A new post on the Netshare.com newsletter offers yet another strong suggestion to employ S-W-O-T analysis as a job search tool. Since 2007, I have recommended this business analysis tool to my clients; now I am happy to suggest that clients check-out the S-W-O-T prompts posted by Katherine E. Simmons, President & CEO of Netshare.com. Ms. Simmons offers some fresh prompts that can help with brand clarification, e.g.:
Strengths:
* What advantages do you have? *What do you do better than anyone else? *What unique or low-cost resources do you have to offer? *What do others see as your strengths? *How do you help close the sale or reduce overhead?
Weaknesses:
* What areas can you improve? * What areas should you avoid? * What do peers in your market see as weaknesses? *Where do you fail when trying to close a sale or reduce costs?
Recently, I have recommend that candidates take the S-W-O-T analysis tool to the next level by applying it to their target companies. In other words, use S-W-O-T as the framework for company research, e.g.:
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Opportunities and Threats are internally and externally focused. Think from the point of view ofthe marketplace: the competition – the customer.
Opportunities:
▪ Who is the competition? What do they do well? What do they do poorly? ▪ Strengths/Weaknesses that can be converted to opportunities? ▪ What are the market-driven opportunities for this company and industry? ▪ Structure of the target company? Hierarchical or flat? |
| Threats:
▪ Position relative to competition? ▪ Product or service needs further development? ▪ Capitalization? Distribution channels? ▪ Relationship between management and staff? ▪ Marketing strategies aligned with strategic plan? ▪ Viability of industry? |
Clearly this tool can be a very effective job search strategy tool. Check the Netshare.com for the full post; contact this writer for more information about how to S-W-O-T your target organizations.
