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By Andrew Gowans SWOT Analysis: When you and your group wish to identify your Strengths and Weaknesses, the Opportunities available and the Threats facing you. This is a powerful and highly successful technique that can be applied to an individual, a group, a team, a company, a plan think about it, even a website! Again, experiment with it. If it helps you to focus your (and your teams) efforts in the right direction, its worth it. The process is to ask and answer a number of specific questions for each of the 4 categories, documenting the answers. This process, in itself is simple enough. However, so that you are not disappointed with the outcome, take the time you need, get the answers you need, face the facts and above all, take action. TIP Whether working on this for yourself or with your team, always keep in mind the goal you want to achieve for each category. So, in this context, treat ‘you’ as either yourself, your team, your improvement group, your company, your business. The starting point of a successful SWOT analysis is to understand that there are 4 general objectives, one for each part of the analysis, the goal you wish to achieve. Typical Format - the most common approach and widely used format is to construct a 2 row by 2 column matrix with the following information… STRENGTHS in top left quadrant Capitalise on your strengths WEAKNESSES in top right quadrant Address your weaknesses OPPORTUNITIES in bottom left quadrant Take full advantage of the opportunities available THREATS in bottom right quadrant Deal with or minimise the impact of threats you face Although each of the above statements can be regarded as action oriented, they are, in themselves, meaningless. We can’t use them to communicate exactly what our plans are going to be, why we have the plans in the first place, what resources we need and who will implement the plans. So, let’s ask a few fundamental questions to put some meat on the skeleton… —Sidebar— Add to or tailor the questions to suit you, your team, your organization. —End Sidebar— STRENGTHS What do you do really well? In what product or service areas do you excel? What is your value-added? What makes you unique in the marketplace? What characteristics are highly regarded? Answer from your own point of view, your customers your teams’, your suppliers’ and others. WEAKNESSES What do you not do well? How do you know? What needs to be improved? In what way, by whom? Are there weaknesses you dont see but others do? What does the team look for that you dont provide? What do customers look for that you don’t provide? Are decisions based on supposition or hard data? What are your measures of success telling you? Are you really prepared to find out? Answer from your own point of view, your customers and others. Face the Truth OPPORTUNITIES What opportunities would help you become more successful? Where would you find them? What external changes, events can you take advantage of? technology, demographics, legislation, education Use PDCA (see footnotes) to identify those that will give you the greatest return THREATS What financial problems do you have? Are there internal/external changes that threaten you? What do you know about your competitors? Are they successful? Why?, How? What obstacles impede your progress? Which obstacles can be dealt with or overcome? Use PDCA (see footnotes) to prioritize O.K., we have done the data gathering, the surveys, the questioning, the ’soul searching’. Redraw the matrix when questioning round is complete replacing the questions asked in each quadrant with a summary of the answers. Easy for me to say I know but… As long as you have been factual As long as you have been honest especially with yourself As long as you are ready and prepared to accept the answers As long as you are prepared to TAKE ACTION You have the foundation here to take a snapshot of where you are today, what’s working for and against you, and the basis for a series of action plans to get you to where you want to be tomorrow. Regardless of which quadrant you may be studying, the key question to ask yourself is… “What will give us the biggest return” Many of us are familiar with the “Pareto Principle”, perhaps more familiar with the term “80-20 Rule” Pareto Principle Why the 80-20 rule? Approximately 80% of trouble comes from 20% of the problems. Also, quite often, 80% of the results we seek, will come from 20% of our efforts - as long as we are focused and prioritize. Although “Pareto” is named after the economist Vilfredo Pareto, it was Dr. Joseph M. Duran who applied the thinking to management best practices. Dr. Juran advises us to concentrate on the “vital few” sources of problems (and in this context, the actions which will give us the greatest return) and not be distracted by those of lesser impact or importance. To conclude, be as creative as you can be in your problem solving, think ‘outside the box’. Get others to do the same. As much as I hate them, just think of “yellow stickies” and how a complete disaster became a huge income generator. If you are worried about change just imagine what will happen if you do nothing! “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Einstein Footnotes Use some of the great but relatively simple problem solving tools to help focus and determine the priorities. Tools such as as Force Field Analyis, Cause and Effect Diagrams (Fishbone Diagrams),Flowcharting. For a full explanation of PDCA, the continuous improvement process and its individual stages, just do a search on author ‘Andrew Gowans’ and the relevant articles will be displayed. ================================================================ Andrew has over 20 years experience providing personal and business coaching specialising in strategic planning, continuous improvement,personal development and lifelong learning. There are five ways Andrew can help you drive your business forward… a)provide help and guidance with any of the steps outlined in the article. b)get your free copy of the ezine Webcoach News. c)highly relevant articles on website marketing and promotion d)check out the wealth of material on the main website e)submit a detailed request for help regarding working at home or running a business on the ‘net. 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