Above we see the work of one of our excellent business studies students where they have produced a Prezzi presentation which they used in class to explain what SWOT was all about.
However, one business teacher recently asked me why teach something that was not on the specification? Indeed my students now reading this may have flickers of annoyance that they have worked hard to learn about something that strictly speaking the exam board do not ask to be taught...
My feeling on this matter are quite straight forward. Students are asked to know how to explain the "...Strengths and weaknesses of existing suppliers, [and] how [businesses] differentiate themselves..." SWOT analysis is useful as it gives a business the opportunity to look internally at strengths and weaknesses and externally at possible threats and opportunities. As my well informed student put it "This allows them to consider the positives and negatives of their brand."
If you want to explain how businesses can assess their own strengths and weaknesses we can discuss the use of SWOT analysis. Also if we want to know the strengths and weaknesses of other suppliers (competitors) can we not do a SWOT analysis for that business also? This gives us an idea of some of the key advantages that another business may or may not have and as such target them.
Of course if using SWOT analysis within an exam question we should always remember it is a simplistic way of looking at the bigger picture and requires an in depth knowledge of the marketplace around a business to do properly. We either need very experienced staff to assist with this or, more reliably, extensive market data to support our SWOT analysis. As such it is a way of visualizing our current position with the help of our data and knowledge.
