SWOT Analysis: Suggesting Key Factors in Each Area

SWOT Analysis is one of the most widely recognized and used business strategic tools in the past decades. Even if you haven’t used it yet, you must have heard about it thousands of times in classes, workshops, or brainstorming sessions.

Let’s dive into what makes SWOT Analysis so powerful and how to apply it effectively.

What is SWOT Analysis

SWOT was developed by Albert Humphrey in the 1960s during his work at the Stanford Research Institute.

It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This framework helps organizations and individuals identify internal factors (Strengths and Weaknesses) and external factors (Opportunities and Threats) to formulate effective strategies.

The essence of SWOT lies in its structured approach to situational analysis:

• Strengths: What advantages do you or your organization have? (Internal)
• Weaknesses: Where are the gaps or limitations? (Internal)
• Opportunities: What external conditions could benefit you? (External)
• Threats: What external conditions could harm you? (External)

Whether you’re crafting a business strategy, evaluating a project, or planning your personal growth, SWOT Analysis provides the clarity you need to succeed.

Variations of SWOT: Exploring Combinations

SWOT becomes more insightful when you explore the interplay between its components. Here are four combinations that add depth to your analysis:

1. SO (Strengths + Opportunities): How can your strengths help you seize opportunities?
2. WO (Weaknesses + Opportunities): Can opportunities help you overcome weaknesses?
3. ST (Strengths + Threats): How can you use strengths to counter threats?
4. WT (Weaknesses + Threats): How can you minimize weaknesses to mitigate threats?

These combinations guide strategy formulation, encouraging proactive and targeted actions.

Defining Key Factors in Each Area

Many resources explain what SWOT is, but the real challenge lies in correctly identifying the factors within each quadrant.

Here are some practical examples to help you define each area. You can definitely use this as a checklist while conducting SWOT analysis, it will help you identify the key areas, and most importantly, prevent missing

Strengths

• Capabilities
• Competitive advantage
• Resources, assets and people
• Experience, knowledge and data
• Financial reserves, returns
• Marketing, reach
• Innovative aspects
• Location, geographical
• Price, value and quality
• Processes, systems, IT, communications
• Advantages of proposition

Weaknesses

• Lack of capabilities
• Gap in competitive strengths
• Reputation, presence and reach
• Timescales, deadlines and pressures
• Financials
• Cash flow, cash drain
• Continuity, supply chain
• Effects on core activities
• Reliability of data, plan and project
• Management cover & succession

Opportunities

• Market developments
• Industry or lifestyle trends
• Innovation and technology development
• Global influences
• Market dimensions, horizontal, vertical
• Target markets
• Geographical import, export
• Major contracts, tactics and surprises
• Business/Product development

Threats

• Political and economical effects
• Legislative effects
• Environmental effects
• Competitive intentions
• Market demand
• Innovation in technologies, services and ideas
• New contracts and partners
• Loss of resources
• Obstacles to be faced
• Poor management strategies
• Economic conditions in domestic and abroad

Conducting a SWOT for HR

SWOT analysis is also applicable to HR projects. It is also designed to evaluate almost anything, whether long or short-term initiatives.

HR projects could range from designing recruitment processes for interns and apprentices, implementing team-bonding activities to executing an employee referral program.

Here are the questions when conducting a SWOT analysis for HR projects:

Strengths

• What are the benefits of putting up this HR project?
• What advantages do we have in the department/organization to make this project successful?
• What makes this project unique compared to other existing projects within the company or HR projects of other organizations?

Weaknesses

• What are the perceived weaknesses when planning and implementing this project?
• What resources are essential to actualizing this project that the HR department doesn’t have?
• What are potential internal obstacles (from other departments) when implementing this project?

Opportunities

• Does this project have the opportunity to help other HR processes?
• Can this particular project be replicated in another HR project?
• Can this project be replicated in other departments?

Threats

• What external factors can hinder this HR project?
• What are your competitors doing that can hinder your HR project?
• Is there legislation or regulation that could affect your HR project?

Template

Get into the real practice and start assessing the work now.

The worksheet is available in the Templates.