By scanning the internal and external environment of your company you can prepare for the strategic planning process. Environmental factors internal to the firm usually can be classified as strengths or weaknesses, and those external to the firm can be classified as opportunities or threats. This straight forward analysis of the strategic environment is referred to as a SWOT analysis.
The SWOT analysis provides key information that is helpful in matching the firm’s resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates. The following diagram shows how a SWOT analysis fits into an environmental scan.
