Problem:
A SWOTT analysis is a comprehensive evaluation of an organizations internal and external environment. SWOTT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats and Trends. In some cases, the SWOTT analysis has been reduced to eliminate the "threat" portion of the analysis, however, I feel that the"threat" portion is highly relevant to examining an organizations external environment. Sun Tzu mentions in the Art of War that (paraphrase) it is crucial to know our enemies and to develop a strategy to defeat the enemy. In an organization, it is imperative to identify the threats within the marketplace if we are ever going to maintain a competitive advantage.
The purpose of strategic planning is to actively compete in the marketplace. Strategic planning is the core foundation of competitive alignment. Organizations must evaluate their positioning within the industry. Strategic planning takes into account previous business practices and benchmarks the best known practices that enabled the organization to be successful. This methodology of planning enables the organization to be prepared for the future. An organization who have a strategy implemented have already established a set of objectives that must be acquired. An effective plan will also allow an organization to predict where the company will end up five to 10 years from now.
"There are a variety of perspectives, models and approaches used in strategic planning. The way that a strategic plan is developed depends on the nature of the organization's leadership, culture of the organization, complexity of the organization's environment, size of the organization, expertise of planners, etc."(McNamara, 2010)
A SWOTT analysis must be conducted in order to have an effective strategic plan. One of the components utilized in the strategic planning process will include conducting an environmental scan. As previously mentioned before a SWOTT analysis thoroughly analysis all aspects within the organizations external environment. An organization would be at a disadvantage if they did not integrate SWOTT during their strategic competitive alignment process.