SWOT analysis template
A SWOT analysis sets out a company's internal strengths and weaknesses and the external opportunities and threats it faces, in a two-by-two grid on one page. This free Word template adds the step that turns it into a plan: a TOWS matrix that pairs the four lists to produce actions, each with an owner, a start date and a measure.
Running a company of 30 to 200 people? Documents like this are now worth money.
It's written for the leadership team of an established company preparing an annual plan, a strategy day or a paper for the board. Allow an afternoon with three to six people for the first draft; the arguments about which box an item belongs in are where much of the value lies.
What's in the template
The example grid belongs to a fictional 55-person heating and ventilation installer, with each box ranked so the most important item comes first; "From SWOT to actions" below turns it into a plan. The Word template contains:
SWOT analysis
| Company or business unit | |
|---|---|
| Decision this SWOT informs | e.g. where to grow over the next two years |
| Period covered | |
| Prepared by, and date | |
| Evidence used | e.g. accounts, win and loss data, customer feedback, staff survey |
1. The grid
If the company controls it, it's internal: a strength or a weakness. If it would exist without you, it's external: an opportunity or a threat. Rank each box, most important first.
| Strengths (internal, helpful) | Weaknesses (internal, harmful) |
|---|---|
| 1. | 1. |
| 2. | 2. |
| 3. | 3. |
| 4. | 4. |
| 5. | 5. |
| Opportunities (external, helpful) | Threats (external, harmful) |
|---|---|
| 1. | 1. |
| 2. | 2. |
| 3. | 3. |
| 4. | 4. |
| 5. | 5. |
2. Evidence check
| Item | What shows it's true | Impact (1 to 5) | Keep? |
|---|---|---|---|
3. TOWS matrix
| Pairing | Opportunities | Threats |
|---|---|---|
| Strengths | SO: actions that use a strength to take an opportunity | ST: actions that use a strength to reduce a threat |
| Weaknesses | WO: actions that fix a weakness blocking an opportunity | WT: actions that shrink a weakness a threat could exploit |
4. Chosen actions
| Action | Type (SO, ST, WO or WT) | Owner | Start | Measure of success |
|---|---|---|---|---|
5. Review
| Next review | |
|---|---|
| Events that would trigger an earlier review | e.g. losing a top-five customer |
How to run a SWOT that leads to decisions
- Name the decision first. "Where should we grow over the next two years?" gives a sharper SWOT than "our company", which tends to produce generic lists.
- Bring evidence, not impressions: margin by service or customer, win and loss rates, customer feedback, staff turnover, and what competitors have done this year.
- Have each person draft alone, then merge. Fifteen minutes of separate writing stops the first confident voice from shaping everyone's list.
- Apply the control test. If the company controls it, it's a strength or a weakness; if it would exist without you, it's an opportunity or a threat. "A competitor is closing its branch" is external; "our quotes are slow" is internal.
- Make every item specific and comparative. A strength only counts if customers value it and rivals can't easily match it. "Great people" isn't a strength; "the only firm in the region with eight engineers certified on heat pumps" is.
- Rank each box and keep the top five, dropping anything the evidence check can't support.
- Turn it into actions with the TOWS matrix, choose three to six, and put them into the annual plan or an action plan with owners and dates.
From SWOT to actions: the TOWS matrix
The TOWS matrix, set out by Heinz Weihrich in a 1982 paper in the journal Long Range Planning, crosses the internal and external lists so that each pairing suggests a kind of strategy:
| Opportunities (O) | Threats (T) | |
|---|---|---|
| Strengths (S) | SO: use a strength to take an opportunity | ST: use a strength to blunt a threat |
| Weaknesses (W) | WO: fix a weakness that stops you taking an opportunity | WT: reduce a weakness that a threat would exploit |
Work through the pairs one at a time: take the top strength and the top opportunity and ask what you could do with both. Some pairings produce nothing; a few produce the moves that matter. Copy the serious threats into your risk register too, so each one gets an owner.
Example: a fictional heating and ventilation installer
The grid above produced these actions:
| Type | Action | Owner | Measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| SO | Offer heat-pump replacements to existing service-contract clients before advertising to new ones | Sales director | 20 surveys booked by March |
| WO | Build a standard price book so quotes go out in three days, in time for the public-sector tender | Operations manager | Average quote time under three days |
| ST | Bundle installation with five years' maintenance, which the manufacturers selling direct don't offer locally | Managing director | Bundles as a share of heat-pump sales |
| WT | Take on two apprentices now and pair them with the engineers due to retire | Service manager | Both signed off on core jobs within 18 months |
| WT | Move main-contractor work to staged payments | Finance manager | Debtor days on contractor accounts |
Five actions is plenty for one year. The rest of the SWOT stays on file as context for the next review.
Common mistakes
- Adjectives instead of facts, such as "strong brand" or "good culture". If you can't show the evidence, leave it out.
- Actions in the opportunities box, such as "launch a new website". Opportunities are conditions outside the company; actions belong in the TOWS step.
- Mixing up internal and external, for example listing "rising wages" as a weakness rather than a threat.
- Twenty unranked items per box, so nothing stands out.
- Only senior managers' views. Customers and front-line staff often see the weaknesses first.
- No follow-through. A SWOT that doesn't change a budget, a hire or a priority was an exercise, not an analysis.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between SWOT and TOWS?
They use the same four lists. A SWOT describes the situation; a TOWS matrix pairs the lists (strengths with opportunities, weaknesses with threats and so on) to generate actions. Doing both takes you from a description to a plan.
How often should a company do a SWOT analysis?
Once a year as part of annual planning, and before a big decision such as entering a new market or buying a business. Revisit it early if something on the threats list happens.
What's the difference between a SWOT and a PESTLE analysis?
A PESTLE looks only outside the company, at political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental change. It's a good way to find the opportunities and threats before you fill in a SWOT, which adds the internal strengths and weaknesses.