SWOT-analysis is a tool where you can find out your own Strengths and Weaknesses as well as looking for Opportunities and Threats you face now or will face in the future. It is a simple method but nevertheless quite powerful to help you understand your business and how to act in the future.

The SWOT analysis is often presented in a worksheet or diagram with four boxes

In the diagram you can write down Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

There are of course a number of questions you could write down the answers for in this diagram and after that try to make an analysis.

Several criteria could be placed in more than one of the boxes and could for instance both be a Threat and an Opportunity.

Strengths and Weaknesses are considered to be internal to your business or organisation while Opportunities and Threats are more depending on external factors. It is of course also possible to try to analyse your competitors through a SWOT-analysis even though you probably do not have all data available to be sure how correct the analysis is.

Try to make the analysis not too big and complicated, just finish up not exceeding 4-10 sentences in each box.

With a good analysis you can focus to decrease threats and take advantage of your business opportunities.

You might also make an SWOT analysis on a personal basis to identify your own opportunities and threats.

Source: Managing Innovation and R&D Processes in EU Environment, 2007