You’ve likely heard of SWOT analysis and perhaps even used it before. In our article, Putting SWOT Analysis to Work for Your Business, we highlighted the importance of conducting a SWOT when facing significant changes, whether internal or external.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This analysis provides a snapshot of internal and external factors affecting your business. Strengths and Weaknesses are internal, while Opportunities and Threats are external. It’s an easy-to-deploy framework that can help guide strategic decisions across your organization.
SWOT analysis is not limited to an executive-level exercise, it’s a useful tool for any organizational team striving to improve their efforts in a certain area, or to tackle challenges in the business environment.
Today, more than ever, the ability to adapt and stay agile is critical for growth. A SWOT analysis can help you identify new opportunities, mitigate threats, and refine your approach to business goals, product development, sales strategy, and more for continued and sustainable growth.
Why SWOT Matters in 2025: A Strategic Tool for Growth
SWOT is a multi-purpose tool and a fantastic exercise when your business is under stress. Now is an opportune time for business leaders to conduct a SWOT analysis as 2025 has brought a lot of change and uncertainty across many industries. This exercise will help you and your leadership team determine how to take advantage of any opportunities in the marketplace and mitigate the potential threats.
In 2025, it’s not just about assessing your position, it’s about preparing for fast-evolving changes like generative AI, customer needs and expectations, and the shifting economic landscape. For leaders looking to stay competitive, SWOT is no longer a one-time annual exercise, it’s an ongoing, dynamic process. A SWOT analysis can help you not just navigate but capitalize on opportunities, pivot in times of crisis, and respond to external threats with agility and foresight.
Who Should Be On Your SWOT Team?
When conducting an organization-wide SWOT analysis, it’s essential to include individuals with deep insights across various functions, such as operations, marketing, customer service, finance, and IT. As companies adopt more agile, remote, and hybrid work models, representation from employees working on the front lines is crucial. They often provide a perspective that’s different from the C-suite and can help pinpoint actionable insights.
Consider cross-functional teams that bring together leaders from different departments, as well as employees from teams involved in customer-facing roles. This approach will provide you with a broader view of the business and help promote a more collaborative culture.
For targeted SWOTs, say for a new product or a specific market opportunity, your team will look different. You may need product managers, data analysts, customer support leads, and external partners to offer a diverse range of opinions.
Modernizing SWOT: Integrating Data and Collaboration Tools for Greater Impact
The SWOT analysis process is evolving, and in 2025, SWOT analyses aren’t just run in boardrooms.
Data-driven decision-making and collaborative technology tools are essential to make SWOT more impactful. Remote work means that virtual collaboration tools like virtual whiteboards, video conferencing, and project management software allow teams to work asynchronously, ensuring every voice is heard.
Data from your CRM, customer surveys, or performance metrics can now directly inform each of your SWOT components, adding a level of precision previously unavailable. By incorporating data, technology, and cross-functional collaboration into your SWOT process, you can better equip your team to tackle the most pressing challenges of today and tomorrow.
Ready to Run Your Own SWOT?
Download Upstart Group’s free SWOT Analysis and SWOT Action Plan Templates to get started!
Framing Your SWOT Analysis: Questions to Guide Each Component
Each of the four SWOT components requires you and your teams to dig deep, ask tough questions, and give truthful answers. Below are several basic questions for each section. You could use these to address issues at a broader organizational level. However, make sure to add questions that dig deeper into your specific business circumstances and the goal of your SWOT analysis.
Note that an answer might land in multiple areas in a SWOT. However, if too many items are showing up in multiple sections, you will need to get more clarity on those items.
Strengths (Internal Factors)
How can we capitalize on each of our strengths?
Examples:
- Areas where your company excels
- Qualities of products or services that give you a competitive edge
- People, teams, or training that put your business at an advantage
- Tangible assets such as proprietary technologies, intellectual capital, copyrights, etc.
2025 Considerations: AI integration, customer data utilization, or scalable technologies that improve service or operational efficiency.
Opportunities (External Factors)
How can we take advantage of each opportunity?
Examples:
- Pivot in a new direction or with new/different services or how you deliver them
- Open markets and territories you couldn’t reach before and/or underserved markets for your products or services
- Acquire or create a partnership with a competitor or complimentary firm that is struggling
- A new customer need or problem that your product or service can solve
- Adding new functionality to existing products
2025 Considerations: AI-driven personalization, remote collaboration tools, new digital products, or expanded market opportunities due to changes in global trade.
Weaknesses (Internal Factors)
How can we eliminate or minimize each weakness, or turn it into a strength?
Examples:
- Resource limitations, including workforce or training deficits
- Areas where your competition outperforms you, whether in sales, customer service, etc. or new competitors in your space
- Products or services with perceived issues (deserved or undeserved) in the marketplace or from your customers
2025 Considerations: Underdeveloped AI capabilities, lagging digital transformation, or a lack of innovation in product offerings.
Threats (External Factors)
How can we reduce or mitigate each threat?
Examples:
- A pandemic or other worldwide or country-wide challenges such as changing tariffs, or regulatory changes affecting your supply chain
- Emerging competitors that have grown in capabilities, size, launched new products, etc.
- New technologies that threaten to make your offerings obsolete
- Customer attitudes or preferences that are shifting away from your products or services. Changes in customer buying processes that have a direct or indirect effect on sales results.
2025 Considerations: Economic instability, data privacy regulations, or emerging AI technologies that may render certain services or products obsolete.
As you work through each of the SWOT components, here’s how to frame your analysis:
For additional details on how to run a SWOT analysis, read Putting SWOT Analysis to Work for Your Business and download our SWOT Analysis and SWOT Action Plan templates.
From Insights to Impact: Developing Your SWOT Action Plan
Once you’ve completed the SWOT analysis, the most important part is turning your findings into a SWOT Action Plan. This step ensures that your SWOT exercise doesn’t just end with a discussion but drives real business outcomes.
Focus on the 3-5 key insights from each section that will have the most significant impact on your strategy. Assign clear ownership for each item, define specific goals, deadlines, and budgets, and set regular follow-up meetings (monthly, quarterly, etc.) to track progress.
Empowering Your SWOT Process: Tools and Resources for Success
If you want to get started with SWOT, check out our Comprehensive SWOT Analysis Templates – now updated for 2025. We’ve made it easy for you to run your own SWOT sessions, track progress, and see results.
Upstart Group has guided many leadership teams through successful SWOT exercises and SWOT action plan development. You can use our Comprehensive SWOT Analysis Worksheets to conduct your own SWOT, or our experienced executives can guide your team through a virtual SWOT process, freeing you up to fully participate rather than facilitate!
Contact Upstart Group today to schedule a virtual SWOT analysis for your business.
Additional Resources:
- Gartner 2025 CMO Survey: Insights into the future of marketing spend and priorities.
- Edelman Trust Barometer 2025: Key insights into how customer trust and attitudes are shaping business decisions.
- Harvard Business Review (2025): Best practices for strategic planning in an AI-first world.
