Framework library · Strategic planning
SWOT analysis
A SWOT sets what the business does well and badly against what is changing around it. It is only useful when it is filled in against one question, with evidence behind each line, and then read across: which strength meets which opportunity, and which weakness meets which threat.
Use it when
- A specific decision is on the table, such as entering a market or launching a product, and the team needs a shared view of where it starts from.
- You are opening a strategy cycle and want the internal and external picture on one page before choosing which deeper analysis to run.
- A new leader or investor needs to see quickly how the business sees itself, and where the team disagrees.
Avoid it when
- There is no question attached. A general SWOT describes everything and decides nothing.
- You need to size a market, rank options or value a deal. SWOT sorts statements; it does not measure them.
- The external picture is unknown. Run a PESTLE or Five Forces first, or the opportunities and threats will be guesses.
How to run it
Write the question first
Put the decision at the top: "Should we launch a mobile service in our fibre footprint in 2027?" Every line below has to bear on it.
List strengths and weaknesses relative to competitors
A strength is something you do better than the alternatives the customer has, not something you do well. Write each as a fact you could show someone.
List opportunities and threats from outside
Changes in customers, competitors, technology, regulation and the economy. They belong here only if they would happen whatever you do.
Ask for the evidence on every line
Mark anything that is belief rather than fact and either check it or drop it. Three evidenced lines beat ten asserted ones.
Read across the quadrants
Pair strengths with opportunities (moves to make), strengths with threats (defences), weaknesses with opportunities (what to fix or buy) and weaknesses with threats (exposures to manage).
Turn the pairs into choices
Two or three strategic options come out of the reading. Write them in the so-what section and decide which deeper tool tests each one.
Work through it
Answer the questions below, or load the worked example to see a finished one. The drawing updates as you type. Export the result as a PowerPoint deck, a Word document, an Excel workbook, a PDF or plain text.
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Mistakes to avoid
- Writing internal facts as opportunities ("our new CRM") or market facts as strengths ("growing demand"). Internal goes left, external goes right.
- Listing strengths the customer cannot see or does not value. A strength counts only against the customer's alternatives.
- Stopping at the four lists. The value is in the pairings, which most SWOTs never reach.
- Letting the most senior person write it. Collect lines silently first, then discuss.
Where it comes from
Developed around 1965 at the Stanford Research Institute by a long-range planning team led by Robert F. Stewart, as SOFT (satisfactory, opportunities, faults, threats), and later relabelled; Albert Humphrey, a member of that team, carried it into consulting. The familiar attribution to Harvard's business policy course is not supported by the archive (Puyt, Lie and Wilderom, "The origins of SWOT analysis", Long Range Planning 56(3), 2023). Reading the quadrants against each other is Heinz Weihrich's TOWS matrix ("The TOWS matrix: a tool for situational analysis", Long Range Planning 15(2), 1982). Source.
Use it with
Further reading
Work through it with us
The frameworks here are free to use as they stand. If you would rather work through the question behind this one with us, these are the ways an engagement starts.