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SWOT your Situation

Best Foot Forward in New Season

By Ian Hubble, TIAR Dairy Centre ( from Tassie Dairy News Issue 6 July 2009)

A SWOT analysis (where SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) is a classic business improvement tool used by organisations and big businesses to better understand their strengths and weaknesses and think about the environment in which they operate. It reveals opportunities that can be taken advantage of and actions that can reduce the impact of threats. A SWOT is a useful thing for any business, including a dairy farm business, to do in order to operate in a “smarter” manner.

A SWOT analysis can also be used at an individual level to ‘self assess’ the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that you and your staff individually bring to your dairy business. This is particularly useful to identify; gaps in expertise and which people to team with outside your business that possess the skills that you lack. A SWOT can also be used to identify training and career development needs to allow your business to take best advantage of the talents, abilities and opportunities that you have on offer.

Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses

A quick way to uncover your strengths and weaknesses is to ask yourself the following questions. Also ask people you trust among family and friends for an objective opinion.

Strengths:

  • What advantages (e.g. skills, experience, education or connections) do you have that others don’t have?
  • What do you do better than others?
  • What personal resources do you have access to?
  • What do other people see as your strengths?

Weaknesses:

  • What are your limitations?
  • What are gaps in your capabilities and what skills do you need to develop?
  • What do you do badly or should you avoid?
  • What could you improve on?
  • What do other people see as your weaknesses?

Examining Opportunities and Threats

A quick way to determine your opportunities and threats is to think about your external environment and ask yourself the following questions.

Opportunities:

  • What opportunities are available to you?
  • What are interesting trends you are aware of?
  • Do your strengths open up any opportunities?
  • Does eliminating weaknesses open up any opportunities?
  • What external influences can help you?

Threats:

  • What obstacles do you face?
  • What external influences are hindering you?
  • Is your job (or the demand for the things you do) changing?
  • Is changing technology threatening your position?
  • Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten you?

Just as your strengths can often bring opportunities, your weaknesses can often bring threats. Check the weaknesses you’ve listed, and make sure that you’ve identified any threats that could come from them. Then plan to change your situation through planned action.

Take Action

Your strengths are your major asset. Put them to work. And even be thankful for your weaknesses as, when addressed, they may become the source of new strengths required in the future. Explore possible opportunities with a view to capitalising on them. Investigate possible threats, with a view to eliminating, managing or minimising them.

The future will require you and your business to be even better than now at what you do. A SWOT analysis at both a business and individual level can give you a new perspective about your business and its staff, and a foundation for moving forward in changing and challenging times.