The article shows how to build a company strategy.It is one of the most popular analysis methods in business.Current market position identification, new business idea validation, and even personal career development can be applied to it.
Step 1: There are features in the internal and external environment of your company.
There are four different categories for these features.External factors are internal factors.Write down the features when you create a 2x2 matrix.There is a lot of information on how to identify these factors.There are many factors in each category that could be used to answer questions.Which areas of your company have a competitive advantage?Is there any areas within your company which limit growth?Which areas of your target market are friendly?Is there an external situation that can cause trouble?
Step 2: Pick the features that are important to you from the identified features.
The Pareto Rule states that 80% of the effects come from 20% of causes.Pick 2 to 5 which you think are the most important in your current situation when you identify ten weaknesses.
Step 3: Each category has to have a ranking of features.
You can assign score for each feature and sort them by score.The higher the score, the greater the importance of the feature.The easiest method is to assign scores between 1 and 100.Make sure that the total score of all features is at least 100.
Step 4: There are relations between features.
Some internal features have influence on external ones.For each category and for each pair of features from that category, answer: Strengths and Opportunities.Whether given strength overcomes threat?Whether weakness limits use of opportunity is a question.Weakness and threats have an impact on one another.
Step 5: Take the math and do it.
Take the answers from the previous step.The total score is calculated for each pair of categories.The easiest thing to do is mathematical sum.All pairs with non-existing relation are counted as 0.Get the final results for each pair of categories by summing up the scores.
Step 6: You should have at least four subtotal scores.
One for Strengths and Threats, and so on.If Strengths and Opportunities has the biggest score, your strategy should be Aggressive.Turnaround is your strategy if Weaknesses and Opportunities has the biggest score.The strategy should be defensive if Weaknesses and Threats has the biggest score.
Step 7: Work on features that have the biggest impact on the strategy.
The point of relation step is to identify the most dangerous weakness and try to limit it.If you want to limit this weakness, you have to create goals for your company and execute some actions.Get back to your analysis in a month or so, update it, and check if features from previous SWOT still exist and the latest strategy recommendation is still valid.