What is SWOT Analysis?

Today we are going to talk about How to Conduct SWOT Analysis. SWOT Analysis can be defined as a study undertaken by an organization to understand its strengths and weaknesses, as well as its opportunities and threats. Organizations conduct SWOT Analysis in order to be aware of all the factors that have the potential to affect organizational goals either positive or negative. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats and therefore SWOT Analysis is a method for evaluating these four elements of your business.

You can use SWOT Analysis to the great advantage of your organization to get the most out of what you have. And you can minimize the chances of failure by appreciating your shortcomings and eliminating the dangers that could inadvertently trap you in any other situation.

Better still, you can start developing a method that sets you apart from your competitors so you can compete effectively in your market.

How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis?

When evaluating a company’s performance, it is important to have techniques to conduct a thorough and systematic analysis. The SWOT evaluation is a device that any executive should know how to use in business.

A SWOT assessment is used to detect Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats regarding the organization, unit, group or product, service, or software you are responsible for. It allows you to focus on specific areas and find moves that can help you build strengths, limit or eliminate weaknesses, maximize opportunities, and face threats.

These reviews are usually done with a group and are used to provide information for a method or strategic plan. The method is pretty easy and includes the steps below:

10 Steps to Conduct SWOT Analysis

1. Use a Facilitator (or a Business Mentor) for SWOT Analysis

Using a facilitator will expedite the analysis process if the facilitator is a neutral person who is free from bias. 

2. Conduct a Brainstorming Session

Conduct a brainstorming session and get thoughts from the participants. Areas of strength for an organization or unit include management capabilities, decision-making capabilities, innovation, productivity, quality, service, efficiency, technological processes, etc. Write all instructions on the blackboard.

Some ideas can also appear in more than one list. For instance, an organization or unit may have both strengths and weaknesses in the same area. However, the objective is to detect as many ideas as possible on the blackboard. The assessment can be done later.

3. Combine the Same Items

Decide on the objective of your SWOT analysis and walk through all ideas written on the blackboard and detect similar ideas. Even if you have made every effort to avoid duplicate inputs, there will be some overlapping thoughts. Combine the duplication factors by asking the participants which entries can be combined under the same topic. Do not make over-consolidation of many ideas under the joint topic. But try to make simplification as much as possible.

4. Make Clarifications if Needed

Walkthrough the list and make clarifications if needed  It is worth repeating the meaning of each object before discussing it. Continue to simply describe the strengths now and prevent the crew from talking about solutions rather than identifying.

5. Identify the Top Strengths

Sometimes the top strengths are obvious and there is no need to go deeper. In this case, test for consensus. On the other hand, sometimes it is difficult to detect the top strengths. In that case, give participants time to choose their most important issues one by one. At this stage of the conducting SWOT analysis, let each team member cast a vote for each item and identify top strengths with this method.

6. Summarize Strengths

Once the top strengths are decided, take a second to talk about how the team defines each. Summarize each definition on the blackboard. At the end of this step, you will have a clear, agreed view of the strengths of your organization or unit.

7. Repeat the Same Processes for Weaknesses

At this stage, do the same exercises described in steps 2 to 6 and identify and summarize the key weaknesses of your organization or unit you need to address in your SWOT analysis.

8. Repeat the Same Processes for Opportunities

At this stage, do the same exercises described in steps 2 to 6 to learn about the top opportunities your organization or unit should capture in the near future.

9. Repeat the Same Processes for Threats

Threats may be either internal or external for an organization. If business executives do not mitigate them, threats will kill their organizations. Consumer demand, Shifting business models, Global competition,  legislation, or regulations are some of the examples of external threats. Lack of vision, unengaged employees, brittleness, and stagnation are examples of internal threats for an organization. At this stage, do the same exercises described in steps 2 to 6 to detect and narrow down the list of top threats.

10. Develop a Plan

Develop your plan and strategies to deal with risks and decide to take actions to lower costs and develop mitigation plans.

Why Do You Need to Learn How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis?

Conducting a SWOT analysis is an extraordinary method to enhance the image of where you are and where you want to go. Following these steps provides a technique for you to successfully get results that will require and mobilize a team. When you complete, you have a higher perception of the internal and external facts that pass through your business venture or team, allowing you to take a course forward.

Try to increase the possibility of the occurrence of opportunities. For sure it is not easy because everything is not under your control. That’s why you need to learn how to conduct a SWOT analysis to recognize all the factors that have the potential to affect your objectives.

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