Welcome back, everybody. This is Food for Thought.
Thoughts of it were you. This is your host, Neogentrics.
And it's been a pleasure doing these podcasts
with you guys. But today, we're going to talk
about SWOT analysis. Something that a lot of
people aren't familiar with or even know exists.
It's a strategic thinking skill. Something that
most leaders are required to have. And even if
you don't have it, it can be earned or learned.
So it's not completely out of range for a lot
of people. Now... as to what SWOT means. A SWOT
analysis is looking at the strengths, weaknesses,
and opportunities, as well as threats. It's basically
what it is. Essentially, it's a simple but useful
structure for examining any situation or event.
It can be used both on a personal level and a
business level, depending on who you are and
where you are. A SWOT analysis is particularly
helpful in developmental contexts because it
allows you to explore the positives and negatives
of both you or your organization if you're a
business and the external environment in a relatively
safe and controlled way. You know, like what
they call a controlled environment. It can therefore
be used in, I want to say, career discussions
or in strategic discussions for businesses where
all options can be put on the table and discussed
straightforward. I can't tell you how many times
I've had to tell people to do this as far as
relationships is concerned because they keep
coming to me for their problems, but I digress.
This analysis, the SWOT analysis, has multiple
functionalities. It can be used in several different
templates or forms. It just depends on the user
and whether or not they really want to put in
the effort to do it. It does take a bit of work
on their part. So we're going to take a short
break and we're going to get started, okay? Alright
everybody, let's go ahead and cover how to do
a SWOT analysis. As you might expect, a SWOT
analysis covers four general areas. Strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. That's
the four main things that it covers. As a general
principle, strengths and weaknesses relate to
you or your organization because they're internal
things, internal factors, things to consider
within. And then the opportunities and threats
are related to external environments or external
factors like people outside, the structure of
a building. Things of that nature, how much it
can hold up against. Swarm analysis is often
done in a grid format, taking a piece of paper
and dividing it into usually four quarters with
a heading for each quarter, you know, draw a
box, put a label on the top of each one. You
can do it side by side or in the shape of a giant
square, a brick broken into four squares. This
means that you can easily see which areas might
be a problem, and you can... You know, make a
very simple, easy list on what to do. Now, specific
or general is the question to ask. So analysis
can be used to look at the general situation
or a much more specific problem that you're facing
or your organization is facing. The things you
identify in each area will be different depending
on whether or not you are looking at the general
or specific issue. therefore important to make
sure that you and everyone else involved is clear
about what it is you're actually discussing at
that point. Otherwise, you're just going to confuse
yourself and everyone else. Now, first things
first, strengths. Under the strengths category,
you need to list things that are unique to you
or your organization or things that give you
an advantage for most organizations and things
of the like. Things like that would be intellectual
properties like rights, patents, copyrights,
cheaper manufacturing processes, or cheaper or
better raw materials, quality advantage that
they have that others can't copy, or the relationships
they built with their customers over time, something
of that nature. What you need to do is you need
to ask yourself, what can or do we do better
than anyone else? That is your strengths. It's
worth answering this both. for your own point
of view and by considering what your customers
peers or suppliers might say and if you have
a good relationship with them you can even ask
them directly and they'll give you their answer
the next point to keep in mind is your weaknesses
this one's not really all that much but I mean
it's pretty straightforward let's just put it
this way it can be considered areas that you
struggle in what you don't do well as your competitors,
what factors cause you to lose sales. For example,
your customer service is poor or your prices
are higher than your competitors, although you
are offering very similar products. Again, it's
worth considering both your own views and those
of your customers or potential customers or lost
customers or anything of the like, even the people
that you just communicate with on a day -to -day
basis. Find out what those people think and may
need... which may need to have you run what they
call market research to figure out a solution
or, you know, just some self -consideration,
some self -thought. The whole key to this weakness
thing is to be as realistic as possible. You
need to face up to the problem areas that you
have and address them, not walk away from them,
not hide them, not cover them, you know, do something
about it. Okay, next is opportunities. Identifying
opportunities requires you to look outward and
into the future a bit of ways in some way or
form. What's on the horizon? What can you take
advantage of? What can give you that competitive
edge that you need? You know, possible opportunities,
possible outcomes, examples, new technologies,
changes in the markets, things that can help
you exploit. And this is going to sound weird,
but exploit. your customers in a faster way or
rather exploit your competitors you know what
they can't do but you can do use it to your advantage
something that can help promote you moving forward
global changes such as lifestyle changes population
changes or pandemic we're gonna leave that one
alone Or political shifts, kind of like the previous
presidential election, for example. Those may
affect your customers' views on what they behave
in, how they buy stuff, things of that nature.
You know, changes in regulations, political opinions,
although those you need to consider as early
as possible. Local nation events, selling opportunities
that allow you to raise your profile or profit.
Essentially, that's the whole point of opportunities.
Opportunities may require you to change... In
some way, to take advantage of whatever is right
there in front of you. Example, in hiring new
staff members or developing new skills. As you
identify opportunities there, it's therefore
always worth highlighting anything you would
need to do to exploit them fully to their best
advantages. Okay? Tip for the day. Use your strengths
and weaknesses to identify opportunities. When
you have identified all your obvious opportunities,
it's a good idea to review your strengths to
see if any of them open up any new opportunities
in anyone else's minds by combining them with
a weakness that you have to make that weakness
a strong point for you. You can also review your
weaknesses in a way and ask them if you can take
advantage of them in a different way that will
allow you to also either eliminate the weakness
or... Shaded enough that it's no longer a problem.
And then last but not least, threats. Threats
include anything that can harm you, your business,
or damage your position in the market. They therefore
include changes to the government. I think I
already covered that, but I mean, it's a weakness,
it's a threat. It's also an opportunity. So this
is one of those that's like a double -edged sword.
Changes in the government make it harder to build
or eliminate business advantages that you hold.
Changes to your competitors that allow you to
catch or overtake them. Financial issues that
might prevent you from taking advantages like
excessive debt or controlling stockholders, which
that shareholder, sorry, that could be a bit
of a pain. Or again, the natural change in the
market, which is currently going on right now.
Remember, threats are often the flip side of
an opportunity, but you can turn those threats
into opportunities if you know how to do it.
How you do that is a threat, if identified early
enough, can be an opportunity because you can
overcome it faster than your competitors will.
And this is something to keep in mind, especially
for big corporations like Microsoft, Google,
or even Sony with their PlayStation 5. I mean,
there's a lot of threats out there. There's a
lot of issues going on out there, especially
the scalpers. But if you find a way to work around
it, you can turn it into a profitable situation
for you. Okay, so now we know how to do a SWOT
analysis. Now this begs the question, when do
you use a SWOT analysis? Well, I can answer that
several different ways, but let's just go with
the general idea. You can find this information
anywhere online, so you know I'm not just making
this up, okay? I'm taking bits and pieces from
different websites as I go, but this is a known
fact. I've done this for a while now. So it's
not that you can't find it, but it'll be a lot
easier if all the information is in one place
and summarized to the point where you can understand
it. So question, when to use a SWOT analysis?
Well, you can use a SWOT analysis in several
different ways with several different possible
purposes that can help you. The most common one
would be the useful icebreaker or starting exercise,
you know, in any strategic planning, you know.
Because it gets everyone thinking about how to
get everybody on the same line with a common
understanding of either the problems or the advantages
that they're currently about to face. Another
one is, you know, I mean, it can be used to surface
hidden issues and problems, but in a safe way.
Because its structure requires discussion about
the problems and the weaknesses. So it's already
out in the open, but now you're making it a little
bit easier for everyone to understand. It can
be used to discuss one or more specific problems
and identify a way forward using those issues
or any solutions that you come up with. It also
is useful in thinking generally about a change
in strategy. Like, say, the one you had before
didn't work. Okay, so where shall we go from
here? That's the type of question you should
be asking. Like, what can we do now? This didn't
work, so what's our next best option? You can
also use it to think about your competitors.
if you're a business person, and analyze their
position to show where you can take advantage
of whatever they missed. In other words, it's
very, very, very, very, very flexible. This means
that if you don't feel that you're getting very
much by operating at a particular level, for
example, thinking about general challenges that
organizations or groups may face, you may want
to stop and drill down into more detail into
particular areas instead. So here's a tip for
that. Getting the most out of a SWOT analysis
for strategic planning revolves around the personal
skill of most people and how they handle it.
A SWOT analysis is at its best when participants
are required to be as specific as possible. For
example, they should be challenged to quantify
likely gains from particular opportunities or
strengths, this has a better value. Okay. It's
great that it has a better value, but why does
it have a better value? What good does it do?
You know, is there, if there's time, is it also
helpful to get the participant? I'm sorry. It
is also helpful to get participants to think
about which factors are most important so that
they can get some agreement. on the priorities
for main action and activity moving forward.
Now, remember to carry forward the findings from
the SWOT analysis into later strategic planning.
Don't just do it once, think that that topic
is done, and then move on to the next one. You
carry that information with you, especially if
the next task requires the previous one. Just
because the previous task is done doesn't mean
the whole project as a whole is finished. A SWOT
analysis helps in many, many ways, and its main
focus is to help you understand just how much
work you need to do or your group needs to do
to either quantify the total result and make
it the most likely achieved goal that everyone's
aiming for, or at least if the goal is unattainable,
make it somewhat reachable or find something
similar to the goal you were trying to achieve
before. That's the only purpose that this serves.
And like I said before, it's very, very flexible.
Okay? It can be used in many different settings.
You know, from planning your future to going
to college to getting an apartment. It's just
a matter of the person and how much thought they're
willing to put into it and how much effort they're
willing to spend. Okay? All right. And that's
it for a basic SWOT analysis. Okay. Like I said,
SWOT analysis has been around and used in businesses
for over 50 years. And they can even be used
in non -business situations. It's a simple structure.
It's easy to apply. It's very flexible. It's
useful in many tools or situations. You can use
it as a tool. You can use that tool to make other
tools that are more useful. I mean, yes, we have
a lot of new features and functions and stuff
nowadays that we can use. But sometimes the old
stuff is better. It's just a matter of how it's
being used, who's using it, when they use it,
and how much effort you're willing to put into
it. Now, I covered what a SWOT analysis is as
a general whole. But next time, I'm going to
cover a personal SWOT analysis in a little more
detail so that you know how to use this in your
day -to -day life. with little to almost no effort
all right well guys it's been fun but it's time
to go this has been food for thought thoughts
if it were you and i'm your host neogentrix and
i'm gonna catch y 'all next time peace