SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT analysis is a framework to help assess and understand the internal and external forces that may create opportunities or risks for an organization.

Strengths:Strengths may be any number of areas or characteristics where a company excels and has a competitive advantage over its peers. Advantages may be more qualitative in nature and therefore difficult to measure such as strong brand recognition.

Weakness:Weaknesses are areas or characteristics where a business is at a competitive disadvantage relative to its peers. Like strengths, these can also be more qualitative or quantitative.

Opportunities:The “Opportunities” section should highlight external factors that represent potential growth or improvement areas for a business. Consider opportunities like a growing technological advancements that might help improve efficiency, or changes in social norms that are creating new markets or new sub-segments of existing markets.

Threats:Threats are external forces that represent risks to a business and its ability to operate. The categories tend to be similar to the “Opportunities” section, but directionally opposite.

fruiStrategy helps you to perform SWOT analysis by product group, customer group, market region, facility, or other dimensions. We record indicators and correlations and trends for each component along with nullifiers. The competitor analysis can be done against each component. This will help the business leaders to identify strategy indicators which can be continuously monitored during strategy execution.

Organisations that successfully monitor and respond to changes in the macro-environment can differentiate from the competition and thus have a competitive advantage over others.

Political Factors: These determine the extent to which government and government policy may impact on an organisation or a specific industry. This would include political policy and stability as well as trade, fiscal and taxation policies too.

Economic Factors: An economic factor has a direct impact on the economy and its performance, which in turn directly impacts on the organisation and its profitability. Factors include interest rates, employment or unemployment rates, raw material costs and foreign exchange rates.

Social Factors: The focus here is on the social environment and identifying emerging trends. This helps a marketer to further understand consumer needs and wants in a social setting. Factors include changing family demographics, education levels, cultural trends, attitude changes and changes in lifestyles.

Technological Factors: Technological factors consider the rate of technological innovation and development that could affect a market or industry. Factors could include changes in digital or mobile technology, automation, research and development. There is often a tendency to focus on developments only in digital technology, but consideration must also be given to new methods of distribution, manufacturing and logistics.

Environmental Factors: An economic factor has a direct impact on the economy and its performance, which in turn directly impacts on the organisation and its profitability. Factors include interest rates, employment or unemployment rates, raw material costs and foreign exchange rates.

Legal Factors: An organization must understand what is legal and allowed within the territories they operate in. They also must be aware of any change in legislation and the impact this may have on business operations. Factors include employment legislation, consumer law, health and safety, international as well as trade regulation and restrictions.

fruiStrategy helps you to perform PESTEL analysis by product group, customer group, market region, facility, or other dimensions. We record indicators and correlations and trends for each component along with nullifiers. The competitor analysis can be done against each component. This will help the business leaders to identify strategy indicators which can be continuously monitored during strategy execution.

The Five Forces model is widely used to analyze the industry structure of a company as well as its corporate strategy. Porter identified five undeniable forces that play a part in shaping every market and industry in the world.

Competition in the Industry: The first of the Five Forces refers to the number of competitors and their ability to undercut a company. The larger the number of competitors, along with the number of equivalent products and services they offer, the lesser the power of a company.

Potential of New Entrants into an Industry: A company's power is also affected by the force of new entrants into its market. The less time and money it costs for a competitor to enter a company's market and be an effective competitor, the more an established company's position could be significantly weakened.

Power of Suppliers: The next factor in the Porter model addresses how easily suppliers can drive up the cost of inputs. It is affected by the number of suppliers of key inputs of a good or service, how unique these inputs are, and how much it would cost a company to switch to another supplier. The fewer suppliers to an industry, the more a company would depend on a supplier.

Power of Customers: The ability that customers have to drive prices lower or their level of power is one of the Five Forces. It is affected by how many buyers or customers a company has, how significant each customer is, and how much it would cost a company to find new customers or markets for its output.

Threat of Substitutes: The last of the Five Forces focuses on substitutes. Substitute goods or services that can be used in place of a company's products or services pose a threat. Companies that produce goods or services for which there are no close substitutes will have more power to increase prices and lock in favorable terms.

fruiStrategy helps you to perform Porter Five Force analysis by product group, customer group, market region, facility, or other dimensions. We record indicators and correlations and trends for each component along with nullifiers. The competitor analysis can be done against each component. This will help the business leaders to identify strategy indicators which can be continuously monitored during strategy execution.

The Four Corners Analysis, developed Michael Porter, is a model well designed to help company strategists assess a competitor's intent and objectives, and the strengths it is using to achieve them. It is a useful technique to evaluate competitors and generate insights concerning likely competitor strategy changes and determine competitor reaction to environmental changes and industry shifts. By examining a competitor's current strategy, future goals, assumptions about the market, and core capabilities, the Four Corners Model helps analysts address four core questions:

Motivation: What drives the competitor? Look for drivers at various levels and dimensions so you can gain insights into future goals.

Current Strategy: What is the competitor doing and what is the competitor capable of doing?

Capabilities: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the competitor?

Management Assumptions: What assumptions are made by the competitor's management team?

fruiStrategy helps you to perform Four Corner analysis by product group, customer group, market region, facility, or other dimensions. We record indicators and correlations and trends for each component along with nullifiers. The competitor analysis can be done against each component. This will help the business leaders to identify strategy indicators which can be continuously monitored during strategy execution.

When you have a serious problem, it's important to explore all of the things that could cause it, before you start to think about a solution.

That way you can solve the problem completely, first time round, rather than just addressing part of it and having the problem run on and on.

Cause and Effect Analysis gives you a useful way of doing this. This diagram-based technique, which combines Brainstorming with a type of Mind Map, pushes you to consider all possible causes of a problem, rather than just the ones that are most obvious.

fruiStrategy helps you to perform Cause and Effect analysis by product group, customer group, market region, facility, or other dimensions. We record indicators and correlations and trends for each component along with nullifiers. The competitor analysis can be done against each component. This will help the business leaders to identify strategy indicators which can be continuously monitored during strategy execution.

Force field analysis is a basic tool for root cause analysis that can help you take action once the root cause has been identified. The technique is based on the assumption that any situation is the result of forces for and against the current state being in equilibrium. Countering the opposing forces and/or increasing the favorable forces will help induce a change by reinforcing positives and eliminating or reducing negatives.

Force field analysis does the following:

1. Presents the positives and negatives of a situation so they are easily comparable.

2. Considers all aspects of making the desired change.

3. Encourages agreement about the relative priority of factors on each side of the balance sheet.

4. Encourages honest reflection on the underlying roots of a problem and its solution.

fruiStrategy helps you to perform Force Field analysis by product group, customer group, market region, facility, or other dimensions. We record indicators and correlations and trends for each component along with nullifiers. The competitor analysis can be done against each component. This will help the business leaders to identify strategy indicators which can be continuously monitored during strategy execution.

A tree diagram is a visual tool in Strategy Analysis used to analyse and represent strategic options, decisions, and their potential outcomes. It is also known as a decision tree or influence diagram. The main purpose of a tree diagram in strategy analysis is to help decision-makers evaluate different alternatives and understand the potential outcomes associated with each choice.

The process for creating a tree diagram in strategy analysis includes;

Identify the decision or problem: Clearly define the strategic decision or problem that needs to be analysed. This could include options such as entering a new market, developing a new product, or making an investment.

Define the objectives: Determine the key objectives or goals that need to be achieved through the decision-making process. These objectives will guide the analysis and evaluation of different options.

Identify alternatives: Identify the different options or alternatives available for addressing the decision or problem. These could include different strategies, actions, or courses of action.

Determine consequences: For each alternative, consider the potential consequences or outcomes that may result. These can be positive or negative, short-term or long-term. It's important to consider both the direct and indirect effects of each choice.

Create the tree structure: Start with a root node representing the initial decision or problem. Then, create branches that represent the available alternatives. From each alternative, create additional branches that represent the potential outcomes or consequences.

Assign probabilities and values: Assess the likelihood of each outcome occurring and assign appropriate probabilities to each branch. Additionally, assign values or weights to the outcomes to reflect their relative desirability or importance.

Analyze and evaluate: Analyze the tree diagram to evaluate the potential outcomes and make informed decisions. Consider factors such as risk, uncertainty, and potential trade-offs between different objectives.

Make a decision: Based on the analysis of the tree diagram, make a decision or select the most appropriate alternative that aligns with the strategic objectives.

fruiStrategy helps you to perform strategy analysis through Tree Diagram to map decision-making process and its potential outcomes.

Hoshin Kanri is a strategic planning tool that businesses use to connect company-wide objectives to the day-to-day work of individual contributors. In Japanese, the word “hoshin” translates to “policy” or “direction.” The word “kanri” translates to “management.” The phrase all together roughly translates to, “How do we manage our direction?”

1. The strategic team pushes strategy down to the individual contributor level, providing information and context about how the strategy connects to their daily work.

2. Individual contributors then enact that strategy.

3. Finally, the rate at which individual contributors produce is provided back up to the strategic team to help them analyze and adjust strategy.

In that way, Hoshin Kanri isn’t a one-off method of thinking, but rather a continuous cycle of planning and improvement.

fruiStrategy helps you to perform Hoshin Kanri analysis by product group, customer group, market region, facility, or other dimensions. We record indicators and correlations and trends for each component along with nullifiers. The competitor analysis can be done against each component. This will help the business leaders to identify strategy indicators which can be continuously monitored during strategy execution.

The term value chain refers to the various business activities and processes involved in creating a product or performing a service. A value chain can consist of multiple stages of a product or service’s lifecycle, including research and development, sales, and everything in between.

Taking stock of the processes that comprise your company’s value chain can help you gain insight into what goes into each of its transactions. By maximizing the value created at each point in the chain, your company can be better positioned to share more value with customers while capturing a greater share for itself. Similarly, knowing how your firm creates value can enable you to develop a greater understanding of its competitive advantage.

Value chain analysis is a means of evaluating each of the activities in a company’s value chain to understand where opportunities for improvement lie. Conducting a value chain analysis prompts you to consider how each step adds or subtracts value from your final product or service. This, in turn, can help you realize some form of competitive advantage, such as:

1. Cost Reduction, by making each activity in the value chain more efficient and, therefore, less expensive

2. Product differentiation, by investing more time and resources into activities like research and development, design, or marketing that can help your product stand out.

fruiStrategy helps you to perform Value Chain analysis by product group, customer group, market region, facility, or other dimensions. We record indicators and correlations and trends for each component along with nullifiers. The competitor analysis can be done against each component. This will help the business leaders to identify strategy indicators which can be continuously monitored during strategy execution.

The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a strategic management tool to quickly and easily define and communicate a business idea or concept. It is a one-page document that works through the fundamental elements of a business or product, structuring an idea in a coherent way.

The right side of the BMC focuses on the customer (external), while, the left side of the canvas focuses on the business (internal). Both external and internal factors meet around the value proposition, which is the exchange of value between your business and your customer/clients.

It is used to:

• Quickly draw a picture of what the idea entails.

• Allow us to get an understanding of your business and to go through the process of making connections between what your idea is and how to make it into a business.

• It looks at what kinds of customer decisions influence the use of your systems.

• It allows everyone to get a clear idea of what the business will likely be.

fruiStrategy helps you to perform Business Model Canvas by product group, customer group, market region, facility, or other dimensions. We record indicators and correlations and trends for each component along with nullifiers. The competitor analysis can be done against each component. This will help the business leaders to identify strategy indicators which can be continuously monitored during strategy execution.

A Strategy Canvas is a tool that compares the product factors that a sample of incumbent products compete on, based on the value that a particular customer segment receives from them, in a two-dimensional chart.

The Strategy Canvas is a great tool to visually compare how the solutions you propose (i.e., your products and services) compare to others available to the same customers. The idea behind comparing solutions against each other is to identify factors on which the incumbents are competing and brainstorm ideas for products with a different value proposition.

By looking at the canvas, you can quickly see which factors incumbents believe customers value the most, so by reviewing them you can try to come up with ideas for products with a totally different {value proposition} that serve a particular set of customers within that market.

fruiStrategy helps you to perform Strategy Canvas by product group, customer group, market region, facility, or other dimensions. We record indicators and correlations and trends for each component along with nullifiers. The competitor analysis can be done against each component.