Question

how can you take the results of a SWOT analysis and use as a strategic planning tool, to turn weaknesses into strengths and opportunities?

Answer 1

Once you have defined and prioritized the findings of your SWOT, you can use them to develop strategies for your company in the short and long term. After all, using the outcomes to maximize the positive influences on your company and mitigate the negative ones is the true value of this exercise.

But how do you transform the SWOT results into strategies? One way to do that is to understand how the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks of your company intersect with each other. Sometimes, this is called a TOWS analysis.

Look at the strengths you identified, for example, and then come up with ways to exploit those strengths to maximize opportunities (these are strategies for strength-opportunity). Then, look at how you can use those same strengths to minimize the threats you identified (these are strategies for strength-threats).

Continuing this process, take advantage of the opportunities you have identified to develop strategies to minimize weaknesses (weakness-opportunity strategies) or to avoid threats (weakness-threats).

The table below could help you organize the strategies in each area:

Once you have built plans and have them included in your strategic plan, be sure to schedule frequent updates. Use these meetings to address whether the plans ' results differ from what you've expected (because they're always going to be) and determine what your team's going to do in the future.

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