1.5 - About University

3.3 SWOT: STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES,O PPORTUNITIES, AND T HREATSInspired by Alexander Hiam, David Ulrich et al., Peter Drucker, and others.In preparation for formulating strategy, leaders need to examine the current state of their organizations,both inside and out. A common preliminary step to strategy clarification is anEnvironmental Scan or SWOT—brainstorming and assessing the Strengths, Weaknesses,Opportunities, and Threats to your organization, business unit, or team. Besides using SWOTwithin your organization, it also needs to be carried out looking at your organization from theoutside. Peter Drucker boldly states, “Executives of any large organization are woefully ignorantof the outside… . When it comes to outside data, we are still very largely in the anecdotal stage.”Make sure the data is thoroughly clarified, since you will make strategic decisions based onthis data.✔✔Strategy must be built on reliable and clear assumptions, not on hunches and unstatedassumptions.Good strategy capitalizes on the current strengths and opportunities, as well as shoringup weaknesses and preparing for threats.Although the concept of SWOT seems simple, its execution can be challenging. SWOT datais best generated within your workgroup, so you can assess the quality of the data, the group’sunderstanding of the data, and the depth of the group’s commitment to formulating strategy.It also helps to approach SWOT from many perspectives (e.g., an internal perspective, the perspectiveof customers or competitors, short-term and long-term perspectives, and so on).Key strengths(clearly listed and prioritized)Key opportunities(clearly listed and prioritized)(clearly listed and prioritized)Key weaknesses(clearly listed and prioritized)Key threats76 SECTION 3 TOOLS FOR STRATEGIC THINKING