Brightmoon Consulting & Training

One of the most commonly used tool for strategic analysis is the SWOT. SWOT is acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Strengths and Weaknesses represents what are within an
organization's direct control. SW analysis is basically inward looking and analysis. Some people call it internal analysis or soul searching. You ought to be really sincere and frank about strengths (don't over rate them) and weaknesses (don't under rate them). Admitting to have a weakness may not seem favourable to certain people or organization !!

Strengths are positive attributes for an organization. They are the internal factors that will contribute for the continuous survival or progress of the organization.  And it must not be something that everyone has as that does not give you any advantage.


To identify your strengths, ask yourself these kind of questions:-
i) What do I have that my competitors don't have ?
ii) Why are my customers coming back to me ?
iii) Why I am able to still gain profit ?
iv) Why do my products and/or services sell well ?

Weaknesses are negative attributes for an organization. They are internal factors that are detrimental for the organization or its business. To identify your weaknesses, ask yourself these kind of questions :-

i) Do my employees constantly complaining about a HR policy ?
ii) What do my competitors have that I don't have or hard to get or failed to retain ?
ii) Why is my competitor gaining higher market share every year ?
iii) Why are my staffs leaving the organization to join a competitor?

Opportunities and Threats are outward looking. Its external analysis. It
about analysing what are happening out there that concerns you directly and indirectly. Its about being sensitive to political, economical and
environmental changes that are happening and going to happen in the
immediate near future.

Opportunities are positive happenings. If it happens it is going to give positive impact to you or organization. You will usually capitalize on your strengths to benefit from the opportunity. An opportunity can also help to reduce the negative impact of your weakness.

Threats are something everybody wish they will not face. However reality is that it will be always there. Dealing with threats will increase your cost of doing business.. But you might vanish if you choose to ignore them. The point is to face and address them. But how would you do that if you don't know what are the threats that you are facing now and are sure to come ?

To identify your opportunities and threats, ask yourself these kind of questions  :-
i) Is there any new trade agreement going to be signed between Malaysia and Thailand ?
For example, a trade agreement between Malaysia and Thailand,  can be an opportunity or threat to an organization depending on where they are  in  the value chain and what are being discussed or agreed in the agreement. 
ii) General election is scheduled to happen early next year. How is it going to impact my business ?
iii) The KLIA airport is expected to be closed for 2-3 weeks in December due to forecasted very bad whether and typhoon. How is it going to impact my business ?

If you need help for someone to facilitate your discussion, do contact us.

In this social computing and knowledge management era, companies are moving very fast. They have to. Otherwise, they will loose out to competition. But some companies are simply doing what others especially their competitors are doing like the road runner who will always end up getting hurt.

The question is, are you moving to the right direction ? How can you analyze it ? How can you validate it ? It is not so easy but it is not impossible either.

There are many tools that we can use to analyze whats coming, are we ready for them, if not what do we need to do,  are we moving to the right direction, are we doing the right things and many more questions at the strategic level.

In the next few weeks, we will write about what are those tools and and what kind of discussions you can have with your colleagues to help you develop your strategy and set your company direction.