SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)

SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) is a structured framework for assessing a company's internal strengths and weaknesses alongside external opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the organization — resources, capabilities, reputation — while opportunities and threats come from outside it, such as market trends, competitor moves, or regulation.

It's typically built from structured input across stakeholders, supported by data from competitive intelligence, market share trends, and estimates of total addressable market, rather than as a pure brainstorming exercise. Each item is usually followed by a "so what" — how a strength can be leveraged, how a threat should be mitigated — since the grid alone doesn't produce a strategy on its own.

SWOT is widely used because it's simple and accessible across levels of an organization, and works well as an input to a broader planning process such as scenario planning. Common pitfalls include items listed too vaguely to act on (for example, "strong brand" with no specifics), factors placed in the wrong quadrant because the internal/external distinction was blurred, and treating the finished grid as the strategy itself rather than as an input that still needs prioritization and a decision.