Strategic Direction

Is SWOT analysis still fit for purpose?: The management tool has been exploring strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats for decades
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, (2015),"Is SWOT analysis still fit for purpose?", Strategic Direction, Vol. 31 Iss 4 pp. 13 - 15
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Marilyn M. Helms, Judy Nixon, (2010),"Exploring SWOT analysis where are we now?: A review of academic
research from the last decade", Journal of Strategy and Management, Vol. 3 Iss 3 pp. 215-251 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/17554251011064837
Nigel Piercy, William Giles, (1989),"Making SWOT Analysis Work", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 7 Iss 5/6 pp.
5-7 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000001042
Ravi Agarwal, Wolfgang Grassl, Joy Pahl, (2012),"Meta-SWOT: introducing a new strategic planning tool", Journal of
Business Strategy, Vol. 33 Iss 2 pp. 12-21 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02756661211206708

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 Is SWOT analysis still fit for purpose?
The management tool has been exploring strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats for decades

A better class of acronym

There are plenty of clumsy acronyms in the world of business and management research,
the sort of things that have you desperately looking back to remind yourself what those
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initials stand for.

SWOT is not one of them. The strategic management tools acronym strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, threats is simple and catchy, which must have helped to
perpetuate its usage in business and beyond.
The origin of the actual term is unknown. But SWOT analysis has been around now for
several decades during which time it has grown as a key tool for addressing complex
strategic situations by reducing the quantity of information. It can therefore help to improve
decision-making and act as a starting point for strategic planning.
Typically, managers first consider internal strengths and weaknesses (at the top row of the
2 2 grid). These can include image, structure, access to natural resources, capacity and
efficiency, and finance. In the grids bottom row, opportunities and threats might include
customers, competitors; market trends, partners and suppliers; social changes and new
technology, and political, environmental and regulatory issues.

Decade of research
For 10 years, the authors searched peer-reviewed academic research from a database for
SWOT analysis studies and articles to identify uses, trends and recommendations. The
database includes more than 3,000 publications, primarily about business conditions,
management techniques, trends, management practice and theory, corporate strategy,
and the competitive landscape. Ultimately, 142 research studies were examined, looking at
individuals, organizations, industries, and entire countries.
SWOT analysis was often applied to organizational assessments for strategic planning, for
comparing two companies, and for assessing several companies, though not the entire
group of companies comprising an industry. Individual studies were grouped into
subcategories of health care, government and not-for-profit, and for-profit companies.
Not-for-profits included an assessment of quality in the New National Health System at a
large teaching hospital in the UK. Among for-profits was Air China, the countrys largest air
carrier, which had been involved in a total quality management initiative.
SWOT analysis does seem to have been more popularly used for either one organization or
when assessing a number of companies. Two-company studies were rare one involved
an attempt to understand how organizations form their mission and strategies in public
service, focusing on two non-profits in the USA.

DOI 10.1108/SD-02-2015-0024 VOL. 31 NO. 4 2015, pp. 13-15, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0258-0543 STRATEGIC DIRECTION PAGE 13
 Each published industry study was unique. One of the two studies of the nursing industry
set goals based on SWOT analysis results and further assessed the results using metrics
of employee satisfaction, retention and productivity. Other studies used SWOT analysis to
combat personnel shortages in nursing.

Searching the world

Numerous studies used the process to profile non-US industries. To increase tourism in
China and Portugal, both studies recommended a development pattern. In the case of
Portugal, the main constraints to development were identified as governmental control and
over-dependence on EU funds.
Sometimes, two or more countries were examined. One study using SWOT analysis set out
to determine where Information Systems departments should be placed in four universities
in Australia and Korea. Among individual nations coming under scrutiny was Venezuela, to
consider the challenges, especially in oil production, that the country faced. A 2006 report
considered the strategic planning practices of 135 large firms in Turkey. Comparison of
foreign-owned firms and local enterprises indicated that the former adopted a broader and
deeper repertoire of tools and techniques for planning.
Given the pervasiveness of the use of SWOT methodology by both practitioners and
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academicians, it was not surprising that a number of research studies focused on SWOT as
a tool for strategic analysis. This opened up some interesting areas of activity, with one
study examining the concept of political correctness to ascertain its importance in
determining the success of an individual or group.
Apparent strengths and weaknesses emerge constantly within these examinations of
SWOT as a strategic tool. One study suggested that the framework offers incomplete
answers to both researchers and practitioners of marketing strategy unless certain key
issues which are outside the remit are addressed more fully. Another saw SWOT as good
for combating the negative outlook of what it calls prairie dog organizations: enterprises
that do not build enough additional capabilities in the good times because they are too
focused on and good at identifying threats.

Charges of vagueness
The SWOT framework is no longer a new model and can be criticized on as many grounds
as it can be praised. It has had charges of vagueness and over-simplification thrown at it,
and this has led researchers to seek alternative models.
Some observers have suggested that SWOT lacks strategic direction: there are inadequate
strategies in place to take advantage of opportunities while leveraging strengths. The tools
format can be somewhat abrupt and therefore oversimplify more complex business
situations. One critic has even gone so far as to suggest that the fairly indiscriminate list of
variables produced by SWOT has rendered it redundant; others see an excessive concern
with exploiting strengths and developing competencies while failing to examine adequately
the link between incompetence and performance.
No shortage of alternatives and modifications has been suggested down the years. A
number of scholars have proposed alternative methodologies to focus SWOT and enrich
the planning process one such alternative, WOTSUP (and perhaps in danger of entering
unhelpful acronym territory), has the UP standing for Underlying Planning. Another is SOFT,
where weaknesses have been re-identified as Faults. Some have combined available
techniques such as Kaplan and Nortons Balanced Score Card with SWOT.

Static image?
SWOT can be compared to a photograph, rather than a moving image. Perhaps that is
where its greatest weakness lies: it is a snapshot of a point in time. Because the

PAGE 14 STRATEGIC DIRECTION VOL. 31 NO. 4 2015

 environment is constantly changing and new strategies also have an effect on internal
strengths and weaknesses, environmental scanning is needed regularly to update analysis.
It is more important to be aware of factors that can affect strategic planning rather than their
actual classification. An opportunity not taken might well become a threat. Future research
would do well to consider focusing on development of a strategic plan from SWOT analysis
as well as ensuring that variables are ordered and weighted to add focus for decision
makers.
Those who believe SWOT has had its day are very much in a minority. But the analysis of
the tool over a decade provides plenty of food for thought about its future and not least
to ensure that SWOT can present a moving rather than static image of its target.

Comment
This review is based on Exploring SWOT analysis where are we now? by Marilyn M
Helms and Nixon (2010). The authors ask where are we now? and the title says it all
Keywords: because this is a pretty comprehensive of overview of what SWOT has been trying to
Strategic management, achieve over a decade. Proponents will see much here to vindicate its use while dissenters
Research methods, have their say. An overall picture emerges of a strategic tool that might need to evolve, but
SWOT analysis still has plenty to offer.
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Reference
Helms, M.M. and Nixon, J. (2010), Exploring SWOT analysis where are we now?, Journal of Strategy
and Management, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 215-251.

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