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SWOT Analysis

Learn more about SWOT analysis.

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) describes a SWOT analysis as:

… a tool for analysing the market position of an organisation. It was developed in the 1960s as a result of research carried out at Stanford Research Institute into the failure of corporate planning methods.
(CMI, 2017)
SWOT stands for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. When carrying out a SWOT analysis, an organisation poses questions designed to assess its capabilities, explore opportunities open to it, and identify actual and potential threats to its success.
Dibb et al. describe how the analysis is applied:
Strengths and weaknesses – examine the company’s position and capabilities, or that of its product, vis-à-vis customers, competitor activity, environmental trends and company resources. The second half of the SWOT takes this review further to examine the opportunities and threats identified, and to make recommendations that feed into the organisation’s strategy.
(Dibb et al., 2019)
Using this analysis tool to consider the environment often reveals potential opportunities and threats. Understanding and then responding to these opportunities and threats enables a business to make the most of the environmental context in which it operates. If appropriate action can be taken a potential threat can be transformed into an opportunity. Using a SWOT analysis can provide a thorough understanding of an organisation’s status within its environment.

Your task

According to Dibb et al.:
The SWOT analysis is little more than a set of checklists, but it is a popular tool for analysing the capabilities of an organization in terms of strengths and weaknesses, and for linking identified opportunities and threats to these capabilities.
(Dibb et al., 2019, p. 67)
What weaknesses do you see the SWOT analysis as having?

References

Chartered Management Institute. (2017). Models – SWOT analysis organisational. Web link
Please note that you will need to be registered with the CMI to access this resource

Dibb, S., Simkin, L., Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. C. (2019). Marketing concepts & strategies (8th ed.). Cengage Learning.

© Coventry University. CC BY-NC 4.0
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