Mastering SWOT and PESTLE analysis

In the previous step, we’ve spoken all about commercial awareness and a few methods to improve this.

In this section, I’ll introduce you to two other methods you can utilise to delve deeper into the organisation and identify how the organisation makes money, what customers want, and industry challenges (and more!). It’s a great way to demonstrate and further your understanding of the organisation, and you can sneak your learning into lots of stages of the recruitment process.

SWOT analysis

The first method is called SWOT – you might have done a SWOT analysis during school or university and know a little about it already. SWOT is an acronym that stands for:

• S – Strengths (things the organisation does well)
• W – Weaknesses (things the organisation could do better)
• O – Opportunities (external things that might positively affect the organisation)
• T – Threats (external things that might negatively affect the organisation)

It can be quite simple to complete and can give you great insight into an organisation to understand a lot more about it. You can find a link here to a typical SWOT grid.

PEST(LE) analysis

PEST(LE) is an additional analysis technique you can undertake when researching an organisation too. You’ll see that the ‘LE’ is in brackets – this is because sometimes you don’t need to use all 6 letters to get a grasp on the analysis. PESTLE stands for:

• P – Political
• E – Economic
• S – Social
• T – Technology
• L – Legal
• E – Environmental

These relate to the different kinds of external factors that might affect an organisation, both positively and negatively, and can help you to delve deeper into the context the organisation works in, as well as their services and clients. As a recent graduate, you might not think that you need to worry about the political, legal and environmental factors affecting an organisation. But this is where you can show that you’ve done more than just look at the organisation at a superficial level.

You can find an expanded Pestle table to review here.

Both of these analyses can be useful when researching what an organisation does, and coming up with ideas on how the organisation might develop or change in the future (which might come up during an assessment centre – more about those later!).

To give you an example, say you’re applying for a job at Red Bull on their graduate scheme. You probably only know a little bit about them, understanding that they are one of the frontrunners in Formula One and that they make energy drinks. To show that you understand the business model and needs, you undertake a SWOT analysis on them. This is what you find:

• Strengths – strong brand recognition (Formula One, Soapbox racing, Cliff diving, energy drink slogan ‘it gives you wings’); innovative marketing strategies (sponsoring events and sports)
• Weaknesses – narrow product range (only sells energy drinks, unlike competitors like Prime or PepsiCo/Coca Cola), high price point, brand associations can be confusing (are they a sports brand or consumer goods company?)
• Opportunities – diversification of product range (including new flavours, non-energy drink products)
• Threats – competition from other brands such as Monster and Prime; changing customer preferences (energy drinks seen as unhealthy)

You’re also applying for a graduate sustainability consultant role at the local environmental consultancy business Beyondly. You decide to undertake a PESTLE analysis of the business. This is what you find:

• Political – Increasing pressure on organisations to comply with net zero aspirations means Beyondly will benefit from looking to track their carbon footprint
• Economic – Organisations are encouraged to invest in sustainability efforts, meaning Beyondly’s services may become more valuable and demand for them may grow
• Social – Social pressure is encouraging organisations to be more wary of their carbon footprint and sustainability practices, which may widen Beyondly’s client base
• Technological – advancements in technology can be leveraged by both Beyondly and other organisations to improve their sustainability, which can both positively and negatively impact Beyondly – Beyondly can utilise this to help clients transition towards a circular economy, whilst other organisations might bring their carbon calculations in-house as they have the technology to do this
• Legal – Beyondly operates in a highly regulated space, and as these regulations tighten, Beyondly’s expertise will become even more valuable to organisations that don’t understand the ins and outs of sustainability and environmental legislation
• Environmental – The core mission of the business is to drive environmental sustainability by helping other businesses achieve net-zero targets. This focus on carbon management and sustainability is directly tied to global environmental goals Gaining insight into the organisation can influence your decision-making process related to your career – if in doing your research you find something that doesn’t align with your personal values or career goals, you can opt out of applying. By doing these analyses, it shows that you are interested in the organisation and have taken time to think about how you can influence and contribute to the organisation’s needs when in the role. You can put yourself in the shoes of someone in the organisation by using these methods!

Activity: Conduct a SWOT or PESTLE analysis

In your workbook, you’ll see an outline for a SWOT and PESTLE analysis. Use either method to research a business that you are interested in to prepare for applying to a role.