Strengths and weaknesses analysis - In the English-language literature on strategic corporate planning, the strengths and weaknesses analysis is included in the term SWOT analysis. This acronym stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It describes the strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and risks of a company. In contrast to the opportunities and risks (opportunity-risk analysis), the strengths and weaknesses are largely determined by endogenous factors.
In operational practice today, strengths and weaknesses are usually determined through benchmarking. In comparison with the most efficient competitors, the aim is to assess and improve one's own performance. Strengths are characterized by advantages, weaknesses by disadvantages compared to the world's best competitors.
Through a cross-industry comparison, the best practices worldwide can be determined and significant improvements in one's own strengths and reductions in one's own weaknesses can be sought.
Stärken und Schwächen können sich im Marketing auf die marketingpolitischen Instrumente, d. h. die Produktpolitik, die Konditionenpolitik, die Distribution policy and Communication policy, sowie auf das Zusammenwirken der genannten Instrumente im Marketing-Mix beziehen. Zudem wird die Stärken-Schwächen-Analyse eingesetzt, um Vorund Nachteile des eigenen Unternehmens im Vergleich zur Konkurrenz zu ermitteln, insbesondere hinsichtlich Forschung und Entwicklung, Produktion, Logistik, Organisation (Marketing-Organisation), Beschaffung und Finanzierung.
Competitive advantages can be achieved through the development of trend-setting concepts and technologies. The better a company succeeds in realizing this in terms of its own customers and the pursuit of its own corporate goals, the more positive this has on the company's Unique Selling Position or Proposition (USP). The strengths and weaknesses analysis allows you to identify advantages as well as deficits compared to the competition and to derive adequate action plans.
As a rule, every strengths and weaknesses analysis also includes a potential analysis that takes into account the resources that are currently and likely to be available to the company in the future (e.g. financial, physical, technological, human and organizational resources as well as know-how resources through patents , Utility models and designs).
The result of a strengths and weaknesses analysis is usually documented in a strengths and weaknesses profile, which results, for example, from semantic differentials (scales, semantic differential).
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