For Dr. Clover (Unit 2 First Response Needed)

What are your thoughts about the validity of a strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis in strategic planning?

My opinion on SWOT analysis is that it is definitely a great tool to employ as part of strategic planning. A SWOT is a tool that will provide you an overview of where and how your organization currently stands and its current situation in terms or capabilities and resources. This analysis will provide a look at your organization from an internal and external view (Campbell, 2016). By no means is a SWOT analysis perfect, but it is a great tool to us as you are stepping into a project. Speaking from personal experience a SWOT analysis will bring things to your attention that you probably was not aware of.

A great example where a SWOT would be useful is a hospital that is adding a new medical service to their facility. For hospital's planners a SWOT analysis would be one of the first key task I would perform before getting to far into the planning. It is a great tool to get a feel of what the market is like and how the competition is doing in the market.   

References

Campbell, I., (2016). Mission Partners. Why a SWOT Analysis is Important. Retrieved from: www.yourmissionpartners.com/why-a-swot-analysis-is-important/