SWOT analysis
A SWOT analysis sorts an organisation's internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats into a two-by-two grid, giving strategy-setting a specific, evidenced starting picture rather than an assumed one.
See it move
A furniture maker's SWOT: a strength, its finishing lets it charge €260 against a €200 market average, a 30% premium; a weakness, timber is 55% of its cost base against a typical 40%; an opportunity, a new nearby retailer expected to bring 200 extra customers a year; a threat, a tariff adding €5,400 a year to imported hardware.
Check yourself
A bakery chain's SWOT analysis notes that its ovens let it produce bread with a labour cost of €0.36 per loaf, against a market average of €0.45 per loaf — a saving of €0.09, or 20% below the market average (0.09 ÷ 0.45 = 0.2). Which classification is correct for this labour-cost figure?