Jubilee Christian Academy

Senior High school Department

School Year 2019-2020

Student Reference No. 3

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis
• Is a framework used to evaluate a company's competitive position and to develop strategic planning.
• Is an essential exercise for formulating new business strategies.
• It combines an internal analysis of strengths and weaknesses, with an external environment analysis
of opportunities and threats.

Strengths
• These are things that your venture is good at doing, or a characteristic that gives it an important
capability over competitors in this space
• It describe what an organization excels at and what separates it from the competition.

Examples are:
– strong brand
– loyal customer base
– proprietary technologies
– proven domain experts on a venture team
– keen insight to lead users

Weaknesses / Limitations
• Weaknesses are things that your venture lacks or does poorly, or conditions that put it at a
disadvantage to others in the space.
• Stop an organization from performing at its optimum level.
• They are areas where the business needs to improve to remain competitive.

Examples are:
– no clear strategic direction
– weak brand
– higher turnover
– falling behind in R&D/technology
– lack of depth on a venture team
– unable to self-finance (bootstrapping)
– cost structures or revenue models that are out of industry/sector norms
– weak distribution/sales network
– below-average marketing skills
– inadequate supply chain
– lack of capital

Opportunities
Refers to favorable external factors that could give an organization a competitive advantage.
Examples are:
– When a country cuts tariffs
– A car manufacturer can export its cars into a new market
– Increasing sales and market share.
– moving on lead user insights
– seeing a technological change before others
– creating strategic partnerships with key suppliers and controllers of sales channels
– hoarding cash
– expanding overseas
– just plain luck

Threats
Refers to factors that have the potential to harm an organization.
Examples are:
– A drought is a threat to a wheat-producing company as it may destroy or reduce the crop yield. rising –
– costs for materials
– increasing competition
– tight labor supply

The opportunities and threats not only affect the attractiveness of your venture’s situation but more
importantly point to the need of strategic action.
You need to consider two simple questions:
– Are you headed in the right direction with the new product that could lead to other new opportunities?
– Or are you headed toward a disaster?
Characteristics of Strategies, Objectives, and Goals

Specific. Putting more attention and great efforts to take care of the minutest details.
Measurable. Have a quantitative way of measuring.
Attainable/Realistic. It should stretch one’s abilities but still remain possible.
Relevant. Ensuring that your goal matters to you, and that it also aligns with other relevant goals.
Time-bound. Set a deadline to focus on and something to work toward.