HOW TO CONDUCT A SWOT ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
The SWOT analysis is a structured method used to scan the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of an organisation on a certain moment. In this tool, we will explain how to
make a SWOT analysis, how to interpret it and how to use it effectively within your organisation. Performing this analysis will pave the road for setting relevant, realistic and useful objectives for your organisation. Your organisation will benefit from a well-executed analysis.
PRE-CONDITIONS
Complexity
LEVEL
1
The SWOT analysis is part of a broader picture: market research. These
tools will also provide input for your SWOT analysis:
“ Get To Know Your Target Groups
“ Unique Selling Points of YFU, Programs and Countries
“ How To Do Basic Market Research
“ How To Conduct a Competitor Analysis
Please see pages 5-9 for an overview of all the tools.
Target group
What is a SWOT analysis?
Office
The SWOT analysis is a simple, systematic approach to assessing the current situation of your organisation. Although it may look simple, it can have
a powerful effect on your organisation.
This tool is comparable to a photograph: it is static and it therefore should
be updated every once in a while in order to stay useful. It can focus on a
specific part of your organisation, or it can be an overall look to the organisation. For this tool, we aim at the overall look.
In the SWOT analysis, we can identify four different factors:
Time
0.5 hour
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HOW TO CONDUCT A SWOT ANALYSIS
Concretely: How to conduct the SWOT analysis?
1.
Preparations
It is recommended to gather as many people as possible. You could conduct the analysis on
your own, but in order to get the most complete and objective results, it might be good to
conduct the SWOT analysis by bringing together a group of people with different perspectives
and stakes in the organisation. Office staff, volunteers, students and even host families could
contribute to some good insights. You could either do it by organising an (encouraging and
motivating!) brainstorming session, or by asking these stakeholders to give an answer to these
questions by using a survey.
You could either use a flip chart, a whiteboard, just a piece of paper or even a digital file. Please
make sure to choose for a medium that fits with (the size) of the group you are working with.
2.
Examples
In order to make things more concrete, please have a look at the following examples.
Strengths
What does your organisation
do well? What do other people or organisations see as
your strengths? Be realistic,
not modest. It might help to
list the characteristics of the
organisation. Some of them
will probably be strengths.
- Age of organisation
- Staff education and experience
- Financial stability
- Transparency
- Reputation
- Strong relationships with government, partners and other
stakeholders
- Lessons learnt from past mistakes and re-use of best practices
- Staff experience
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HOW TO CONDUCT A SWOT ANALYSIS
Weaknesses
Ask yourself questions about
what the organisation
could improve or what it
should avoid. Consider
these questions from different perspectives. It is
best to be realistic and to
face your organisation’s
weaknesses as soon as possible.
Opportunities
Opportunities are the things
your organisation has
no control over, but could
potentially take
advantage of. What opportunities are there for your
organisation? Of what interesting trends are you
aware?
Threats
What obstacles could confront your organisation? Is
the economic downturn able
to affect your organisation?
Is changing government policy
threatening your position as
organisation in this society?
- Lack of education and experience
- Funding problems
- Poor website
- Low public awareness
- Board inefficiency/weak management
- Poor internal communication
- New grants available
- Influential connections
- Companies looking for cause marketing
opportunities
- Good community response
- Support from media
DESTEP:
- Demographical: Increase of adolescents
- Economical: Economic revival
- Socio-cultural: Globalisation
- Technical: New online communication
channels available
- Ecological: Increase in ecological
awareness – nature programs
- Political: Supportive external and relevant
thematic policies/laws
- Recent bad press
- Rising vendor costs
- Security problems in a region
- Lack of interest at the community level
- Lack of access to target groups and locations
DESTEP:
- Demographical: Decreasing number of households that are
able to host a student
- Economical: Sustainability problems due to lack or elimination of funding
- Socio-cultural: Xenophobia
- Technical: Big part of society has no access to internet
- Ecological: Increasing number of people is not willing to fly
ecological unfriendly
- Political: Government restrictions and lack of political will
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HOW TO CONDUCT A SWOT ANALYSIS
Remarks
Please make sure that you put the items in each category in an order from most to least important.
In order to be able to define the external factors, it might be an idea to have a look at the tool
‘How to do a basic market research’(pg 98).
A strength could be a weakness at the same time. Experienced staff members are often a
strength, but they may also be too comfortable, set in their ways or have a certain tunnel vision
(weakness). Can you frame your loss of government funding as an opportunity for major donors
to step up?
3.
Your turn!
The goal is to fill out the following boxes:
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
Summary
For assessing the current situation of your organisation, the SWOT analysis is a very usable
tool.
This tool will help you to have a look at internal and external factors that either have a positive
or negative influence on your organisation.
Concerning the external part of the analysis, it might be useful to use the DESTEP analysis. This
analysis tool can help you to ensure that you do not overlook any external factors, such as government regulations or social patterns.
Remember that your weaknesses and threats can be converted into strengths and opportunities
by looking at them differently.
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