Week 3: SWOT/PEST

  

Done as a team
Originated by Albert S. Humphrey in the 1960s, the tool is as useful now as it was then. You can use it in two ways – as a simple icebreaker helping people get together to "kick off" strategy formulation, or in a more sophisticated way as a serious strategy tool.

Strengths:

• What advantages does your organisation have?
• Covering a market which no one else has.
• Customer based design.
• What do you do better than anyone else?
• transparency of information and resources
• non-profit would allow an approach that cannot be interpreted as being biasd
• What unique or lowest-cost resources can you draw upon that others can't?
• What do people in your market see as your strengths?
• What factors mean that you "get the sale"? (Have people come back.)
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• What is your organization's Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

Consider your strengths from both an internal perspective, and from the point of view of your customers and people in your market.
Also, if you're having any difficulty identifying strengths, try writing down a list of your organization's characteristics.
Some of these will hopefully be strengths!
When looking at your strengths, think about them in relation to your competitors. For example, if all of your competitors provide high quality products, then a high quality production process is not a strength in your organisation's market, it's a necessity.

Weaknesses:

• What could you improve?
• Be more interesting and enticing for customers.
• Easily understandable and recognisable.
• What should you avoid?
• Confusing/overwhelming customers.
• Having too much information on one page (keeping it simple)
• What are people in your market likely to see as weaknesses?
• What factors lose you sales?
• It's easier to buy cheap rather than ethical/sustainable.

Again, consider this from an internal and external perspective: do other people seem to perceive weaknesses that you don't see? Are your competitors doing any better than you?
It's best to be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible.

Opportunities:

• What good opportunities can you spot?
• Partnering with businesses to advertise the sustainability ratings they have.
• sustainable companies benefit as their products get "promoted"
• What interesting trends are you aware of?
• People taking more responsibility for who they are buying from.
• small businesses that have innovative sustainable products may not have the same funds available for extensive marketing strategies as other giants, our solution offers a platform based on merit rather than money

Useful opportunities can come from such things as:

• Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow scale.
• Changes in government policy related to your field.
• Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, and so on.
• Local events.

Tip: A useful approach when looking at opportunities is to look at your strengths and ask yourself whether these open up any opportunities. Alternatively, look at your weaknesses and ask yourself whether you could open up opportunities by eliminating them.
Tip: When looking at opportunities and threats, PEST Analysis (Google it) can help understanding external factors, such as new government regulations or technological changes.

Threats:

• What obstacles do you face?
• Only accepting funding that doesn't reflect a bias (or what could be)
• What are your competitors doing?
• Creating their own standards that would be difficult for us to do.
• Are quality standards or specifications for your job, products or services changing?
• Is changing technology threatening your position?
• Do you have bad debt or cash-flow problems?
• Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your business?

Political:

Political or politically motivated factors that could impact the organization.

Examples include:

Government policy, political stability or instability, bureaucracy, corruption, competition regulation, foreign trade policy, tax policy, trade restrictions, labor/environmental/copyright/consumer protection laws, funding grants & initiatives, etc.

Questions to ask:

• What government policies or political groups could be beneficial or detrimental to our success?
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• Is the political environment stable or likely to change?

Economic:

Overall economic forces that could impact on your success.

Examples include:

Economic trends, growth rates, industry growth, seasonal factors, international exchange rates, International trade, labor costs, consumer disposable income, unemployment rates, taxation, inflation, interest rates, availability of credit, monetary policies, raw material costs, etc.

Questions to ask:

• What economic factors will affect us moving forward?
• How does the performance of the economy affect us at the moment?
• How are our pricing, revenues, and costs impacted by each economic factor?

Social:

Social attitudes, behaviors, and trends that impact on your organization and target market.

Examples include:

Attitudes and shared beliefs about a range of factors including money, customer service, imports, religion, cultural taboos, health, work, leisure, the environment; population growth and demographics, immigration/emigration, family size/structure, lifestyle trends, etc.

Questions to ask

• How do our customer’s beliefs and values influence their buying habits?
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• How do cultural trends and human behavior play a role in our business?
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Technological:

Technology that can affect the way you make, distribute, and market your products and services.

Examples include:

Technology and communications infrastructure, legislation around technology, consumer access to technology, competitor technology and development, emerging technologies, automation, research and innovation, intellectual property regulation, technology incentives, etc.

Questions to ask:

• What technological advancements and innovations are available or on the horizon?
• How will this technology impact on our operations?