Frameworks
SWOT analysis
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Facts checked against sources onWhat does SWOT analysis mean?
SWOT lists a company's internal strengths and weaknesses and the external opportunities and threats it faces. Its origin is unclear; it is usually linked to business planning work in the 1960s. It ranks nothing and leads to no decision, so it is almost never a good case structure: write the maths of the problem and size the options instead.
Where does it come up in case interview prep?
Related terms
- PESTEL analysisPolitical, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors.
- FrameworkA ready-made list of buckets for a common kind of case; know the words, do not recite them.
- Porter's Five ForcesFive pressures on how profitable an industry is; vocabulary, not a case structure.
- Porter's generic strategiesCompete on lowest cost, on being different, or by focusing on a niche.
- BCG growth-share matrixSorting businesses by market growth and relative market share.
- Ansoff matrixFour growth routes: existing or new products in existing or new markets.
- McKinsey 7S frameworkSeven parts of an organization that must fit together.
- Value chainThe activities a firm performs to create and deliver value.
Learn it in context
See SWOT analysis at work in a lesson from How industries work: the toolkit, with checks as you go.
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