🔍 What is a SWOT analysis?
Big Idea: SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It's a simple but powerful framework that helps a business understand its current position and plan for the future. Think of it as a health check for the business! 🩺
Internal vs external factors
- Strengths and Weaknesses are INTERNAL — things the business can control
- Opportunities and Threats are EXTERNAL — things happening outside the business
S + W = inside the business (you can change them). O + T = outside the business (you must respond to them). 🏢↔️🌍
📋 The four elements
[Diagram: swot-grid] - Available in full study mode
💪 Strengths
- What the business does well
- Strong brand, loyal customers, skilled staff, good finances, unique products
- Internal advantages that give a competitive edge
😓 Weaknesses
- What the business does badly or lacks
- Poor cash flow, outdated technology, weak brand, high staff turnover
- Internal problems that hold the business back
🌟 Opportunities
- Favourable external factors the business could exploit
- Growing market, new technology, competitor weakness, government incentives
- Things happening outside that could help the business grow
⚠️ Threats
- External factors that could damage the business
- New competitors, economic downturn, changing laws, rising costs
- Things happening outside that could hurt performance
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✅❌ Benefits and limitations
- ✅ Simple and easy to understand
- ✅ Encourages businesses to think about both internal and external factors
- ✅ Useful starting point for strategic planning
- ✅ Highlights areas for improvement and growth
- ❌ Can be subjective — different people may disagree on what's a strength or weakness
- ❌ Doesn't prioritise — all factors look equally important
- ❌ Static — shows a snapshot, not a dynamic picture
- ❌ Doesn't tell you WHAT to do — just identifies the situation