SWOT ANALYSIS

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a business or project. It is straightforward model that assesses what an organization can and cannot do, as well as its potential opportunities and threats. It is an extremely useful tool for understanding and decision-making on business and organizations.

This method will be helpful for any car rental company, engaged on renting to people needing a temporary replacement car or a vehicle for a special occasion, leasing vehicles, fleet management services and sale of used cars and trucks.

Let's start learning how to put all together in the SWOT matrix, 2 x 2, having Strengths (1,1), Weaknesses (1,2), Opportunities (2,1) and Threats (2,2), making them work, and be useful for our company.

In the first column we will list those issues that we can control, because they are internal to the company, while in the second column will be those issues over which we do not have control, once they are external to the company.

What to evaluate?

Strengths – the attributes of the company that are helpful to achieving the objective. We can capitalize on them. 

1. Questions examples:
1. What are we doing better than our competitors?
2. What know-how/experience do we already have?
3. What do we do well?
4. What do we do for clients that makes them love it?
5. What products bring in the most money?
6. What services bring in the most money?
7. What are the best assets that we have?
8. What is the best of our locations?
9. What are our best processes in operation?

Weaknesses – the attributes of the company that are harmful to achieving the objective, but they are also areas of opportunities. We must work on them to shore them up.

1. Questions examples:
1. What is making us lose money?
2. What does waste our time?
3. What in our products is requesting our attention?
4. What in our services is requesting our attention?
5. What rental locations are not good enough?
6. What processes are bad?

Opportunities – the external conditions that are helpful to achieving the objective. We invest on them.

1. Questions examples:
1. How can we do more for existing clients?
2. How can we increase our marketing share?
3. Are there new targets we have potential to reach?

Threats - the external conditions which could do damage to the business’s performance. We must identify them.

1. Questions examples:
1. What are our competitors doing that we're not?
2. What is going on the economy that can be hard for us?
3. What is going on the car rental industry that we're not able to do?
4. What are the obstacles do we face?

We need to collect data to populate the SWOT, however we must do this with focus on information based on:

• Customers: getting feedback using marketing research methods as surveys, questionnaires, focus groups, in-depth interviews, projective techniques, etc.
• Employees: information survey, looking for capabilities that they have, which are strengths or weaknesses, knowledge/training gaps, etc
• Resources: brand, assets, money, buildings, software that we have or don't have.
• Processes: things that we do, good or not so good.
• Environmental: what happening in the world, continents, regions, country, states, cities, and localities.
• Economy: loan, costs, mortgages, interests, taxes, vehicle depreciation, etc.
• Industry: looking for what is happening in our industry, associations, etc. 
• Competitors: basically who they are, what they are doing, how they are doing, what are their missions and visions, etc.

After have our matrix completely populated, what we do with those information? We want to actually take those information, and create a list of ideas to deal with them, prioritizing, and defining, actions in a “Goal Statement”. How we can generate ideas? Well, doing this:

1. Take the strengths, trying to match them up with the opportunities.
2. Match the weaknesses up with strengths.
3. Set strengths up to offset weaknesses.
4. Set strengths up to capitalize on opportunities.
5. Be aware of threats, looking for opportunities that can offset the threats.

What the SWOT Analysis ought not be? It shall not be an exercise of imagination for your team around the table, but must be based on precise data collected as outlined above, sharing the strategy effectively inside the company, making sure that we will do something with them, reaching great goals, which will be pushing the company forward.