Creating a SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis is the framework for generating strategic alternatives from a situation analysis. SWOT stands for strenths, weakenesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are found internally and opportunities and threats are found externally.

Internal factors that should be evaluated are:

• The 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

When doing an external analysis, you should look at :

• Customers
• Competitors
• Market trends
• Partners
• Social changes
• New technology
• Economic environment
• Political and regulatory environment

When the analysis is completed, a SWOT profile can be used for the basis of goal setting, strategy formulation, and implementation.

Source: http://www.netmba.com/strategy/swot/