difference between swot analysis and bcg matrix

Left out markets and geographical territories?.Example of Opportunities in SWOT Analysis Opportunities are presented to a firm by the external environment factors like Competitors in the industry, government norms in the industry, prevelant market tactics and strategies, so on and so forth. Important is to list all the opportunities possible to the firm, and then decide whether the opportunities can be explored by the firm. So if there is an opportunity, it can be negated by a weakness or even a strength. Remember – SWOT is made of four quadrants and each quadrant supports and helps in decision making. It is not necessary that all these opportunities will be explored. The crux of a SWOT analysis is to find out opportunities which are available to the brand. Same ways, Apple’s Iphone was a game changer as well due to its OS and hardware. While Nokia thought its OS was its strengths, it turned out that Symbian OS was in fact a weakness and Android soon took over. Knowing your weaknesses can help your firm ward off threats and can also increase the opportunities available to the firm.Įxample – Nokia at one time thought that its Symbian OS was unbeatable and it did not adopt to Android. Losing brand equity or too much competition? So there is no use expanding into that particular territory.įrom the basic example above, it can be seen that the SWOT matrix can help you with quicker decision making and can also help you with future planning. The new territory i am planning already runs on a VERY low price. My sales staff is already overloaded, so how will it handle a new territory? Finally – i have to look at my threats. If a firm wants to grow, it needs to use all the four quadrants of the matrix to come to decisions regarding growth of the firm.Įxample – If i have an opportunity to expand to a new market, then i have to look at my strengths – Do i have the financial stability to expand? I also have to look at my weaknesses. This is why Opportunities and threats are considered as External environment factors. Such external factors give new opportunities to the firm but also bring new threats to the company. Example – If the government policies are favorable, if the market is booming or any such positive or negative factors belong to the external environment. All opportunities to any organization are a factor of External environment. The external environment factors are the Opportunities and threats. Hence, the internal analysis must be done correctly and a consultant with a neutral point of view should be used if needed. A wrong analysis means that the company might think it has great strengths or very few weaknesses.

These are considered as internal environment analysis and should be done with a neutral view point. Among the above, strengths and weaknesses are something that the organization needs to decide for itself.

Difference between swot analysis and bcg matrix