Karen Lee, Customer Experience at GBC, 3 min read
Did you know that companies, regardless of type and size, must answer a key question i.e. whether it is able to pursue attractive market opportunities and defend against external threats to its future well-being? I’m sure you knew that, but did you also know that with StratPlan, you can conduct this examination in 3 minutes or less.
By far, the most widely and powerful tool used for this examination is SWOT analysis. SWOT is so named because it zeros in on your company’s internal Strengths and Weaknesses, market Opportunities, and External Threats. So, a SWOT can provide the basis for developing your business growth strategy that capitalizes on your company’s strengths, overcomes its weaknesses, aims squarely at capturing your company’s best opportunities, and defends against competitive threats
The value of SWOT analysis involves more than making four lists. The two most important parts of SWOT analysis are drawing conclusions from the SWOT listings about your company’s overall situation and translating these conclusions into strategic actions to better match your company’s strategy to its internal strengths and market opportunities, to correct important weaknesses, and to defend against external threats. Here’s two simple questions to which the answers could tell you what story the SWOT listings tell you about your company’s overall situation:
- What are the attractive aspects of your company’s overall situation; and
- What aspects are of the most concern.
Understanding just how important SWOT analysis is to strategic planning in your business, we have made this examination simple in StratPlan.
When you use StratPlan in your business, you are empowered to examine your company’s overall situation in under 3 minutes; making it simple for you to adapt your company direction as needed. There are just a few steps when undertaking SWOT analysis using StratPlan…9 to be exact.
- Click SWOT analysis on the navigation screen.
- Click “Strengths” and then use the check boxes to select all strengths that are relevant to your business.
- Click “Add New” to add a specific strength.
- Click “Weaknesses” and then use the check boxes to select all weaknesses that are relevant to your business.
- Click “Add New” to add a specific weakness.
- Click “Threats” and then use the check boxes to select all threats that are relevant to your business.
- Click “Add New” to add a specific threat.
- Click “Opportunities” and then use the check boxes to select all opportunities that are relevant to your business.
- Click “Add New” to add a specific opportunity.
That’s it…you’re done! In under 3 minutes.
Here’s how it works…
9 steps. All you need to do is click SWOT analysis, select from the pre-input menu and add anything specific to your company, as necessary. Here’s a secret too. You don’t even need to click “Save” to save your plan. StratPlan automatically saves your changes.
P.S. Curious about other features to help in the strategy making process? Go to our useful help videos or send us a message, we’d love to help.
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