UNESCO/IFLA Workshop on Development of Information Literacy through School Libraries in Southeast Asia September 2005 SWOT ANALYSIS

What is SWOT ? SWOT stands for Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

What is SWOT ? Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors; they are generally within your control Opportunities and threats are external factors; you may not have control over them, but you can benefit by planning

Why SWOT ? A simple framework used as a basis for generating options from a situation analysis Concentrates on the issues that potentially have the most impact Useful in early stages of planning when there is limited time to address a complex strategic situation

Why SWOT ? Build upon the strengths Address the weaknesses Make use of opportunities Beware of threats; turn them into opportunities

Caution in Using SWOT SWOT analysis can be subjective; two people rarely come-up with the same final version of SWOT TOWS analysis is similar to SWOT; it simply looks at the negative factors first in order to turn them into positive factors SWOT should be used as a guide, not a prescription

Conducting a SWOT Analysis Be realistic about your strengths and weaknesses Distinguish between where you are today, and where you could be in the future Be specific, avoid grey areas Keep your SWOT short and simple, avoid complexity and over analysis

Conducting a SWOT Analysis Strengths What advantages do you have? What do you do well? What resources do you have access to? …

Conducting a SWOT Analysis Weaknesses What could you improve? What do you do badly? What should you avoid? …

Conducting a SWOT Analysis Opportunities Where are the good opportunities facing you? What interesting trends you are aware of? What new products or services can be made use of? …

Conducting a SWOT Analysis Threats Is there competition? What is your competition doing? Are the requirements for jobs, products or services changing? Is changing technology threatening your position? …

Conducting a SWOT Analysis Strengths … Weaknesses … Opportunities … Threats …

Follow-Up Using the information from the presentations on Monday, the ideas presented this morning, and your own knowledge and experience of your country, Conduct a SWOT analysis for the development of information literacy education in your country Use the forms provided Transfer the main ideas to charts for sharing with others Hand the forms to Secretariat for compilation