1. SWOT
NOR SYAZWANI BT NORIZAN (B1320077)
SITI NURSHAKIRAH BT ADAM (B1320025)
NOR LIYANA BT NORIZAN (B1320062)

2. What is a SWOT Analysis?
■ Ancronym for Strenghts, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats.
■ Technique is credited to Albert Humphrey who led
a research project at Stanford University in the
1960s and 1970s.
■ Planning tool used to understand Strenghts,
Waknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in
a project/ business.
■ Used as framework for organizing and using data
and information gained from situation analysis of
internal and external environment.
■ Technique that enables a group / individual to
move from everyday problems / traditional
strategies to fresh perspective.

3. STRENGTHS
■ Characteristics of the business or a team that give it an
advantage over others in the industry
■ Positive tangible and intangible attributes, internal to an
organization.
■ Beneficial aspects of the organization or the capabilities of
an organization, which includes human competencies,
process capabilities, financial resources, products and
services, customer goodwill and brand loyalty.
■ Examples -, Well-known brand name,, Lower costs [raw
materials or processes], Superior management talent,
Better marketing skills, Good distribution skills, Committed
employees.

4. WEAKNESSES
■ Characteristics that place the firm at a disadvantage
relative to others.
■ Detract the organization from its ability to attain the
core goal and influence its growth.
■ Weaknesses are the factors which do not meet the
standards we feel they should meet. However,
sometimes weaknesses are controllable. They must be
minimized and eliminated.
■ Examples - Limited financial resources, Limited
distribution, Higher costs, Out-of-date products /
technology, Weak market image, Poor marketing
skills, Limited management skills.

5. OPPORTUNITIES
■ Chances to make greater profits in the environment -
External attractive factors that represent the reason for
an organization to exist & develop.
■ Arise when an organization can take benefit of
conditions in its environment to plan and execute
strategies that enable it to become more profitable.
■ Organization should be careful and recognize the
opportunities and grasp them whenever they arise.
Opportunities may arise from market, competition,
industry/government and technology.
■ Examples - Rapid market growth, Changing customer
needs/tastes, New uses for product discovered,
Economic boom, Sales decline for a substitute product
.

6. THREATS
■ External elements in the environment that could cause
trouble for the business - External factors, beyond an
organization’s control, which could place the
organization’s mission or operation at risk.
■ Arise when conditions in external environment jeopardize
the reliability and profitability of the organization’s
business.
■ Examples - Entry of foreign competitors, Changing
customer needs/tastes, Rival firms, adopt new strategies,
Increased government regulation, Economic downturn.

7. Aim of SWOT Analysis
■ To help decision makers share and compare ideas.
■ To bring a clearer common purpose and understanding
of factors for success.
■ To organize the important factors linked to success and
failure in the business world.
■ To analyse issues that have led to failure in the past.
■ To provide linearity to the decision making process
allowing complex ideas to be presented systematically.

8. Who needs SWOT Analysis?
■ Job Holder
– When supervisor has issues with work output
– Assigned to a new job
– New financial year-fresh target
– Job holder seeks to improve performance on the job
■ Business Unit
– When the team has not met its target
– Customer service can be better
– Launching a new business unit to persue a new business
– New team leader is appointed
■ Company
– When revenue, cost & expense targets are not being achived
– Market share is declining
– Industry condition are unfavourable
– Launching a new business venture

9. How to conduct SWOT Analysis?
Use the following 8 steps to conduct a SWOT analysis.
1. Decide on the objective of your SWOT analysis
■ To get the most out of your SWOT analysis, you should have a question or objective in mind from
the start. For example, you could use a SWOT analysis to help you decide if you should introduce a
new product or service, or change your processes.
2. Research your business, industry and market
■ Before you begin the SWOT analysis you need to do some research to understand your business,
industry and market. Get a range of perspectives by talking to your staff, business partners and
clients. Also conduct some market research and find out about your competitors.
3. List your business's strengths
■ The first step is to identify and list what you think are your business's strengths. Examples could
include strengths relating to employees, financial resources, your business location, cost
advantages and competitiveness.
■ At this stage of the SWOT analysis, the list does not need to be definitive. Any ideas and thoughts
are encouraged. Step 7 is where the list is prioritised.
4. List your business's weaknesses
■ List things in your business that you consider to be weaknesses (i.e. that put your business at a
disadvantage to others). Weaknesses could include an absence of new products or clients, staff
absenteeism, a lack of intellectual property, declining market share and distance to market.
■ Make sure you address the weaknesses raised in your SWOT analysis. The list of weaknesses can
indicate how your business has grown over time. When you review the SWOT analysis after a year,
you may notice that your weaknesses have been resolved. While you may find new weaknesses, the
fact that the old ones are gone is a sign of progress.

10. Cont..
5. List potential opportunities for your business
■ Think about the possible external opportunities for your business. These are not the same as your internal strengths, and
are not necessarily definite - an opportunity for one aspect of your business could be a threat to another (e.g. you may
consider introducing a new product to keep up with consumer trends, but your competitors may already have a similar
product). Keep this in mind, but for the SWOT analysis, the same item shouldn't be listed as both an opportunity and a
threat.
■ Opportunities could include new technology, training programs, partnerships, a diverse marketplace and a change of
government.
6. List potential threats to your business
■ List external factors that could be a threat or cause a problem for your business. Examples of threats could include rising
unemployment, increasing competition, higher interest rates and the uncertainty of global markets.
7. Establish priorities from the SWOT
■ When you have completed the steps above, you will have 4 separate lists. Ideally, these lists can be displayed side-by-side
so you can have an overall picture of how your business is running and what issues you need to address. You can then work
out what issues are the most important and what can be dealt with later (i.e. develop 4 prioritised lists).
8. Develop a strategy to address issues in the SWOT
■ Review your 4 prioritised lists by asking:
– How can we use our strengths to take advantage of the opportunities identified?
– How can we use these strengths to overcome the threats identified?
– What do we need to do to overcome the identified weaknesses in order to take advantage of the opportunities?
– How will we minimise our weaknesses to overcome the identified threats?
■ Once you have answered these questions and finalised your lists, you can now use the SWOT analysis to develop strategies
for achieving your business goals.

11. Benefits of SWOT Analysis
■ Knowing the Competion
– Reviews a companys competitors & benchmarks
against them to configure strategies that will put
the company in a competitive advantage.
■ Decision Making Tool.
– Provides well-rounded information that prompt
well-informed decisions.
■ Forecasting
– Provides a variety of information critical to
forecasted variables. Threats, for e.g., can impact
a businesss forecast. By understanding the
company’s advantages & disadvantages,
forecasts will be more accurate.

12. Pitfalls of SWOT Analysis
■ Can be very subjective. Two people rarely come up with the same final
version of a SWOT. Use it as a guide and not as a prescription.
■ May cause organizations to view circumstances as very simple due to
which certain key strategic contact may be overlooked.
■ Categorizing aspects as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats
might be very subjective as there is great degree of uncertainty in
market.
■ To be effective, SWOT needs to be conducted regularly. The pace of
change makes it difficult to anticipate developments.
■ The data used in the analysis may be based on assumptions that
subsequently prove to be unfounded [good and bad].
■ It lacks detailed structure, so key elements may get missed.