Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat

In the podcast, the hosts talk about a SWOT being a top down tool, meaning that executive level managers, CEO’s, COO’s, stakeholders, and board members are all involved. Although it is important that this level conduct SWOT events regularly, the SWOT analysis can be conducted at any level. The lowest level employee can perform SWOT’s to better improve their work ethic, find potential weaknesses, identify the challenges ahead, and what is available to advance in their position. Managers can use the SWOT analysis to better understand how their department is doing, what areas they need training or who needs training, what policies can they improve on, how can they be more efficient, what workloads can or can’t they handle, overstaffed/understaffed, and so forth. SWOT analysis’s are an excellent tool for anyone or business striving to be on top and stay there.

When a business conducts a SWOT analysis, the strengths they should focus on are their product line, locations, technology they use, and possibly their internal staff. All these can contribute a great workforce and product if used at its potential. The weaknesses should focus on failed products, weak staff/customer support, location, technology, contradictory policy statements, and possible sales and marketing strategies. For the opportunities, a business should look at what is evolving technologically and how can that improve their product/workforce/distribution, what new locations are available for growth, what is the customer demand, and other things that show promise for organic growth. Lastly, there are the threats that have to be mentioned. Threats are everywhere, competitors are always the biggest. Other threats could be technology, location, staff, and the overall product. All these can be expanded on and there are bound to be other areas left out. SWOT analysis’s should be conducted regularly to evaluate where a company stands and what they need to improve on to reach the top or stay on top.

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