Q. What separates the survivors from those that fell by the way-side?

A. Constant evolution:

• Product

• Price

• Place

• Promotion

• People

• Process

• Technology

• …….

Two cars, the same (British owned) manufacturer – celebrating its centenary in 2009.

Questions to ask yourself:

• Is there anything associated with the way that you do business that is unchanged from this time last year?

• Which of the following factors that influence your business have changed in some small (or large!!) way:

• Suppliers

• Customers

• Traditional competitors

• New market entrants

• Better value substitutes

• Legislation

• Staff

• ……….

What do you need to change to counteract or exploit this?

• Have you checked to make sure that you are getting the same or better results from the same amount of effort or money?

• What should you stop doing?

• What should you refine in some small way?

• What new thing will make the difference to your future success?

Your customers and competitors continuously change and evolve. For a business to prosper in the long term, it must become expert at evolving slightly faster than its:

• Customers needs;

And

• Its competitors offerings.

This was a guest post by Paul Fileman of SPS who are a national team of proven senior management professionals, passionate about working to help businesses achieve their next level of development and performance. Whether they are facing market changes, financial problems, people/skills issues, or are preparing a major project, they offer dedicated support from a multi-disciplined team of experts.

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Start by defining a desired end state or objective.

With a clearly identified objective, SWOT analysis can be used to help in the pursuit of that objective. In this case, SWOTs are:

• Strengths: attributes of the organisation (internal factors) helpful to achieving the objective.
• Weaknesses: attributes of the organisation (internal factors) that make achieving the objective more challenging.
• Opportunities: external conditions helpful to achieving the objective.
• Threats: external conditions that make achieving the objective more difficult or more unlikely.

Correct identification of SWOTs is essential. Your next steps in the process of planning to achieve your selected objective are derived from the SWOTs.

First, decide whether you can achieve your objective, given the SWOTs. If the objective is NOT attainable, you need to choose a different (potentially interim) objective and then repeat the process.

Creative Use of SWOTs.

If, on the other hand, the objective seems attainable, the SWOTs are used as inputs to the creative generation of possible strategies, by asking and answering each of the following four questions, many times:

1. How can we Use each Strength?
2. How can we Stop each Weakness?
3. How can we Exploit each Opportunity?
4. How can we Defend against each Threat?

In larger organisations, a task force that represents a broad range of perspectives should carry out the SWOT analysis. For example, a SWOT team may include an accountant, a salesperson, an executive manager, an engineer, and a facilitator.

For those of us who work alone, we have two options:

• Repeat the process from several perspectives;
• Ask for help.

This was a guest post by Paul Fileman of SPS who are a national team of proven senior management professionals, passionate about working to help businesses achieve their next level of development and performance. Whether they are facing market changes, financial problems, people/skills issues, or are preparing a major project, they offer dedicated support from a multi-disciplined team of experts.

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