Think And Re-think: How To Successfully Gather And Utilize Swot Data

A SWOT Analysis will be pointless without a good SWOT data. It is not only important to gather the data, it is also essential that you know what you are going to do with all those gathered data. People think that since SWOT analysis is too simple and flexible, all they have to do is to compile a haystack of information. Wrong. Once you have enough SWOT data, you have to use it in order to help you have a clear thinking which will eventually lead into good decision-making.

First of all, how do you gather SWOT data? There are several ways that you can use, like:

1.Brainstorming

-Gather up different experts from different departments and discuss your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and strengths. It could either be a formal or informal meeting. This is also the most common way in terms of data gathering.

2.Research

-Researching should be done in order to gather external data. Usually, internet is the most powerful tool in conducting research, thanks to technology advancement that we don’t have to go to libraries nowadays. Newspaper and several literature clippings should be gathered too.

3.External advise

-This is an informal way of gathering SWOT data because usually, this is basically asking for different opinions from different people. Through this process, you will be able to have a different view of things that can affect your project. Keep in mind that there are different perspectives and your job is to use all of these perspectives, rank it through majority and utilize it for your venture’s success.

Now that you have enough SWOT data, what are you going to do with it? First, you have to sort out each data by relative importance. If you are going to consider every idea, you will be filled with a lot of information and the strategy will be strayed. Assess which ideas and information are relevant for your venture. Rank each SWOT data according to what should be given enough attention to first and start with that.

Next, is to re-sort them. Now that you have ranked all the information, you have to conduct a little soul-searching and re-asses those information on a realistic level. Think hard in order to come up with answers to the question “why”. Why do you think this particular thing is strength, a weakness, an opportunity or a threat?

Finally, trim down all the categories to say, five to six items. Eliminate all the irrelevant SWOT data and focus on the critical issues. These critical issues can be determined, once again, based on relevance to the venture and your target marketplace.

If you will review those steps in gathering SWOT data, you will notice that it is a process in which you have to think and rethink, over and over. This is because there are a lot of things that revolve around your organization and if you are going to go through that one by one, you will lose your direction. SWOT Analysis is not the only strategic planning tool that you can use so there is no need to have all those information fit in one single tool. Remember that your focus is to ensure profitability, hence, focus on that.

By: Sam Miller

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