What is SWOT Analysis? What are Internal and External Factors?
SWOT is a term that describes the exact Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that are critical aspects of a given firm. A SWOT analysis must highlight a company's fundamental skills while also recognizing potentials that it cannot presently explore owing to a lack of resources.
Due to its accessibility and effectiveness in strategic planning, the SWOT analysis framework has acquired widespread attention. A SWOT analysis, like any other tool for planning, can only be as useful as the data that enters into it. It is critical to do research and collect correct data in order to discover important concerns in an organizational field.
What are internal and External Factors?
Internal factors influence and can modify the strengths and weaknesses, which can influence and can modify an organization. Examples include your team members, patents and proprietary information, and geographical area.
External risks and possibilities are events that occur outside of your organization, or in the bigger market. You can seize opportunities and defend against risks, but you can't transform them. Examples are competition, raw material pricing, and consumer purchasing habits. A SWOT analysis lists your main strengths, weaknesses, possibilities, and risks in a simple two-by-two grid.
What is the Difference Between Internal and External Analysis?
When it concerns SWOT analysis, it involves both internal and external factors.
Internal variables determine a company's strengths and weaknesses. These can involve anything from team members to available resources. They are simply the experience/labor and resources at your disposal. However, the external factors in the study are possibilities and risks. These are all external factors — unmanageable forces — that can have an impact on the way things play out.
Internal Analysis: Opportunities and Weaknesses
There are various aspects that are essential to any analysis undertaken when evaluating what forces within the firm will affect any given conclusion. It involves:
- Physical Resources
Every property and resource, like computers, vehicles, geographical areas, buildings, and any accompanying equipment, are included. When it runs smoothly, it is a strength; nevertheless, when it requires maintenance, costly taxes, or other inadequacies, it transforms into a weakness.
- Processes
How the firm hierarchy factors are involved- if there is an internal power struggle or inadequate management, both of which are weaknesses and it can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of any potential initiatives. Workflow procedures, software used, employee programs, and other methods employed at work inside the firm have a significant effect on the result of any activities or decisions taken. The nature of those effects determines if they are strengths or weaknesses.
- Human Resources
This phrase is frequently used to refer to workers, but in this situation, it refers to anybody who has an impact on the result of any strategic decision. Human behaviors determine a wide range of results, from consumers and targeted audiences to contributors and the workforce. A workforce is a strength if it is efficient and profitable, but it turns into a weakness when it is aging or impaired. The capability to satisfy consumer demand is a strength, while the incapability to address that need is a weakness.
- Financial Resources
Savings, debts, investments, and any other applicable capital, liability, or revenue are all included. Government benefits are strengths, whereas debts are weaknesses.
External Factors: Possibilities and Risks
The world from outside the company's doors is full of risks and possibilities, and everything is external. Here are a few examples:
- Demographics
Demographics can be defined as how individuals and their age, class, culture, habits, and location can impact a company, which also includes aging clients, urban gentrification, and people relocating to other states or cities. A high school near a café, for example, can be an advantage for 10 months of the year, but the lack of every day hungry teenagers can be a risk during the summer season.
- Market Shifts
Factors like new technology, the latest products, new competition, and market demands, every one of these market-related changes can bring opportunities or risks to a business. A company can control how it responds to market shifts or if it decides to ignore them. For example, a pizza shop with an overworked delivery driver could receive negative feedback when deliveries are slow, which is a weakness, but switching to a third-party delivery company while creating awareness for itself via delivery app listings can lead to new consumers and few operational costs (opportunities).
- Economic Trends
The dynamics of the global economy are completely beyond the power of any company. Nobody knows when the president will demand additional trade tariffs. Nobody can predict the rise and fall of markets or the collapse of a local summer economy due of a sudden forest fire that can close down the town at least for a month. These situations are packed with possibilities and risks for an organization.
Importance of SWOT Analysis
It is essential to comprehend that a company does not operate in isolation and must consider both internal and external variables. A SWOT analysis will offer a comprehensive insight into the organization's position in the market and identify potential possibilities.
Benefits
- It can be implemented at several levels within a firm, ranging from an individual to a corporate strategy.
- It provides a clear picture of the most important internal and external aspects.
- It is simple to grasp because it is a simple diagram without any calculations.
- It is highly visible, which makes it simpler to communicate with stakeholders.
- It aids in determining future objectives and developing a strategy to achieve them.
Can a strategy be Developed as a Result of a SWOT Analysis?
SWOT analysis alone will not result in a strategy. It is both an analysis and a development tool. Yet, management must focus on interpreting the analysis and making judgments. When used correctly, it is a valuable tool for assisting your ideas. It is also simple to do a SWOT analysis that does not result in a strategy. In general, failure is caused by two factors: a lack of understanding of what a strategy is, and an inappropriate application of SWOT.
Author's Detail:
Aparna Dutta / LinkedIn
Experience in Blog creation, Article Submission and Blog posting. I specialize in writing engaging blog posts for Market research and business insights. A person who believes in the principle of time and works towards perfection.
Author's Detail:
Aparna Dutta /
LinkedIn
Hello, I am a content writer with 3.5 years of experience. I have experience in various fields of content writing. For example, I have worked in a market research organization where I had to write content related to the reports that the company used to generate to improve their Google ranking. Other than that, I have also worked in website content as well as technical content for print and digital media magazines. Apart from this I am very flexible as a person and can adjust easily.