Problems with SWOT Analysis  © Chris Bloor Business Momentum Secrets

SWOT analysis considers an organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

The greatest strength of SWOT is also its greatest weakness: flexibility. Because of the flexibility the SWOT analysis can be used in a variety of situations, such as developing a career plan, as we've discussed in a previous article.

But this flexibility means that there can be a number of irregularities in the data. To overcome this, you can add the following to your SWOT analysis:

Personal Experience

How do you personally fit into the SWOT analysis? Your attitudes, experiences, skills, beliefs all have an impact on the SWOT. Also make note of any biases you might have.

The Proper Order

Sometimes the marketing manager will accidentally reverse opportunities and strengths and threats and weaknesses.

The difference between internal strengths and weaknesses and external strengths and weaknesses can be difficult to spot.

For example, in the case of global warming, one could mistake the environmental movement as a threat rather than as an opportunity.

Weighting

It can be helpful to use percentages while weighing the factors of the SWOT analysis. For example, Threat A = 15%, Threat B = 80%, Threat C = 5%. Make sure it adds up to 100%.

Emphasize Detail

Details, explanations and justifications are often omitted from the SWOT analysis. Instead, SWOT analysis reports often just contain lists of single words.

For example, under opportunities one might find the single word "technology." 

This one word doesn't tell the reader very much. A description like the following would be much more informative:

'Technology makes it possible for marketers to communicate via mobile phone right up until the point of purchase. This gives the opportunity of a competitive advantage for our company.'

Writing out detailed descriptions will assist you when deciding upon how best to weight each of your elements.

Rank and Prioritize

Once you write out the details and you've weighed the elements and assigned the appropriate percentages, you can then give your SWOT analysis some strategic meaning. In other words, you can begin to select those factors that will be the most important as you create your marketing strategy.

This will be a mix of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. You should rank them highest to lowest. Then you should prioritize those with the highest rank.

For example: if Opportunity C = 50%, Opportunity A = 35%, and Opportunity B = 15% - your marketing plan should pursue Opportunity C first, and Opportunity B last.

It is important to focus primarily on opportunities because your business should be market oriented. Then you'll match strengths to opportunities and look for a fit. If there are any gaps between current strengths and future opportunities you should address those.

Also, try to rephrase threats as opportunities (as with the above global warming and climate change example) and address weaknesses so that they become strengths.

Perform a "gap analysis" to determine where you are now and where you want to be. Come up with strategies to bridge the gap between them.