Swot Analysis The Swot - 1888 Words

The SWOT analysis, a strategic planning tool was developed by Albert Humphrey in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Albert is said to have come up with this strategic planning tool through the use of data the Fortune 500 companies in the United States of America at that time (Lancaster Massingham, 2011). A SWOT analysis determines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, which are a relevant part of any organization especially the ones that get involved in new ventures. This tool assists the users in their quest to make wise and informed decisions. A SWOT analysis is mostly used together with other tools to determine the direction of a business venture. It can be used to analyze places, people, products or industries. It involves the†¦show more content†¦SWOT is an acronym for strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (Bohm, 2009). Company or organizational strengths include the characteristics that make it advantageous over the rest. Weaknesses on the other hand are the disadvantageous attributes of a business, people or project in comparison to others. Opportunities represent the external factors that are likely to help an organization to achieve part or all of its objectives. Threats represent the external factors which may be harmful to an organization hindering it from achieving all or part of its objectives. Internal and external factors of a SWOT analysis are different. The internal factors are the previous experiences as well as the resources of an organization or company. Some of the things to be considered as the internal factors include the human resources, physical resources, finances, and the past experiences. Human resources may include the staff of an organization, volunteers, the targeted population as well as the company’s or organization’s board members (Pahl Ritcher, 2009). On the other hand, the physical resources are such as the location of a business, the characteristics of the building or the equipment used. Some of the questions to ask oneself during consideration of the physical resources include whether the building is in a prime location or needs renovation. Financial resources are such