Introduction
A SWOT analysis is a quick way of examining your organisation by looking at the INTERNAL Strengths and Weaknesses in relation to the EXTERNAL Opportunities and Threats. By creating a SWOT analysis, you can see all the important factors affecting your organisation together in one place. It’s easy to read, easy to communicate, and easy to create.
We recommend that you also read the page on how to conduct a SWOT Analysis (The Process).
Below we pull together a series of questions that will help you analyse the internal Strengths and Weaknesses of your organisation and the external Opportunities and Threats impacting on your organisation. These are only a few suggestions, some of them may not be relevant to your organisation, and you and your colleagues will almost certainly have additional questions.
Remember, a SWOT analysis is NOT your organisation's strategy, but it goes a long way towards helping you decide what your strategy should be.
SWOT versus TOWS
You will sometimes hear or read about a "TOWS analysis" as opposed to a "SWOT analysis". These are exactly the same analyses.
The important point to remember is that you should always analyse your external Threats and Opportunities first, followed by an analysis of your internal Weaknesses and Strengths. This is to prevent your analysis of Threats and Opportunities being constrained by your intial analysis of Weaknesses and Strengths.
Comparator organisations
When analysing external opportunities and threats, you will need to consider which organisations you are competing with or camparing your organisation with. These are your "comparator organisations" and will vary from product/service to product/service. For example:
| Example product or service | Example comparator organisation |
|---|---|
| Provision of Private hospital beds | Local private hospital(s) |
| Provision of anti-retroviral drugs | Other Districts. Other Provinces |
| Waiting times for clinic appointment | Other clinics. Other hospitals |
| Outcomes in cardiothoracic surgery | Cardiothoracic Units in other Provinces or countries |
Strengths (internal)
Your strengths help you understand how well equipped your organisation is to exploit opportunities and counter threats. This requires you to analyse your internal strengths relative to other organisations. What do you do better than them?
When identifying your strengths, try thinking about the following:
- What advantages do you have?
- What do you do well?
- What resources do you have access to?
- What do other people see as your strengths?
Consider this from your own point of view and from the point of view of the people you deal with. Don't be modest. Be realistic. If you are having any difficulty with this, try writing down a list of your organisation's characteristics. Some of these may well be strengths!
Think about strengths in relation to comparator organisations. For example, if other local organisations, or corresponding organisations in other Provinces, provide easy/rapid access to MRI, then a easy/rapid access to MRI is not a strength in the market, it is a necessity.
Also consider:
- Advantages of proposition?
- Capabilities, people?
- Resources, assets?
- Experience, knowledge, data?
- Financial reserves, grants?
- Innovative aspects?
- Location and geography?
- Price/cost, value, quality?
- Accreditations, qualifications, certifications?
- Processes, systems, IT, communications?
- Cultural, attitudinal, behavioural?
- Morale, commitment, leadership?
- Management capability and availability?
- Clinician availability (skills, numbers, location)?
Weaknesses (internal)
Your organisation's weaknesses help you understand where you are unable to exploit opportunities, and how exposed you are to threats. This requires you to analyse your internal weaknesses relative to other local organisations, or corresponding organisations in other Provinces (or possibly in other countries). Where are you worse than them?
When identifying your weaknesses, try thinking about the following:
- What could you improve?
- What do you do badly?
- What should you avoid?
Consider this from your own point of view and from the point of view of the people you deal with. Do other people seem to perceive weaknesses that you do not see? Are other local organisations, or corresponding organisations in other Provinces (or possibly in other countries), doing any better than you? It is best to be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible.
Also consider:
- Gaps in capabilities?
- Reputation, presence and reach?
- Finance, cashflow, pump-priming?
- Known vulnerabilities?
- Timescales, deadlines and pressures?
- Business continuity
- Supply chain robustness?
- Effects on core activities, distraction?
- Reliability of data, plan predictability?
- Morale, commitment, leadership?
- Management capability and availability?
- Clinician availability (skills, numbers, location)?
- Accreditations, qualifications, certifications?
- Processes, systems, IT, communications?
- Location and geography?
Opportunities (external)
This requires you to look at changes external to your organisation that present future opportunities. You aren't supposed to be able to predict the future; just try to capture what you know and make your best guesses about what might happen.
When identifying opportunities, try thinking about the following:
- Where are the good opportunities facing you?
- What are the interesting trends you are aware of?
- Useful opportunities can come from such things as:
- Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow scale
- Changes in government policy related to your field
- Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, etc.
One way of looking at opportunities is to look at your strengths and ask yourself whether these open up any opportunities. Alternatively, look at your weaknesses and ask yourself whether you could open up opportunities by eliminating them.
Also consider:
- Political effects and legislative effects?
- Market developments?
- Healthcare or lifestyle trends?
- Technology development and innovation?
- Global influences?
- Service development?
- Information and research?
- Partnerships, agencies, distribution?
- Volumes, production, economies?
Threats (external)
This requires you to look at changes external to your organisation that present future threats. You aren't supposed to be able to predict the future; just try to capture what you know and make your best guesses about what might happen.
When identifying threats, try thinking about the following:
- What obstacles do you face?
- What are your comparator organisations doing?
- Are the required specifications for your services changing?
- Is changing technology threatening your position?
- Do you have bad debt or cash-flow problems?
- Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your organisation?
Carrying out this analysis will often be illuminating - both in terms of pointing out what needs to be done, and in putting problems into perspective.
Also consider:
- Political effects, legislative effects?
- Environmental effects?
- IT developments?
- Competitor intentions - various?
- Market demand?
- New technologies, services, ideas?
- Vital contracts and partners?
- Sustaining internal capabilities?
- Obstacles faced?
- Insurmountable weaknesses?
- Loss of key staff?
- Sustainable finances?
- Economy - home, abroad?
- Seasonality, weather effects?
Relationships between a PEST analysis and a SWOT analysis
PEST is useful before SWOT - not generally vice-versa - PEST definately helps to identify SWOT factors. There is overlap between PEST and SWOT, in that similar factors would appear in each. That said, PEST and SWOT are certainly two different perspectives:
- PEST assesses a market, including competitors, from the standpoint of a particular proposition or an organisation.
- SWOT is an assessment of an organisation or a proposition, whether your own or a competitor's.
- Strategic planning is not a precise science - no tool is mandatory - it's a matter of pragmatic choice as to what helps best to identify and explain the issues.
- PEST becomes more useful and relevant the larger and more complex the organisation or proposition, but even for a very small organisation a PEST analysis can still throw up one or two very significant issues that might otherwise be missed.
- The four quadrants in PEST vary in significance depending on the type of organisation, eg., social factors may be more relevant to private healthcare providers, whereas political factors are more obviously relevant to state owned hospitals and primary care providers.
- All organisations benefit from a SWOT analysis, and all organisations benefit from completing a SWOT analysis of their main competitors, which interestingly can then provide some feed back into the economic aspects of the PEST analysis.
Use the Marketing Mix
You should have the Marketing Mix in the back of your mind when doing your analysis. Although normally used in the business sector, with minor changes this makes a good framework for use in healthcare organisations:
| Domain | Example |
|---|---|
| Products & services | What it is you provide and why customers use it |
| Price & cost | How much it costs and how much you charge |
| Promotion | How you promote your organisation and services |
| Place | How and where you provide your services |
[Principal Author(s): Richard Jones]
