Strategic Analysis Toolkit: SWOT, Gap Analysis, BCG and Porter's Five Forces – Training Course
1Summary
Ask a manager to name the opportunities and threats facing their organisation over the next two years, and most will hesitate. That hesitation is exactly what strategic analysis is built to remove. It is arguably the most creative and resourceful form of thinking a manager can develop: examining the internal and external environment closely enough to make accurate predictions, formulate the right strategy, and take decisions at the pace the market actually demands.
A strategy built this way pulls together internal and external factors, human resources, organisational culture and the way scarce resources get used — knowledge every member of an organisation needs if opportunities and threats are going to be caught early rather than after the fact. Done properly, it shifts how people see the organisation itself: not a set of departments competing for the same budget, but a single interconnected entity that either analyses its environment together or gets blindsided by it together.
2Objectives and target group
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Run a full SWOT analysis and correctly separate internal from external factors.
- Apply Gap Analysis to measure the distance between current and target performance.
- Use the BCG matrix to evaluate a portfolio of products or projects.
- Apply Porter's Five Forces to read competitive pressure in a market.
Who Should Attend?
- Managers and owners of economic establishments.
- All staff in administrative departments.
- Heads of administrative and development departments.
3Course Content
Module 1: What Strategic Analysis Actually Does
- The concept and importance of strategic analysis.
- Strategic analysis tools at a glance.
- How strategic analysis tracks changes in the internal and external environment.
Module 2: SWOT in Depth
- Strengths and weaknesses inside the SWOT model.
- Opportunities and threats affecting the organisation and how to spot them.
- Turning SWOT findings into decisions.
Module 3: Measuring the Gap and the Portfolio
- Strategic analysis using the Gap Analysis model.
- Reading a project or product portfolio through the BCG matrix.
- Consequences of strategic decisions for the organisation.
Module 4: Competitive Pressure and What to Do About It
- Strategic analysis using Porter's Five Forces.
- Assessing threats and opportunities on a competitive scale.
- Using strategic analysis models successfully in real decisions.