What could be external weaknesses and strengths in a business?
A SWOT analysis is the examining of an organisations Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths and Weaknesses are internal to the organisation. Opportunities and Threats are external to the organisation. I think it will be easier for you to identify these if you use the terms ‘Opportunities’ and ‘Threats’ rather than ‘strengths’ and ‘weaknesses’. Opportunities would be things like – competitor mistakes/problems, new markets opening up, change in economic/political climate that can be exploited by the organisation ie enlargement of EU – workforce mobility, dropping of trade barriers and tariffs etc Threats would be as above but opposite; ie competitors revealing marketing leading product/expansion, corporation taxes and trade duties increasing etc etc If you want to be really thorough, you can do a PESTLE analysis which will give you ALL external opportunities and threats of an organisation. Political – new Government policies affecting business? EU effect etc Economic
