[Caroline Cloutier]

Evaluating your company's developmental needs and future direction is essential to the overall success of your business. A SWOT analysis is an excellent evaluation tool for determining your company's overall plans and objectives.
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[LisaOlsen]

Great post Caroline! I am very familiar with the SWOT and the last company I worked for used it extensively in the yearly strategic planning process.

In the workshop I present on Personal Planning for Admins, I use the SWOT as well. I discovered it's a great tool for individual planning as well. When we dig deep into our own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to our success, we can be empowered to take the necessary tactical steps to expand our potential.

There are also some very useful strategic planning exercises that go along with the SWOT. For example, understanding Key Success Factors, and Tactical Elements, and one exercise that's really fun is the Out of the Box exercise. This allows admins to get really creative and come up with some real out of the box ideas where no idea is a bad idea. One company I presented this workshop for, one table came up with the kooky idea to have their own company airline and staff meetings would be held in the air! Now, that might seem like a crazy idea, but the premise is really creative. Essentially, the idea is to find new, creative ways to make staff meetings less boring. That opens up a real opportunity for initiative. That's the outcome of these types of planning exercises, for companies and individuals. It gets us thinking in new directions - and that's a good thing.

Thanks for the article - great topic!

[shaubold]

I agree. Great article, and the timing could not be better. I am working with our newly appointed COO to plan a Strategic Planning Meeting to be held in two weeks. This concept is exactly what he wants to do in the meeting, only it didn't have a name when he was describing how he wants the "agenda" to flow for the day. I have already emailed him a copy of the article to assist in his planning.