To SWOT or Not?! Answer = Technical SWOT

No one who has ever worked in a corporate environment, much less been to business school, has ever avoided dealing with the infamous SWOT Analysis. SWOTs are meant to summarize the strategic positioning of a company and explain where they are and what steps they should take to be more effectual.

In actuality, they are a very effective high-level tool for examining any company. I incorporated the SWOT technique into my own surveys of companies and created the T-SWOT or Technical SWOT analysis.

The idea here is to easily and effectively explain to my VC clients what are the Technology-based positioning a company has. Each SWOT axis can be converted to technology standards and examines the tech functions of a company in a granular fashion.

SWOT in an IT Context:
Strengths - technical strengths in platform, infrastructure and management
Weaknesses - who a firms software design and platform may weaken them and what they should do
Opportunities - in the technology field, opportunities are often defined by how agile a company can be to adapt so here I examine how the firm can shift into a position and exploit them.
Threats - technology threats are what i am there to mitigate so I explain what issues in technology they need to overcome internally as well as what they need to be aware of from the industry itself.

Included is a sample I created for a firm I completed a Strategic Technology Review (technical due diligence) on:

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Copyright 2008, CSC. Inc. www.tech-duediligence.com 


Comments

Calin DAMIAN said…
interesting, but I cannot read the text in your captured picture :)
January 10, 2012 at 1:58 AM
Angel Rio said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
June 8, 2015 at 1:50 AM
Unknown said…
SWOT Analysis is a useful technique for understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and for identifying both the opportunities open to you and the threats you face about iDeals.
October 2, 2015 at 7:17 AM
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