SWOT analysis is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and is a structured planning method that evaluates those four elements of an organization, project or business venture. A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a company, product, place, industry, or person. It involves specifying the objectives of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve that objective.

Strengths: characteristics of the business or project that give it an advantage over others

Weaknesses: characteristics of the business that place the business or project at a disadvantage relative to others

Opportunities: elements in the environment that the business or project could exploit to its advantage

Threats: elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business or project


Identification of SWOTs is important because they can inform later steps in planning to achieve the objective. First, decision-makers should consider whether the objective is attainable, given the SWOTs. If the objective is not attainable, they must select a different objective and repeat the process.

Users of SWOT analysis must ask and answer questions that generate meaningful information for each category (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to make the analysis useful and find their competitive advantage.