Those four questions turn four lists into a to-do list. Without them SWOT is a wall display.

How to actually use it

• Limit yourself to three items per box. A list of twelve strengths means you have not prioritised, and everything after the third is padding.
• Make every item specific enough to be arguable. 'Good customer service' is not a strength unless you can say how you know.

Where it breaks down

• It produces unranked lists with no weighting, so it can make a trivial threat look equal to an existential one.
• It is a snapshot with no time dimension, and it is only as honest as the person filling it in — which is why most SWOTs have long strength columns.

If you are being examined on it

Get the internal/external split right, then say what the business should *do*. Marks come from the recommendation, not the grid.

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