Access over 20 million homework & study documents

SWOT analysis template

Content type
User Generated
Type
Study Guide
Rating
Showing Page:
1/4
Dr.M.Ambashankar Strategy Management & New Realities
SWOT ANALYSIS
SWOT analysis is a simple framework for generating strategic
alternatives from a situation analysis. It is applicable to either the
corporate level or the business unit level and frequently appears in
marketing plans. SWOT (sometimes referred to as TOWS) stands for
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The SWOT
framework was described in the late 1960's by Edmund P. Learned, C.
Roland Christiansen, Kenneth Andrews, and William D. Guth in Business
Policy, Text and Cases (Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1969). The General
Electric Growth Council used this form of analysis in the 1980's. Because
it concentrates on the issues that potentially have the most impact, the
SWOT analysis is useful when a very limited amount of time is available
to address a complex strategic situation.
The following diagram shows how a SWOT analysis fits into a strategic
situation analysis.
Situation Analysis
/
\
Internal Analysis
External Analysis
/ \
/ \
Strengths Weaknesses
Opportunities Threats
|
SWOT Profile
The internal and external situation analysis can produce a large amount
of information, much of which may not be highly relevant. The SWOT
analysis can serve as an interpretative filter to reduce the information
to a manageable quantity of key issues. The SWOT analysis classifies
the internal aspects of the company as strengths or weaknesses and the
external situational factors as opportunities or threats. Strengths can
serve as a foundation for building a competitive advantage, and
weaknesses may hinder it. By understanding these four aspects of its
situation, a firm can better leverage its strengths, correct its
weaknesses, capitalize on golden opportunities, and deter potentially
devastating threats.

Sign up to view the full document!

lock_open Sign Up
Showing Page:
2/4
Dr.M.Ambashankar Strategy Management & New Realities
Internal Analysis
The internal analysis is a comprehensive evaluation of the internal
environment's potential strengths and weaknesses. Factors should be
evaluated across the organization in areas such as:
Company culture
Company image
Organizational structure
Key staff
Access to natural resources
Position on the experience curve
Operational efficiency
Operational capacity
Brand awareness
Market share
Financial resources
Exclusive contracts
Patents and trade secrets
The SWOT analysis summarizes the internal factors of the firm as a list
of strengths and weaknesses.
External Analysis
An opportunity is the chance to introduce a new product or service that
can generate superior returns. Opportunities can arise when changes
occur in the external environment. Many of these changes can be
perceived as threats to the market position of existing products and may
necessitate a change in product specifications or the development of
new products in order for the firm to remain competitive. Changes in
the external environment may be related to:
Customers
Competitors
Market trends
Suppliers
Partners
Social changes

Sign up to view the full document!

lock_open Sign Up
Showing Page:
3/4

Sign up to view the full document!

lock_open Sign Up
End of Preview - Want to read all 4 pages?
Access Now
Unformatted Attachment Preview
SWOT ANALYSIS SWOT analysis is a simple framework for generating strategic alternatives from a situation analysis. It is applicable to either the corporate level or the business unit level and frequently appears in marketing plans. SWOT (sometimes referred to as TOWS) stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The SWOT framework was described in the late 1960's by Edmund P. Learned, C. Roland Christiansen, Kenneth Andrews, and William D. Guth in Business Policy, Text and Cases (Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1969). The General Electric Growth Council used this form of analysis in the 1980's. Because it concentrates on the issues that potentially have the most impact, the SWOT analysis is useful when a very limited amount of time is available to address a complex strategic situation. The following diagram shows how a SWOT analysis fits into a strategic situation analysis. Situation Analysis           / \            Internal Analysis       External Analysis / \                  / \ Strengths   Weaknesses       Opportunities   Threats | SWOT Profile The internal and external situation analysis can produce a large am ...
Purchase document to see full attachment
User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following Studypool's honor code & terms of service.

Anonymous
Excellent resource! Really helped me get the gist of things.

Studypool
4.7
Trustpilot
4.5
Sitejabber
4.4

Similar Documents