SWOT

Assessment
Organize a current state analysis to
build a strategic plan.

In this guide, we will cover:

¨ Purpose and Use of SWOT

¨ Tips for a Comprehensive Analysis
¨ Evolving from SWOT Analysis to Action
¨ A Canvas to Create a SWOT
 SWOT Assessment

Introduction

What Makes a SWOT

Powerful?
SWOT assessments are intended to help organizations gain a clear
understanding of the current state, determine where to go next, and
inform the strategic actions that can be taken to achieve the future state.

A good SWOT synthesizes and organizes both data (objective) and expert
insights (subjective) that summarize the current state. Like any planning
tool, a SWOT is only as good as the information it contains—it is crucial to
engage multiple levels of the organization beyond the leadership team to
gain a clear understanding of the current state, and source ideas for
opportunities that help develop the future state.

SWOT assessments will fail if they do not consider three critical areas:

1. How to succeed, and why?

2. What growth opportunities exist, and why?

3. How to serve our customers better, and why?

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 SWOT Assessment

Tips for Building a

Comprehensive Analysis

Building a SWOT
Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths and weaknesses reflect internal dynamics that can be
controlled by the organization. When identifying strengths and
weaknesses, it is equally important to consider internal factors that will
meaningfully assist the organization in meeting customer needs (such as
customer service) as it is to consider current markets’ and customers’
needs or wants that are within your control.

As a general rule, strengths are particularly meaningful when they assist

the organization in meeting customer needs; and weaknesses that
deserve to be in your SWOT include those variables that may not be
directly apparent to your customers, but do negatively affect the
experience customers have with your organization (e.g., relying on one
vendor means your organization has too little control over price of your
product).

Some key questions to ask when determining strengths and weaknesses:

• What does the organization do best?

• What are the organization’s functional capabilities?

• What unique resources or capabilities does the organization have

now, and what does it lack?

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 SWOT Assessment

Opportunities & Threats

Opportunities and threats are external to the organization—these are
things that can be influenced, but not completely controlled. These two
areas capture both present and anticipated conditions that will affect the
organization.

Opportunities are conditions in the organization’s favor that, if acted

upon, could produce rewards. Think of opportunities in terms of current
and new: what current markets could be penetrated more deeply, and
what new markets could be waded into?

Threats are barriers that may prevent the organization from reaching the
desired rewards. Consider threats in terms of both social, technical,
economic, and political factors, as well as threats from competitors.

Some key questions to ask when determining opportunities and threats:

¨ Customers: Who are they, what motivates them, and what are their
unmet needs? What can the organization do (that it isn’t currently) to
fulfill those needs? What untapped customers exist in the market? Do
competitors have dissatisfied customers that the organization could
serve better?

¨ Competitors: What are their strengths (threats) and weaknesses

(opportunities)? What strategies and structures do competitors
employ? And what kind of image do they cultivate? How might these
elements present a threat or opportunities to your organization?

¨ The Market: What is the overall size of the current market and is
there projected growth? Is the distribution system optimized?

¨ Your Environment: What technological, governmental, economic, or

cultural disruptions would most impact the organization? How can
these uncertainties be strategically addressed?

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 SWOT Assessment

Tips for Building an Effective SWOT

1. Use data wherever possible instead of relying only on opinions.
Consider listing the current data gathered, delegating responsibility
for gathering additional data and populating the SWOT with “what the
data tells you.”

2. Write more than a word or two for the strength, weakness,

opportunity, or threat. Use adjectives and descriptive nouns so that
the planning team understands the context; e.g., instead of
“recruiting” as a weakness, write as, “Time to fill vacant positions is 3
months.”

3. SWOT entries should lead to an action. If the energy is taken to add

something to the SWOT, consider the “so, what?” Is it something that
can be leveraged and acted on, or if it needs to be addressed, would it
make a difference? If not, no need to include it in your SWOT.

4. Identifying internal opportunities in the Opportunities section

makes the assessment fall apart. If internal opportunities MUST be
identified (such as developing career paths for employees, procuring a
new software, etc.), sort the opportunities into two buckets: internal
and external.

5. If it is difficult to determine if something is an internal state

(strength/weakness) or an external state (opportunity/threat), ask the
question: Would this issue exist if the company did not exist? If
the answer is yes, it should be considered external.

6. Engage multiple levels of the organization in brainstorming to

source great ideas. Build the SWOT with input beyond the executive
team. Engaging managers and front-line staff in the process is critical
to gaining a comprehensive assessment of the current state.

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 SWOT Assessment

Evolving from
Analysis to Action

So, What Next?

Evolving the SWOT Assessment
Your organization has finished building a SWOT assessment… now what?
The most common mistake is not putting the SWOT to use. Once the
SWOT assessment is completed, with input from different levels of the
organization, take these steps to evolve it into actionable work:

1. Group strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, within

their respective quadrants. Determine themes and similar topics
until there is a list of high-focus areas within each quadrant.

2. Sort the themes into “priority areas”—growth, productivity, and

skills development, for example. Perhaps the SWOT’s themes fall into
the balanced scorecard perspectives (financial, customer/market
growth, operational excellence/productivity, people & learning).

3. Turn the themes into SMART goals with a label + a verb + a

descriptive outcome. (Alternatively, you can develop objectives and
key results from the SWOT assessment. See our OKR whitepaper
here.)

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 SWOT Assessment

Synthesize Your SWOT Assessment

The purpose of a SWOT assessment is to identify high-leverage areas for
exercises later in the planning process, and some areas will eventually
become goals in the strategic plan. The four quadrants produce the basis
of content that informs the rest of the planning process:

Strengths: Strengths identify what the organization is doing better than

competitors. Leverage strengths for the “how to win” section of your
growth strategy by identifying competitive advantages from within the
organization’s strengths (and no, not every strength is a competitive
advantage that is a true differentiator, that customers care about and that
is hard to imitate).

Weaknesses: Weaknesses are the areas currently holding the

organization back and call out the work that must be done to improve the
current state. Since the organization controls the weaknesses, you can
easily turn them into goals when drafting your strategic plan.

Opportunities: Opportunities are great fodder for “where to play” in a

growth strategy. They provide insights for new markets or customers to
pursue. From the opportunities, identify the potential, and prioritize and
choose the existing/new markets or customer segments to expand/enter
into.

Threats: Threats are similar to weaknesses, but it’s crucial to be choosy

when turning threats into goals. Unlike weaknesses, the organization
cannot control threats—they can only be mitigated. Which are the most
important threats to mitigate and you can feasibly affect?

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SWOT Assessment Org Name:
You must to answer these two core questions: Date:
1. What growth opportunities exist, and why? 2. How do we serve our customers better, and why?

Internal External
Consider What
functional Strengths Opportunities opportunities does
capabilities that 1 EX. Channel partner program is increasingly successful in reaching new markets
3 Complete both internal and external opportunities. the organization
are strengths. have that will
Internal: benefit customers;
where can the
organization
find new/more
What unique customers?
resources or
capabilities does
the organization
have now What are
External
(strengths)? competitors
weaknesses
(opportunities)?

Weaknesses Threats
2 3
What unique What
resources or EX. Time to fill open positions is 3 months What external threats must you mitigate? technological,
capabilities
Not in Play Differentiation & Value governmental,
does the regions,
What segments,
product/service categories
How will we be differentiated
and stand out from the crowd?
economic,
organization lack
are not fields of play? or cultural
(weaknesses)? disruptions
could impact the
organization?

www.OnStrategyHQ.com SWOT Canvas

SWOT Assessment Org Name:
Dates:
You must to answer these two core questions:
1. What growth opportunities exist, and why? 2. How do we serve our customers better, and why?

Competitive Advantages
5 Strengths identified in the SWOT assessment are potential competitive advantages. To determine if a strength is a competitive advantage, answer the questions:

1. Differentiator: Is this strength defendable?

2. Client Value: Do clients value this strength?

3. Unique: Is this strength difficult for your current or future competitors to imitate?

If the answers to these three questions are all Yes, then you have identified your competitive advantage(s). OPTIONAL: Discuss/decide if any strengths with a No or Sometimes should be made into
a definitive yes—what has to be shifted to become a competitive advantage? These should be goals or initiatives in your plan.

Strengths Differentiator? Client Value? Hard to Imitate?

Yes Sometimes No Yes Sometimes No Yes Sometimes No

Yes Sometimes No Yes Sometimes No Yes Sometimes No

Yes Sometimes No Yes Sometimes No Yes Sometimes No

Yes Sometimes No Yes Sometimes No Yes Sometimes No

Yes Sometimes No Yes Sometimes No Yes Sometimes No

Theme Your WOTs

6 The next step is to synthesize themes in Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats sections of your SWOT assessment. To complete the grid below, group similar ideas within each of
these three quadrants. These high-level themes will turn into the labels for goals in the following section of the worksheet.

Weakness Themes Opportunity Themes Threat Themes

EX. Recruiting

Develop Goals
7 To take the SWOT assessment from analysis to action, the themes above must be developed into goals. A good goal should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Responsible
and Timebound. Goals should follow this structure - LABEL: Verb + descriptive outcome

In the table below, enter the Weakness, Opportunity & Threat themes (identified in the section above) in the “label” column. Then, refer to your SWOT assessment to develop 1-3 SMART goals.

Label <THEME> Goals <Verb + Descriptive Outcome>

Ex. RECRUITING Develop detailed job descriptions for every role in the organization by the end of Q3.

www.OnStrategyHQ.com SWOT Canvas

 Growth Strategy

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every year. We’d love to review and provide you
feedback on your SWOT and Goals!

Contact us here. Or call us at 775-747-7407.

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