The word “SWOT” pronounced like “swat” (as in a horse’s tail swatting a fly), is an acronym for four words: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Let’s take a moment to define what each of these four words means in terms of SWOT analysis.
The word “Strengths” in SWOT refers to the current, internal capabilities of your organization that are superior to those of similar programs. They can help meet a customer need, enable you to better leverage resources, or can provide a base upon which to build. Your strengths should be capitalized on, and replicated everywhere possible.
The word “Weaknesses” in SWOT refers to the current, internal capabilities of your organization that prevent your organization from achieving advantage, meeting customer needs, or achieving strategic goals. Weaknesses should be minimized and/or eliminated.
The word “Opportunities” in SWOT refers to external trends and current or impending events and ideas over which your organization has little or no control. These items represent opportunities to help your organization and should be capitalized on to improve or expand services, asset utilization, or productivity.
The word “Threats” in SWOT refers to external events, both current and impending, outside of your organization’s control that must be considered in future planning. Having an awareness of threats and developing contingency plans within each strategy are key to maintaining stability and making progress toward strategic goals and objectives.
The word “organization” is broader than the Division itself, or any of its individual partner organizations. Because we are developing an inclusive and integrated strategic plan, organization means the Division of Blind Services and its network of strategic partners, such as the Lighthouses and regional libraries, for example, which together form an integrated organization serving common customers.
Note that Strengths and Weaknesses refer to current internal features of your organization, while Opportunities and Threats refer to external forces over which you have little or no control. This distinction, in both time and type, is important.
Now that you understand the definitions of SWOT, let’s discuss what SWOT actually is. “SWOT analysis” is a procedure used by the Division of Blind Services to systematically gather Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats in the organization so that they may be considered during the Strategic Planning Process to create goals, objectives, and detailed action plans. We will explain how to conduct a SWOT analysis later in this course.
SWOT is important because it is part of a systematic method for identifying and prioritizing factors and issues that are important for the selection of effective strategies. SWOT encourages the collection of diverse data so that decisions regarding organizational strategy can be based on accurate information from many perspectives. Without a method for understanding its SWOT, the Division could be at higher risk of choosing strategies and projects with minimal or no benefit.
Previous SWOT analyses since 2003 led to the identification of the following five strategic challenges facing the Division of Blind Services:
These challenges have been addressed in the past several strategic planning cycles and are still relevant today.
Much like a scientific survey ensures that respondents are evenly distributed and that responses represent the many groups being polled, SWOT analysis helps ensure that input from all key stakeholder groups is considered and understood, otherwise the strategic plan may be less effective.