SWOT Analysis

Overview: SWOT analysis is a simple framework for generating strategic alternatives from a situation analysis. It is applicable to either the corporate level or the business unit level and frequently appears in marketing plans. SWOT (sometimes referred to as TOWS) stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The General Electric Growth Council used this form of analysis in the 1980's. Because it concentrates on the issues that potentially have the most impact, the SWOT analysis is useful when a very limited amount of time is available to address a complex strategic situation. This concept has been broadly divided in to two categories: Internal analysis and External analysis. Both these factors have been discussed in detail along with the help of a diagram. However, this concept suffers from several limitations. The SWOT framework has a tendency to oversimplify the situation by classifying the firm's environmental factors into categories in which they may not always fit. The classification of some factors as strengths or weaknesses, or as opportunities or threats is somewhat arbitrary. Perhaps what is more important than the superficial classification of these factors is the firm's awareness of them and its development.

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Format: HTML | Date: Jan 2003 | Pages: 1