“Ah, but we did that exercise at business school,” somebody may say. “Isn’t it a bit old-fashioned?” Perhaps, but some of the most successful organisations I know do this exercise properly. They then apply the information to pursue their chosen strategy and achieve ongoing success. Imagine you are leading a team or organisation. Let’s explore how you can use this approach in your own way.

1) You can clarify your team’s strengths and opportunities.

Start by exploring the ‘Green’ side of the SWOT analysis – the strengths and opportunities. Later you can move to the ‘Amber’ and ‘Red’ sides. Looking at your team, ask yourself the following questions. Some are basic – some are more stretching. Answering these properly can provide the springboard to success.

Strengths

Our strengths

“Let’s start by focusing on our specific strengths. What are our ‘A’ talents? What do we deliver brilliantly? What do our customers really buy from us? What are the strengths of our product? What are the strengths of our people? What do our customers buy regarding our people – their care, professionalism, relationships, strategic thinking, implementation skills, creativity, quirkiness or whatever? What are the actual things that customers say about how we help them to succeed?”

Our success stories

“Let’s consider our positive history. Looking back, when have we done great work for customers? What are the specific success stories? Let’s explore these examples in detail. How did we get the specific pieces of work? What did the customers require? How did we clarify their goals? How did make clear contracts with the customers? How did we select the right people to do the work? What did our people do right to perform great work? What qualities did our people demonstrate? How did they add that ‘touch of class?’ What were the actual words that customers used about us afterwards? Looking at those great pieces of work, what principles did we follow? How can we follow those principles in the future?”

Our specific customers

“Let’s consider the people with whom we work best. Who are our perfect customers? What is their specific profile? What are the characteristics of these customers? What are the challenges they face? How can we help them to improve their profits, products or people? So who is our target group? How can we help the these customers to achieve success?”

Our service offering

“Let’s consider our the way we work with customers. Great suppliers start by focusing on ‘impact’ - they clarify the real results the customer wants to achieve. They then go through the stages of imagination, implementation and, again, impact. On a scale 0 – 10, how good are we at each of these stages? How do were rate in terms of defining the impact - the real results the client wants to achieve? How do we rate in terms of imagination – being creative and developing imaginative solutions to achieve the results? How do we rate in terms of implementation – translating the ideas into action? How do we rate in terms of delivering the required impact? If appropriate, how can we improve the ratings at each of these stages?”

Our super team

“Let’s take a look internally. What are the specific strengths of the people in the team? Who are the people who embody the spirit we must demonstrate in the future? How do they translate this into practice? Who are the soul players in the team: the people who ensure that we always deliver at least 8/10? Who are the star players who help us to reach 10/10? How do they produce that touch of magic? On a scale 0-10, how would we rate our people in terms of: a) being customer focused; b) doing consistently good work; c) being creative; d) being ‘commercial’? How can we improve the ratings? Let’s list the specific talents of each person – or department - in the team. How can we capitalise on these talents to achieve success?”

Our other assets

“Let’s consider our assets. What are the financial, creative and other assets we have as a team? What are the best things about our products, people and public reputation? Who are the people – backers, customers and others – who will act for us as champions? What other advantages do we have as a team or in the market? How can we use these assets to help us to succeed?

Summarising of our strengths

“Let’s return to the beginning. Looking at our team, what are our strengths? When do we deliver ‘A’s, rather than ‘Bs’ or ‘Cs’? What are the specific things we can deliver to help our customers to succeed? How can we provide outstanding service to our customers? How can we capitalise on our strengths and do what is necessary to succeed?”

Opportunities

Bearing in mind the answers to the preceding questions, you can then move onto identifying the potential opportunities. You may wish to explore some of the following themes.

“What are our opportunities? Looking ahead, what are the trends in the market? What do the customers need today? What will they need in the medium and longer-term? Bearing in mind our strengths, what are the specific ‘products’ we can offer to the market? How will these help our customers to succeed?”

“How can we position what we offer to people? How can we reach our perfect customers? Who are the customers we know already? How can we continue to give great service to these customers? How can we get alongside the key decision-makers in these organisations? How can we clarify their future challenges? How can we reach other customers? What are the opportunities we have to improve our service? What are the actual words we want to hear our customers saying about us? How can we ensure our customers are saying these things? How can we do everything possible to help our customers to succeed??

“Looking at our team, what are our opportunities? How can we build on our people’s strengths? How can we compensate for – or manage – the consequences of their weaknesses? How can we ensure we have the right spirit? How can we communicate the story, the strategy and make sure everybody knows the road to success? How can we make clear contracts with people about their parts in reaching the goals? How can we give them the support required to do the job? How can we do everything possible to achieve success?”

These are some of the questions that people ask on the ‘Green’ side. If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. Looking at your own team, describe its specific strengths and opportunities. Try completing the following sentences.

The team’s strengths are:

*

*

*

The team’s opportunities are:

*

*

*

2) You can clarify your team’s weaknesses and threats.

Let’s move on to the ‘Amber’ and ‘Red’ sides. Looking at your team, you may want to focus on the following themes.

Weaknesses

“Looking at the team, what are our weaknesses? What are the activities in which we deliver ‘Bs’ and ‘Cs’? What are the external weaknesses in relation to our customers? Looking at the total service package, how do we rate in terms of our products, people-skills, procedures – putting the customer first, rather than last – and our packaging? How can we improve in each of these areas? What are the internal weaknesses? Where do we need to improve in terms of our products, people and procedures? Looking at our weaknesses, which of these is it vital to tackle? Which are the top priorities? How can we compensate for – or manage – the consequences of these weaknesses? Who will be in charge of making this happen? What will be happening that will show we have tackled these weaknesses successfully?

Threats

“What are the external threats? What are the trends in the market that may pose challenges? What are the products and services offered by other providers that may pose challenges? Whereabouts is the market diminishing? What are the new opportunities developing in the market? How are we position ourselves to take advantage of both present and future opportunities? How can we stay close to our customers and provide them with outstanding service – both now and in the future? What are the internal threats? How can we implement the right strategy with the right people in the right way? How can we improve our internal systems? How can we be commercially savvy? How can we continue to build a superb team that helps our customers to succeed?”

These are some of the questions that people ask on the ‘Amber’ and ‘Red’ sides. If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. Looking at your own team, describe its weaknesses and threats. Try completing the following sentences.

The team’s weaknesses are:

*

*

*

The team’s threats are:

*

*

*

3) You can apply the team’s SWOT analysis properly to achieve ongoing success.

During the height of the Credit Crunch I worked with several teams that did the SWOT Analysis properly. They then applied to lessons to craft their future strategy. These teams did several things in common. First, they capitalised on their strengths. They focused on what they did brilliantly, rather than spread their resources over too many areas. Second, they clarified their perfect customers. They spent masses of time getting close to these customers, clarifying their challenges and producing some quick wins. Third, they provided great service, virtually lived with the customer and did whatever was required to help the customer to achieve success.

These are obviously eternal principles. The starting point was encouraging people to focus on the teams’ strengths, however, and take advantages of the opportunities. This created a sense of energy, enterprise and the desire to deliver excellence. The teams are now doing well and thriving in what remains a challenging market.

If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. First, describe how you can build on the team’s strengths. Second, describe how you can take advantage of its opportunities. Third, describe how you can manage its weaknesses and threats. Finally, describe the potential successful strategies. Bearing in mind the results of the SWOT analysis, describe the 3 key things the team can do to give itself the greatest chance of success. Try completing the following sentences.

The SWOT Analysis: How we can use it to
give ourselves the greatest chance of success

The specific things we can do to
build on the team’s strengths are:

*

*

*

The specific things we can do to take
advantage of the team’s opportunities are:

*

*

*

The specific things we can do to compensate for
our weaknesses and manage any key threats are:

*

*

*

Successful strategies

Bearing in mind the answers to the SWOT Analysis, the 3 key things
we can do to give ourselves the greatest chance of success are:

1) To

2) To

3) To

The SWOT Analysis is an old exercise: but great team often revisit it to clarify their future strategy. People who do the exercise properly find it can provide the springboard for achieving ongoing success.