Growing companies must act quickly when an opportunity presents itself. Acting quickly, however, should not put the business at unnecessary risk. Our blogs on “Accelerating Growth and Impact” provide valuable insights for growing mid-sized and smaller companies.
Early preparation is critical for accelerating growth and impact. A company and its leadership team must be ready to take advantage of opportunities or fend off threats. Unfortunately, many growing mid-sized and small companies have limited resources and scramble to deal with today’s priorities. They don’t feel that they have the time or money to prepare for an uncertain future. However, there is a powerful yet simple way out of this conundrum.
With limited resources, it’s critical to focus on what’s most important. The time-tested SWOT Analysis provides the ideal approach for determining where to focus. It quickly identifies internal Strengths and Weaknesses, and external Opportunities and Threats.
Let’s see how a SWOT Analysis aligns with the Five Keys to Accelerating Growth and Impact.
Focus – A SWOT Analysis allows the company and its leaders to focus on activities that are critical in the short to medium term.
Prepare early – A well-run SWOT Analysis identifies issues that require early intervention. The SWOT exercise itself embodies the ethos of preparing early.
80% is good enough – The SWOT exercise relies on the existing knowledge of leadership and other key team members, although additional research may be done afterward.
Continuous improvement – The SWOT Analysis identifies key issues that require immediate attention. As time goes on, some issues are resolved and require less attention. These issues now move into the continuous improvement stage.
Delegation - Key issues can be delegated for action throughout the organization.
Skiba Associates can perform a SWOT analysis in a ½ day workshop with your leadership team and key personnel. We utilize a number of best practices to get strong input from participants:
Before the SWOT workshop, we ask participants to review our list of SWOT-related questions. These questions are designed to stimulate thinking -- not elicit immediate written responses.
The workshop is designed to be a safe space for sharing input.
Strong facilitation encourages all to contribute, regardless of seniority.
Top issues for action are selected in a way that respects and incorporates outlier opinions.
We also utilize the competitive matrix to elicit more pertinent SWOT responses.
The result of the SWOT Analysis workshop is a shared understanding of where to focus the team’s energies – thereby increasing the organization’s growth and its impact.
Contact Zbig Skiba to find out more about preparing your organization for growth and impact. zskiba@skiba-associates.com