Strategic Management - Assignment Example

Sur Assignment SWOT is a marketing analytic tool that is utilized to evaluate the internal and external environments of a company. The acronym SWOT refers to the four factors that are analyzed by the tool which are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The analytic tool can be used to enhance the capabilities of the firm and to evaluate its competitive landscape. One of the benefits of SWOT is that it can be used to improve the productivity and efficiency of a business entity. “It is effective because the analysis covers a wide spectrum of business environment during data collection” (Foong, 2012).

A third advantage of SWOT is that the tool can be used for strategic management purposes. A fourth advantage of using SWOT to evaluate a business is its simplicity and versatility. Despite the benefits of using SWOT, the tool also has its cons and limitations. One of the inherent weaknesses of the tool is that different people might evaluate companies using subjective factors. For instance, a manager that is biased might perform a SWOT analysis using favorable data that might be misleading. The success of SWOT is dependent on methodologies utilized by the business analyst and the eagerness of the management team to implement the recommendations identified by the analysis.

Another weakness of SWOT is that the analysis can be simplistic and not actionable (Britt, 2012). Sometimes people that used SWOT focus too much on gathering information instead of interpreting the information and finding solutions to the challenges the company faces.ReferencesBritt, T. (2012). The Pro & Cons of SWOT. eHow. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/info_10010752_pro-cons-swot.html Foong, L.M. (2012). Pros and Cons of Doing SWOT Analysis. Articleslash. Retrieved from http://www.articleslash.

com/Business/Strategic-Planning/235121__Pros-and-Cons-of-Doing-SWOT-Analysis.html