Skip to Main Content
Skidmore College main website

Lucy Scribner Library

MB 107: Strategic Analyses

Different Types of Strategic Analyses

I.                    Strategy Diamond Analysis

II.                   Distinctive Competencies, Competitive Advantage, Key Success Factors

III.                  SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis

IV.                  Structural Analysis of the Industry (Porter’s Five Forces)

V.                   Value Chain Analysis

VI.                  Competitor Analysis

VII.                 Strategic Group Analysis

VIII.                Macro-Environment Analysis

IX.                  Industry Environment Analysis – Life Cycle Stages

X.                   Marketing Alternatives

XI.                  Financial Analysis

Introduction to SWOT Analyses:

SWOT Analyses provide a quick and easy overview of company or industry sector performance, as they are an outside snapshot of market perceived strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a company or industry sector.

Businessballs.com provides links to templates for writing your own SWOT.

FREE SWOT Analysis provides free access to some company level SWOTs.

SWOTs can be also found in a variety of business databases.  This guide will show you how to most easily find SWOT reports in the ABI/INFORM, Business Insights: Essentials, Business Source Complete, and Nexis Uni databases.

Use the four adjacent database tabs for instructions on how to search each database for a company SWOT. Instructions include hypertext links to the database.

1. Using the ABI/INFORM "advanced search" option, enter "SWOT" into the search form. 

2. On the second search line, type in the company and select " Company/Organization - ORG" from the drop down menu at the end of the search bar.

3. Scroll through the "search options" section below until you reach "Document Type". Select "Company Profile".

4. Click search and select the Company Profile with SWOT report from the search results.

1. From the home page of the Business Insights: Essentials database, insert the desired company name and click Search.

2. The company profile will be found, and if available, SWOT Reports will be listed as an option.  Click on the SWOT Reports link to access.

3.  Select the company link to see the SWOT for that company.  Selecting the underlying Global Markets Direct SWOT Reports link will take you to the entire collection of SWOTS available in the database. 

1. From the Advanced Search form on the Business Source Complete database, scroll down to select SWOT Analyses from among the Browse options on the right side of the screen.

 

2. Enter the company of your choice in the search form. Click on Browse.

 

3. Click on the blue title to access the SWOT Analysis that has been found.

  1. Using the Nexis Uni database, Select Advanced Search:
  2. Now select Company and Financial (1) to see the drop down menu and then select Company Profiles (2). 
  3. In the search form, select Company Name (3) from the All Fields menu and enter company name (ex: Microsoft). 
  4. Type the word SWOT (4) in the next search box.
     
  5. ​Click Search
     
  6. If needed, sort the results order by selecting Date (newest-oldest) in drop-down menu. 

Use the adjacent database tab for instructions on how to search for an industry level SWOT. Instructions include hypertext links to the database.

1. Navigate to and then select the Browse tab from the ABI/INFORM homepage.

 

2. Select the Business Monitor Industry (BMI) Reports from the content list.

 

3. Scroll down to find the 'swot analysis' tab and select it to expand.

 

4. Select the document of interest to you.