CL - SWOT analysis of a System as a Whole

Once upon a time, there lived a stag in a dense forest. One day he went to the nearby water hole to quench his thirst. There he saw his reflection in the water and thought to himself, “I have got beautiful antlers but my legs are ugly. I can’t understand why God has given me such thin legs.”

Just then he heard a lion roaring at a short distance. The stag knew that if he stayed there, the lion would kill him. So he started running. The lion too started chasing the stag, The stag ran faster and faster and soon outdistanced the lion. But alas! All of a sudden the antlers of the stag got entangled with the overhanging branches of a tree. The stag struggled hard, but could not get his antlers free from the branches. He thought to himself, “My thin legs helped me to get away from the danger, but my antlers proved dangerous for me”. By that time the lion had reached there. He pounced upon the stag and killed him.  

 

MORAL:  SWOT Analysis must be done objectively keeping in mind the dynamics of a system that would change with time. It is the balance that we seek not the features of any part of a system in particular. The purpose of a system is what it does. It is the whole that is important. So there is a need to take a holistic view of anything.

 

Strengths:  Strength is a resource, a skill to be in tune to meet the market demands and stand firm with competitors. Systems are designed with certain intentions to produce a desired output.

 Weaknesses:  It is a limitation or deficiency of resources, skills, capabilities, potentialities, that affect effective performance. Or we can think of them as imperfections in the system that produces 'mess' during operation. These need to be identified early enough to avoid disasters.

Opportunities: One needs to grab the opportunities analyzing the positive and negative sides of the coin. A quick shift in viewpoint or perspective is needed. Multiple perspectives are welcome.

 Threat: They are like ticking time bombs which are to be diffused before they blast. These are unintended consequences that urges us to actively search them out.

 

Notes:

Indian story from Panchantrantra retold.

CL stands for Creative Leadership