A contentious post maybe, but I personally think the SWOT is dead.

Many corporations use this Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats model as the basis for their corporate planning & whilst something is better than nothing, I really think SWOT only tells half the story.

For example, any strategy based on a SWOT might not be taking into consideration issues such as the company objectives, your unique value proposition, how that fulfils the market needs & most importantly, how everything gels together. I've seen many SWOTs that whilst full of good information that has obviously taken a long while to gather, it doesn't actually tell you anything about what you're actually going to do in order to grow the business.

Given we're only 4-5 months away from the SBS 2008 & EBS 2008 launch, many Partners are starting to think about how they position their business for the opportunities / challenges that the new products will bring. What will your objectives be? What skills do you need to build between now & then to deliver on those objectives? How will the market react?

One model that I've used to help with this level of strategic planning is the Capabilities vs Fit framework - see below for a very basic example. This builds upon the SWOT but also helps you think about the fit between what you're offering & what the market wants, & what you can do versus where you want to be.

Thoughts?

Robbie

image