SWOT Analysis

Internal Audit: Analysis of the business itself and how it operates, identifying strengths and weakness of operations and will include:

Products and their costs, quality and development
Finance including profit, assets and cash-flow
Divisional and departmental structure
Human Resources- Skills and training

External Audit: Analysis of the environment in which the business operates and over which it has little or no control and will likely focus on areas such as; the market; competition and the political, social technological, legal and environmental issues relevant to the business

SWOT:

Businesses use SWOT analysis to assist them in choosing business strategies

Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats

- Strengths and Weaknesses are internal to a business
- Opportunities and Threats are external factors
- Strengths are things a business is good at / areas of expertise
- Weaknesses are things a business is poor at
- Opportunities are areas that a firm could develop
- Threats are factors that could damage the firm
- By conducting a SWOT analysis, you can understand the firms position and the market position
- By doing this you are helping the planning process
- It allows a business to think about future strategies
- To be effective businesses need to be honest when identifying both their strengths and weaknesses

Can be a useful tool for developing corporate strategy but it may have other uses such as:

Which new product to launch
New marketing strategy
Whether or not to outsource a certain activity
Prepare for a new business venture
Help prepare for business restructure