Swot analysis what is a threat

Analyzing Community Problems Section 6. Conducting Focus Groups Section 7. Conducting Needs Assessment Surveys Section 8. Identifying Community Assets and Resources Section 9.

Developing Baseline Measures Section Conducting Concerns Surveys Section Determining Service Utilization Section Conducting Interviews Section Conducting Surveys Section Implementing Photovoice in Your Community Section Windshield and Walking Surveys Section Arranging Assessments That Span Jurisdictions.

The Tool Box needs your help to remain available. Toggle navigation Chapter Sections. Section 1. Learn how to conduct a SWOT Analysis to identify situational strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats. SWOT provides a tool to explore both internal and external factors that may influence your work.

What is a SWOT analysis and why should you use one? When do you use SWOT? You might use it to: Explore possibilities for new efforts or solutions to problems. Make decisions about the best path for your initiative. Identifying your opportunities for success in context of threats to success can clarify directions and choices. Determine where change is possible. If you are at a juncture or turning point, an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses can reveal priorities as well as possibilities.

Adjust and refine plans mid-course. A new opportunity might open wider avenues, while a new threat could close a path that once existed. What are the elements of a SWOT analysis? Internal External Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats If a looser structure helps you brainstorm, you can group positives and negatives to think broadly about your organization and its external environment.

General areas to consider: Human resources - staff, volunteers, board members, target population Physical resources - your location, building, equipment Financial - grants, funding agencies, other sources of income Activities and processes - programs you run, systems you employ Past experiences - building blocks for learning and success, your reputation in the community Don't be too modest when listing your strengths.

Forces and facts that your group does not control include: Future trends in your field or the culture The economy - local, national, or international Funding sources - foundations, donors, legislatures Demographics - changes in the age, race, gender, culture of those you serve or in your area The physical environment Is your building in a growing part of town?

Is the bus company cutting routes? Legislation Do new federal requirements make your job harder Who develops the SWOT? But don't overlook anyone in the creation stage! When and where do you develop a SWOT analysis? How do you develop a SWOT analysis? Steps for conducting a SWOT analysis: Designate a leader or group facilitator who has good listening and group process skills, and who can keep things moving and on track.

Designate a recorder to back up the leader if your group is large. Use newsprint on a flip chart or a large board to record the analysis and discussion points. You can record later in a more polished fashion to share with stakeholders and to update. Introduce the SWOT method and its purpose in your organization.

This can be as simple as asking, "Where are we, where can we go? Depending on the nature of your group and the time available, let all participants introduce themselves.

Then divide your stakeholders into smaller groups. If your retreat or meeting draws several groups of stakeholders together, make sure you mix the small groups to get a range of perspectives, and give them a chance to introduce themselves. The size of these depends on the size of your entire group — breakout groups can range from three to ten.

SWOT Analysis was first used to analyze businesses. Now it's often used by governments, nonprofits, and individuals, including investors and entrepreneurs. Strengths describe what an organization excels at and what separates it from the competition : a strong brand, loyal customer base, a strong balance sheet, unique technology, and so on.

For example, a hedge fund may have developed a proprietary trading strategy that returns market-beating results. It must then decide how to use those results to attract new investors. Weaknesses stop an organization from performing at its optimum level. They are areas where the business needs to improve to remain competitive: a weak brand, higher-than-average turnover, high levels of debt, an inadequate supply chain, or lack of capital.

Opportunities refer to favorable external factors that could give an organization a competitive advantage. For example, if a country cuts tariffs, a car manufacturer can export its cars into a new market, increasing sales and market share. Threats refer to factors that have the potential to harm an organization. For example, a drought is a threat to a wheat-producing company, as it may destroy or reduce the crop yield.

Other common threats include things like rising costs for materials, increasing competition, tight labor supply. What occurs within the company serves as a great source of information for the strengths and weaknesses categories of the SWOT analysis.

Examples of internal factors include financial and human resources, tangible and intangible brand name assets, and operational efficiencies. Potential questions to list internal factors are:. What happens outside of the company is equally as important to the success of a company as internal factors. External influences, such as monetary policies, market changes, and access to suppliers, are categories to pull from to create a list of opportunities and weaknesses.

Potential questions to list external factors are:. Use a SWOT analysis to identify challenges affecting your business and opportunities that can enhance it. However, note that it is one of many techniques, not a prescription.

However, it also noted weaknesses and threats such as foreign currency fluctuations, growing public interest in "healthy" beverages, and competition from healthy beverage providers. Its SWOT analysis prompted Value Line to pose some tough questions about Coca-Cola's strategy, but also to note that the company "will probably remain a top-tier beverage provider" that offered conservative investors "a reliable source of income and a bit of capital gains exposure.

To get a better picture of a SWOT analysis, consider the example of a fictitious organic smoothie company. To better understand how it competes within the smoothie market and what it can do better, it conducted a SWOT analysis. Through this analysis, it identified that its strengths were good sourcing of ingredients, personalized customer service, and a strong relationship with suppliers.

Peering within its operations, it identified a few areas of weakness: little product diversification, high turnover rates, and outdated equipment. Examining how the external environment affects its business, it identified opportunities in emerging technology, untapped demographics, and a culture shift towards healthy living.

It also found threats, such as a winter freeze damaging crops, a global pandemic, and kinks in the supply chain. In conjunction with other planning techniques, the company used the SWOT analysis to leverage its strengths and external opportunities to eliminate threats and strengthen areas where it is weak. SWOT strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis is a method for identifying and analyzing internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats that shape current and future operations and help develop strategic goals.

SWOT analyses are not limited to companies. Individuals can also use SWOT analysis to engage in constructive introspection and form personal improvement goals. Home Depot conducted a SWOT analysis, creating a balanced list of its internal advantages and disadvantages and external factors threatening its market position and growth strategy.

High-quality customer service, strong brand recognition, and positive relationships with suppliers were some of its notable strengths; whereas, a constricted supply chain, interdependence on the U.

Closely related to its weaknesses, Home Depot's threats were the presence of close rivals, available substitutes, and the condition of the U. It found from this study and other analysis that expanding its supply chain and global footprint would be key to its growth.

Creating a SWOT analysis involves identifying and analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a company. It is recommended to first create a list of questions to answer for each element. The questions serve as a guide for completing the SWOT analysis and creating a balanced list. The SWOT framework can be constructed in list format, as free text, or, most commonly, as a 4-cell table, with quadrants dedicated to each element.

Strengths and weaknesses are listed first, followed by opportunities and threats. Threats are external forces that may adversely affect the success of a company. They consist of competitive advantages of rivals, uncontrollable influences such as natural disasters, governmental policies, and more. Identifying threats can help expose barriers to success and position companies to develop strategies to overcome them.

Strengths in a SWOT analysis are the favorable internal activities, processes, and behaviors of a company what a company does well. These are the factors that contribute to the success of the company and its brand.

Examples include competitors, prices of raw materials, and customer shopping trends. A SWOT analysis organizes your top strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats into an organized list and is usually presented in a simple two-by-two grid. Go ahead and download our free template if you just want to dive right in and get started. You may think that you already know everything that you need to do to succeed, but a SWOT analysis will force you to look at your business in new ways and from new directions.

For a SWOT analysis to be effective, company founders and leaders need to be deeply involved. Select people who can represent different aspects of your company, from sales and customer service to marketing and product development. Everyone should have a seat at the table. Innovative companies even look outside their own internal ranks when they perform a SWOT analysis and get input from customers to add their unique voice to the mix.

Recruit additional points of view from friends who know a little about your business, your accountant, or even vendors and suppliers. The key is to have different points of view. Existing businesses can use a SWOT analysis to assess their current situation and determine a strategy to move forward.

For startups, a SWOT analysis is part of the business planning process. One or two hours should be more than plenty. Gather people from different parts of your company and make sure that you have representatives from every department and team. Doing a SWOT analysis is similar to brainstorming meetings, and there are right and wrong ways to run them. I suggest giving everyone a pad of sticky-notes and have everyone quietly generate ideas on their own to start things off.

This prevents groupthink and ensures that all voices are heard. After five to 10 minutes of private brainstorming, put all the sticky-notes up on the wall and group similar ideas together. Sticky dots in different colors are useful for this portion of the exercise. Based on the voting exercise, you should have a prioritized list of ideas.

Of course, the list is now up for discussion and debate, and someone in the room should be able to make the final call on the priority. This is usually the CEO, but it could be delegated to someone else in charge of business strategy.

These questions can help explain each section and spark creative thinking. Strengths are internal, positive attributes of your company. These are things that are within your control.