Now its time to identify and agree upon your strengths, weaknesses, and trends (SWT).
Recap: Instructions on completing strengths, weaknesses & trends
A SWT helps the team get clarity on the current state of the business. You will be gathering data on the internal strengths and weaknesses and the external trends that may impact or inform the development of your strategy.
To ensure you create a realistic view of your current state we encourage you to seek input from other stakeholders including customers and employees.
Strengths
Strengths are internal factors that your business has that give you an advantage over others.
Examples may include.
- Strong brand recognition
- Proprietary technology
- Robust financial resources
- Highly skilled workforce
- High level of repeat business
- Efficient, well-documented processes and systems
- Flexibility or scalability of operations
- Extensive distribution network
- Effective strategic partners
- Unique product offering
Weaknesses
Weaknesses are internal factors that may limit or impact your business’s ability to achieve its goals and reach your vision.
Weaknesses are factors that may put your business at a disadvantage to others - and are things your business doesn’t do well or needs to improve.
Examples may include:
- Lack of brand recognition
- Outdated technology
- Ineffective marketing or business development processes
- Limited financial resources
- Poor customer retention
- High staff turnover or organisational cultural issues
- Limited innovation ability
- Ineffective leadership
- Inferior product or service quality
Trends
Trends are external factors that need to be considered when you are doing your strategic planning. These are factors that you will not be able to directly control but will need to consider their potential impact. Consider both present and anticipated conditions.
Examples could be
- Changes in consumer preferences or attitudes
- Technology advances
- Legislative changes
- Economic downturn
- New markets opening up or closing in your industry.
- A new competitor entering the market or a competitor exiting.
- Mergers or acquisitions
- Supply chain changes or potential disruptions.
💡 Use a whiteboard with sticky notes, or a digital whiteboard (Miro, Canva).
💡 Here is a Miro template for identifying strengths, weaknesses & trends.
Step 1: Agree on your strengths
- Each leader in turn puts up strengths they think are inherent in the business.
- The next leader can group ideas on the board they believe belong together.
- They can also show agreement with ones already up by an indicating ‘vote’
- Challenge each other. Be wary of broad statements (‘our culture, our people, our customer service’)
- Only record data relevant to your strategy
- Agree on 4 - 6 true strengths of your business.
Ask - ‘Which of these strengths could we leverage to build a winning strategy?’ (The best strategies leverage your existing strengths)
Step 2: Agree on your weaknesses
- Follow the same process as you did for strengths.
- Identify weaknesses you agree need to be addressed or overcome.
- We're not looking for everyday operational weaknesses, we're looking at the big strategic issues.
- Don’t go into problem-solving your weaknesses (we're in data-gathering mode NOT solution mode).
Step 3: Identify trends
- Discuss and agree on industry or market trends that could impact your strategy for success.
- There is no crystal ball, but robust discussion with your team will give you reasonable insight.
Gather Inputs Meeting: Competitors Analysis