SWOT Strength Weakness Opportunities Threats see GOPST - Goal Objective Plans Strategies Tactics at http://www.witiger.com/ecommerce/GOPST.htm

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For the students of Prof. W. Tim G. Richardson, Toronto, Canada
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This web page has audio and video clips - just click on the icon (like the one to the left) and you can hear Prof. Richardson's voice adding additional information to topics on the page.

turn on your speakers to hear audio clips

 

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This GOPST and SWOT unit is used in     o MGTD06     o MRK106     o MRK610 and MRK 410     o BCS555     o BUS203     o MGS523     o MGD415     o CCT224

Not all of the material in this unit will be used in each of these courses; the amount of material covered will be indicated by the actual lecture given in class by the professor. Some courses cover this topic extensively, some courses deal with it briefly.

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GOPST related to SWOT

How does GOPST relate to SWOT? If you develop a GOPST, it seems obvious that you don't just want to create Goals for the sake of a theoretical exercise, you must want to actually accomplish those Goals through meeting Objectives which come from carrying out Plans. For those Plans to work, you need to know your strengths and weaknesses so when you are developing Strategies to achieve the Plans, those Strategies will take into account the things you are good at, and can do. So before you can define the specific Tactics which will be used to carry out the Strategy, a SWOT analysis must be done. WTGR

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SWOT

SWOT - Strength Weaknesses Opportunities Threats - this is a concept which students should know from "intro to business" and "intro to marketing" courses. Basically, in simple terms, SWOT Analysis is done to show what you are good at and where you suck, what do you have a chance at doing,  and who is out to make your life miserable ! Many of the business and marketing concepts we refer to in marketing and business, such as the 4Ps, the 5 environments, GOPST, SWOT etc, are all fundamentally important - what is required in the online age is to put them into a context that allows for the cyber dynamic. WTGR

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short video (27 MB) discussing the "reason" for SWOT analysis in the context of developing a    Goal, Objectives, Plans, Strategies & Tactics  youtube.com/watch?v=yPCV6gTi1D4

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SWOT - Strength Weaknesses Opportunities Threats   SWOT analysis is important, and here is an example of SWOT mentioned in a recent newspaper article related to maintaining a competitive situation in the face of great challenges  Charles Belford  Thursday, August 30, 2001  Globe and Mail  Belford says that we should think of our corporate web sites as vehicles for other than just selling  "To understand how new value is being created, dump the notion that the site is simply another medium for retail advertising, only without the retail. Think, rather, of how many different relationships you can have with your customers and how much choice and control you can give them on the site."    ..

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Belford's article (mentioned above) has some good examples  "Visit the Bass Pro Shops site at www.basspro-shops.com. Sure, they have on-line shopping, but look at the many ways they attract and  hold the visitor, apart from the products. The site abounds with sub-sites providing information to hunters and fishermen."  . KEY POINTS examples of basspro-shops.com and other sites that have a community for visitors is something we will explore in more detail in the part of the course that deal with building an "online community". Before you begin worrying about an Online Community - you have to have some idea of your goals and objectives, and you should do a SWOT analysis if you are not sure of what Strengths and Weaknesses you have related to your GOPST. WTGR .

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Examples of information about SWOT analysis in the context of e-business and internet marketing can be found in many places on the Web. We have shown a screen capture below of Dr. Wilson's site - he has a good explanation of SWOT in the context of online circumstances.

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SWOT    If you go to this site, and scroll down, you can see how Dr. Wilson describes an example of how a SWOT Analysis might look for a fictional animal greeting card company.   ..

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www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm

Peter D. of BCS 555 in Sept 2005 found this site about Understanding Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Peter checked their site for permission to link/quote and they have a blanket consent option to permit linking, quoting

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According to mindtools.com, there are several considerations to using a SWOT analysis

mindtools.com suggests that to carry out a SWOT Analysis write down answers to the following questions.

Strengths:

  o What advantages do you have?
  o What advantages do you have compared to your competition?
  o What do you do well?
  o What relevant resources do you have access to?
  o What do other people see as your strengths?

Weaknesses:

  o What could you improve?
  o What do you do badly?
  o What should you avoid?
  o Are there some things you cannot improve, and must therefore hide, or avoid
  o Are there some things you can improve, but it would cost resources (time, money)

Opportunities:

  o What are the interesting trends you are aware of?
 

Useful opportunities can come from such things as:
      o Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow scale
      o Changes in government policy related to your field
      o Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, etc.
      o Events & activities, local, regional, national - piggyback on someone else's energy

  o Threats from the changing Technological Environment
  o Threats from changes to rules and regulations established by the Political Environment
  o Threats from changes in the Economic Environment (inflation, currency exchange rate fluctuations, etc.)
  o Threats from extreme weather (Geographic Environment) - ice storm, tidal wave, hurricane, earthquake
  o Threats from the Competitive Environment
  o Threats from changes in the Social-Cultural Environment - demographic changes, aging population, gender issues, other languages, etc.

Some of the items on the above list come from mindtools.com, and some come from witiger.com
 

SWOT "weakest link theory"

Student Sarah M.H.L. in MGD415 at UTM in 3rd week of January 2011 emailed to say The idea of SWOT reminds me another idea called the "weakest link theory".  The official definition I can find online is: sequence of events or objects dependent on the support of the whole. The whole is only as reliable as the weakest member or link.

 

Sarah explains Many years ago, I watched a very vivid  metaphor based on it. A bucket was made of different wooden boards. The length of the boards were totally different from each other. (unlike the pic to the left) Then a guy poured water into the bucket. The capacity of the bucket was determined by the shortest board.  When it comes to the organization analysis, I believe that the weakest link theory would be a good backup for the "SWOT" since sometimes the weakness of the company could be the limitation of the company's potentials. In another words, eliminating the weakeness sometimes would be more effective than developing the strengths.  Secondly, this could be another motive for people to know themselves, especially when they are entering the career field. WTGR replies Thanks Sarah,  weakest link theory" is also referred to as WLT and has 55,000 hits in Google. Your explanation, and story of the bucket, is very helpful

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