AI & the Annual SWOT Analysis – Time to Adjust to the New Normal by Bill Attardi
The SWOT (Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats) Analysis is an important tool in the strategic marketing planning process and is taught in every graduate and undergraduate business course in academia. My view is that this should be an annual event, to spend the time during the planning process to ask your key people the select critical questions in each quadrant because it starts us to gather the most viable internal and external information to plan and run a successful business. How you gather, manage, and use information will determine whether you win or lose. Bill Gates.
Crucial: today, you win or lose if you do not understand and use artificial intelligence. Let me explain…
The lighting industry has been my life and something happened that just does not happen ever in any industry. Seven major lighting categories will soon be one: LED! Every lighting source out there will be replaced by LED over the next 5 to 10 years. Everything! That means every Taco Bell, every Home Depot, every Olive Garden, every Walmart, every home, office, hotel, hospital, streetlight, supermarket, et al will be upgraded to Intelligent Lighting and to all the advanced technologies that connect everything we do. When your customers learn about the advantages and benefits of the new technologies, and there will be many, will they buy them from you? Why not? What are you telling them? Where do you want to dominate? Not just in a leadership position but in a dominant leadership position….
Well, in my travels in the lighting world, I offer a shortcut guideline to effectively conduct a SWOT Analysis that could help us maneuver through the intelligent lighting combat zone and be on the winning side. This is directed to your Sales Force. What happens here at the sales level is where we keep score……..face-to-face with the major income generating source of any business, the customer. Important then that we understand Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats (SWOT) at the Sales level.
SWOT Categories
1. Strengths – INTERNAL – inside your business
- What are your core competencies? Those unique strengths, embedded deep within your business that allow you to differentiate your offerings so profoundly that they create higher value for your customers than anyone else. Identify them… Can you identify SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES, those not easily duplicated by your competitors.
- What’s motivating your customers to buy from you? The focus of all your marketing activities is the customer. When they understand the advantages and benefits of the new technologies, will they buy them from you? Why?
- What are you doing to your existing competitors that’s working for you? Not just in a leadership position but in a dominant leadership position…
2. Weaknesses – INTERNAL – – inside your business
- What weaknesses are holding you back? Can they be corrected / overcome? If they cannot, what must you do to compensate?
- Identify and address internal limitations.
- What are your existing competitors doing that’s working against you? Your first responsibility is the day-to-day operations of your business to win in a very competitive market. What’s holding you back?
3. Opportunities – EXTERNAL -what’s happening in the marketplace
- What business opportunities tie right into your strengths? Short-term and long-term?
- What are the key technologies shaping your industry? Every lighting source out there will be replaced over the next 5 to 10 years. Everything! Where do you want to dominate?
4. Threats – EXTERNAL -what’s happening in the marketplace
- What changes in the marketplace offer the most significant challenges?
- Who are your major competitors?
- Who are the new entrants in the industry that are a key threat?
Artificial Intelligence – Is AI an integral part of your strategic thinking? Why not?
It’s important to recognize that AI technology will be, if not already, the most significant development to aid businesses to solve problems and make sound decisions. In fact, my students, future decision-makers, will absolutely need to become proficient in using such tools as they enter the workforce after graduation. Fact: 64% of marketers are more likely to hire a new employee with AI certification compared to someone without? You have to use it….you have to get better at using it….you must be exceptionally skilled at using it. It’s the most powerful search engine ever developed. If there are or will be problems with AI, let them figured it out. Progress can be painful. In today’s hyper-connected world, we have at our finger-tips the computer, the internet, social media, cell phones, email, text messaging, now AI, ChatGpt, Claude, on and on and on. (I’m not going to explain ChatGPT or Claude….if you don’t know, you should.) Sometimes taking advantage of opportunities is a choice. AI is not going away. So where do you want to address AI: under opportunity or under threat?
Guidelines for Conducting a SWOT Analysis for a Sales Team
1. Individual input, everyone participates:
- Include all levels of sales responsibility
- For small businesses: conduct at a national level
- For multinational businesses: conduct at local sales level (Branch / Region / District…)
- Email input to the Team Leader – five or six points for each SWOT category
2. Assign a Team Leader that is AI-proficient……AI Certified if possible.
- Responsible for gathering input from all participants
- Prompts AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT or Claude) to consolidate and prioritize the input
- Highlight most important points for each SWOT category
- Remove duplicates
3. Final Document – two-page report (it’s really that simple)
- Page 1: Strengths & Weaknesses (Internal)
- Page 2: Opportunities & Threats (External)
4. Team Review:
- Conduct a meeting with all participants (virtual is fine)
- Review the consolidated report
- Reach consensus on the final SWOT analysis
5. Implementation:
- Use the finalized SWOT analysis for strategic planning and decision-making
If the rate of change on the outside is greater than the rate of change on the inside,
the end is near. Jack Welch