The Fundamental of a SWOTT analysis

A SWOTT Analysis is an internal and external framework that organizations use to evaluate organizational competition. A scan of the internal and external environment is an important part of the strategic planning process. Environmental factors internal to the firm usually can be classified as strengths or weaknesses, and those external to the firm can be classified as opportunities, threats or trends. The SWOTT analysis provides information that is helpful in matching the firm's resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates (Bradford, Duncan, Tarcy, 2007). As such, it is instrumental in strategy formulation and selection.

The purpose of SWOTT is to pursue opportunities that are a good fit to the company's strengths; to overcome weaknesses to pursue opportunities; to identify ways that the firm can use its strengths to reduce its vulnerability to external threats; to establish a defensive plan to prevent the firm's weaknesses from making it highly susceptible to external threats (Bradford, et al, 2007).

In order to have an effective strategic plan a SWOTT analysis must be conducted, it provides details about the company as a whole as well as their competitors. A company cannot actively compete in the market without first knowing what they are up against. A SWOTT analysis is essential developing an understanding of an organization thus enabling company leaders to make informed decisions on the direction of the company.

One key to successful strategic management is the ability to achieve fit or coherence among a set of competitive factors, both internal and external to the organization, in a manner that facilitates high performance. The strategic choice perspective (Child, 1972) argues that organizations do not simply react to their environments but dynamically interact with them via the strategic actions of top managers. Achieving strategic fit thus requires alignment of organizational resources, capabilities and competencies with environmental opportunities and threats (Bourgeois, 1980; Schendel and Hofer, 1979). Beyond this, proper fit requires internal consistency with regard to the firm's overall activities and operations. In this sense, strategic management constitutes a "pattern in a stream of decisions" (Mintzberg, 1978) intended to dynamically regulate the relation between an organization and its environment while at the same time ensuring that internal interdependencies are efficiently managed and that strategic actions are inherently consistent. While strategic managers strive to formulate cohesive strategies to guide managerial decision making, the results of these decisions may be unanticipated. Mintzberg (1978) distinguished between deliberate strategies, whereby an intended strategy is actually realized, and emergent strategies, whereby a realized strategy may have never been intended. This notion has subsequently been extended (Brown and Eisenhardt, 1998; Jennings et al., 2003; Mintzberg et al., 1998; Tegarden et al., 2003) to further highlight the dynamic interplay between the organization and its environment and the distinctions between rational and extemporaneous aspects of strategic management (Blumentritt, 2006).

A company must continuously update the communication and implementation of their strategic plan as a result of an ever changing marketplace. As trends change and consumer desires begin to shift, the strategic plan must also change for the sole purpose of maintaining a current stance in the industry. A strategic plan must be able to quickly adjust to a changing market.

In one sense, everyone is ultimately responsible for using a strategic plan, but in terms of implementation, the key player is the leader of the organization, often the CEO, COO, or other similar senior position (Bacal, 2009). Strategic plans, have to do, at least initially with the overall direction of the company or organization, so in theory, and often in practice it is the CEO that will be held accountable for results that should be generated through the implementation of a strategic plan.
That's not to say that others in the organization are not responsible. All managers will have some responsibilities for plan implementation, and communicating the essence of the plans to employees, but if a strategic plan fails, or the implementation is faulty, it's the CEO (or other leaders) that are responsible (Bacal, 2009).