First of all I want to talk about the SWOT analysis. I can see you are yawning because you have probably done about a million of them and they have all joined the European SWOT mountain, which nestles between the Wine Lake and the Butter Mountain. I am sure like me you have found yourself at the flip-chart cramming ‘no idea is a bad idea’ in to the four box matrix.
Poor old SWOT, much maligned, but let’s breathe fresh life in to it.
One of the issues I have experienced with SWOT is that there is a desire to fill the boxes combined with a facilitator who is trying to be nice. This leads to that same old same old feeling that makes us sneer at the idea of ‘yet another SWOT’. A good SWOT needs a tough facilitator up there hugging their flip-chart, someone who can say no.
Whether you are making pies or polymers, selling concepts or concrete, your business has competition and that competition is likely also doing a SWOT. I bet it looks a lot like yours.
And hardly anyone seems to ever do anything with them anyway.
So that is two issues. We fill them up because, well er…because er…..
And we may be writing pretty much the same as our rivals. So let’s try this….
Poor old SWOT, much maligned, but let’s breathe fresh life in to it.
One of the issues I have experienced with SWOT is that there is a desire to fill the boxes combined with a facilitator who is trying to be nice. This leads to that same old same old feeling that makes us sneer at the idea of ‘yet another SWOT’. A good SWOT needs a tough facilitator up there hugging their flip-chart, someone who can say no.
Whether you are making pies or polymers, selling concepts or concrete, your business has competition and that competition is likely also doing a SWOT. I bet it looks a lot like yours.
And hardly anyone seems to ever do anything with them anyway.
So that is two issues. We fill them up because, well er…because er…..
And we may be writing pretty much the same as our rivals. So let’s try this….
You can see that in the version on the left the S for Strengths is dominating the frame. Nobody ever in the history of forever ever bought anything based on weaknesses.
‘Mmm, yes, I bought this drug because of the side effects, they are some of my favourite’.
Mmm, yes, I bought this phone because it has a poor battery life’.
‘Mmm, yes, I bought these shoes because they are hard to clean’.
‘Mmm, yes, I chose this policy because it has the most unintelligible clauses at the end’.
And of course, as nothing is perfect then everything must have weaknesses so let’s keep them in check and concentrate on why it is that people buy or will buy our stuff.
‘Mmm, yes, I bought this drug because of the side effects, they are some of my favourite’.
Mmm, yes, I bought this phone because it has a poor battery life’.
‘Mmm, yes, I bought these shoes because they are hard to clean’.
‘Mmm, yes, I chose this policy because it has the most unintelligible clauses at the end’.
And of course, as nothing is perfect then everything must have weaknesses so let’s keep them in check and concentrate on why it is that people buy or will buy our stuff.
When you see SWOT summarised like this below, I think it sounds like a great little exercise:
Strengths Leverage, Maximise, Enhance
Weaknesses Minimise, Reduce
Opportunities Prioritise, Take
Threats Watch, Plan to counter
And there you have a nice reminder of turning it in to actions - so that we follow the mantra
‘All strategy is useless until it degenerates in to work’.
Strengths Leverage, Maximise, Enhance
Weaknesses Minimise, Reduce
Opportunities Prioritise, Take
Threats Watch, Plan to counter
And there you have a nice reminder of turning it in to actions - so that we follow the mantra
‘All strategy is useless until it degenerates in to work’.
I have purposely raised the O to the top, taking opportunities based on leveraging strengths is the best way to success so by highlighting the route from the big green bit to the O we go straight to the positive action, by the time we are looking at the W and the T the world seems a lot brighter. Hey! We are good at stuff.
So, in summary these are a few simple changes:
- Have a good facilitator or be one yourself
- Put the emphasis on Strengths
- See the taking of Opportunity as a direct link from Strengths.
OK, sounds like a reasonable idea? Well, it cannot have escaped your notice that this article is called ‘THE CEILING’. So let us go to part 2.
As I mentioned earlier, we all have competition, even if that sometimes seems internal.
That’s your business, let’s look at the subject of Competitors, most of whom may be using very similar tools and processes in their strategy meetings. You, like the Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy, can be Company B.
So, in summary these are a few simple changes:
- Have a good facilitator or be one yourself
- Put the emphasis on Strengths
- See the taking of Opportunity as a direct link from Strengths.
OK, sounds like a reasonable idea? Well, it cannot have escaped your notice that this article is called ‘THE CEILING’. So let us go to part 2.
As I mentioned earlier, we all have competition, even if that sometimes seems internal.
That’s your business, let’s look at the subject of Competitors, most of whom may be using very similar tools and processes in their strategy meetings. You, like the Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy, can be Company B.
The Ceiling of Competition is the simple concept that in a given market a set of leading competitors may naturally graduate towards a very similar set of offerings. When I say offering I mean the total package of what it is you sell, be that simple or complex, and not just an actual physical product. This is a natural process as every time someone adds a service or functionality that is popular then chances are it will be copied. The position at the head of the pack is often temporary, over time the ‘Ceiling’ diagram would, if animated, look like a graphic equaliser.
The natural tendency is to ‘big-up’ our own stuff so that our SWOT strengths seem almost magical and all our weaknesses benign. Companies A. C and D have not got a chance.
Meanwhile in a meeting room far far away the D squad are doing the same and lo and behold, all their strengths look magical. So ask yourself the harder questions:
- Do the others offer this, this, this, this, this, this etc
- If the answer is always yes then you probably are in the above situation, which I have called the ‘CEILING OF COMPETITION’.
This idea came to me a few years back when I was working for a company that supplied six different competitors in the same market; I was privileged to be party to a great deal of their strategy and they never even asked me about the others, it was a dead cert I would keep schtumm. I was dealing with very smart people who by and large liked their own organisation. I noticed that they were all talking very similar ideas and I sat in on two different strategy sessions, both of which had a SWOT in them. It was hard to see the difference. Both thought they had better people, better products, better systems……
But, but….we have Product X and we have Natalie and we have an office in Izmir…etc
Well good, now you are talking - so let’s look critically at our Strengths and answer the question:
- Is this item on the flip chart an actual, real, genuine competitive advantage and can we therefore put in place a plan to make even more hay whilst the sun shines?
Because if we can really find these things from our SWOT then we may actually be able to do the thing that we really, really want.
RISE ABOVE THE CEILING OF COMPETITION
The natural tendency is to ‘big-up’ our own stuff so that our SWOT strengths seem almost magical and all our weaknesses benign. Companies A. C and D have not got a chance.
Meanwhile in a meeting room far far away the D squad are doing the same and lo and behold, all their strengths look magical. So ask yourself the harder questions:
- Do the others offer this, this, this, this, this, this etc
- If the answer is always yes then you probably are in the above situation, which I have called the ‘CEILING OF COMPETITION’.
This idea came to me a few years back when I was working for a company that supplied six different competitors in the same market; I was privileged to be party to a great deal of their strategy and they never even asked me about the others, it was a dead cert I would keep schtumm. I was dealing with very smart people who by and large liked their own organisation. I noticed that they were all talking very similar ideas and I sat in on two different strategy sessions, both of which had a SWOT in them. It was hard to see the difference. Both thought they had better people, better products, better systems……
But, but….we have Product X and we have Natalie and we have an office in Izmir…etc
Well good, now you are talking - so let’s look critically at our Strengths and answer the question:
- Is this item on the flip chart an actual, real, genuine competitive advantage and can we therefore put in place a plan to make even more hay whilst the sun shines?
Because if we can really find these things from our SWOT then we may actually be able to do the thing that we really, really want.
RISE ABOVE THE CEILING OF COMPETITION
You may find out something (well actually, you probably know it already, but any business can have a blind spot when it comes to comparing themselves with their rivals) such as:
At the very least this idea should stimulate enough thought to enable you to run a strong session on strategy in a very simple but effective way, with only a pen and a flip-chart needed. Simple can be useful.
GOOD LUCK
This is an abridged version of the full article. Number 62 of 144 of Simple Bright Ideas.
Copyright © 2015 by Steve Boyle
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Permission to re-publish this article can be obtained by sending an e mail to [email protected]
In other words, ask nicely and you can share it with your friends and even your family.
- We are not as good as we think we are
- We are better than we think we are
- There might be good reason to invest/divest/add/subtract from ‘—-‘
At the very least this idea should stimulate enough thought to enable you to run a strong session on strategy in a very simple but effective way, with only a pen and a flip-chart needed. Simple can be useful.
GOOD LUCK
This is an abridged version of the full article. Number 62 of 144 of Simple Bright Ideas.
Copyright © 2015 by Steve Boyle
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Permission to re-publish this article can be obtained by sending an e mail to [email protected]
In other words, ask nicely and you can share it with your friends and even your family.
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