You’ve generated promising ideas. Now it’s time to evaluate them more deeply and build your implementation strategy.
In the last post, we explored how to develop recovery and growth ideas based on customer insights and resource realities. Now, let’s take a deeper look at how to evaluate those ideas using a time-tested tool: the SWOT analysis.
But because we’re building from your Opportunities, let’s flip the order and call it OSWT.
Start with your Opportunities—the ideas you came up with last time. Then work through:
- Strengths: What capabilities give you an edge in pursuing these opportunities?
- Weaknesses: What internal gaps could slow you down or hold you back?
- Threats: What external risks—competitors, regulation, market trends—might undermine your plan?
By taking this holistic view, you can begin to assess each alternative not just on its appeal, but on its real-world viability.
Case Study: Refocusing for Profitability
In our electronics manufacturing services business, we faced a crisis. One division—our integration business—had grown too fast. It was low margin and working capital intensive. Sales were up, but profitability was flat, and we were exhausting ourselves trying to keep up. It wasn’t sustainable.
Figuring out what to do took time. We didn’t rush into an offsite. Instead, we gathered input in layers: staff meetings, board meetings, one-on-ones, customer conversations, competitive research—even interviews with potential sales leaders.
The same OSWT patterns kept surfacing. And because the issues were deeply interconnected, we knew we couldn’t address them in isolation.
I took the lead on synthesizing it all. I created a simplified OSWT analysis, then shared a draft path forward with the leadership team and board.
The Plan We Chose
We stayed grounded in our mission and vision, while evaluating:
- What would benefit our stakeholders most?
- What level of risk were we willing to take?
We decided to shift our focus into embedded computer design and manufacturing—a move that would require short-term sacrifice but promise long-term strength.
Key moves included:
- Raising prices on low-margin integration customers. Some left. That was expected.
- Improving service to profitable integration accounts to retain them.
- Exiting low-margin bids by pricing ourselves out—and losing some salespeople in the process.
- Redirecting resources (freed by customer and personnel shifts) toward the embedded computer space.
- Hiring leaders from that industry to accelerate our success.
Eventually, we became a trusted provider of embedded computing systems for naval ships, military drones, advanced medical equipment, and more.
Thoughtful, Not Popular
These decisions weren’t easy. They weren’t universally popular. But they were grounded in strong analysis, stakeholder engagement, and a shared belief in a better path forward.
Models like SWOT (or OSWT) are tools to structure your thinking. They don’t make the decision for you—but they help you make smarter, more transparent, and more confident decisions.
If your analysis doesn’t match your intuition, take a step back. Bring in fresh perspectives—advisory board members, consultants, independent thinkers. The best strategy is both well-supported and well-felt.