start your planning with a swot! sharron ronco john cahill florida atlantic university
TRANSCRIPT
Start your Planning with a SWOT!
Sharron Ronco
John Cahill
Florida Atlantic University
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
INTERNAL Strengths Weaknesses
EXTERNAL Opportunities Threats
Historical Framework
SWOT Analysis as a strategic planning tool was popularized by business faculty at Harvard during the 1960s.
Igor Ansoff extended the Harvard model. Ansoff diverged from the simplicity of the Harvard model to propose a model which was more structured, detailed and prescribed.
Environmental challenges lead to use of SWOT analysis in higher education during the1970s and 1980s.
PEST Analysis
- Political
- Economic
- Social
- Technological
Porter’s Five Forces model
- Threat of new competitors
- Threat of substitutes
- Bargaining power of suppliers
- Bargaining power of buyers
- Rivalry between competitors
TOWS matrix
Related Planning Models
Who we surveyed
Online surveys to:
Faculty
Staff
Alumni
Parents
Results of previous surveys:
Student Satisfaction
Graduating Student
Admitted Students who did not Enroll
Focus groups:
Community advisory
Student government
What are the top three things that FAU does well?
What should FAU preserve at all costs?
Who are FAU’s chief competitors?
What does FAU do better than its competitors?
What does the competition do better, that FAU should be doing?
What three things should FAU address immediately to improve?
What does FAU do poorly?
What directions should FAU avoid taking in the future?
What do people outside of FAU see as its strengths?
What do people outside of FAU see as its weaknesses?
What opportunities could FAU take advantage of in the next five years?
What is changing in the environment that could adversely affect FAU?
Questions for online survey and focus groups:
S
W
OT
SW
SW
= Most frequently cited
= Often cited
= Commonly cited
= Occasionally cited
= Seldom or never cited
= Most frequently cited
= Often cited
= Commonly cited
= Occasionally cited
= Seldom or never cited
= Most frequently cited
= Often cited
= Commonly cited
= Occasionally cited
= Seldom or never cited
= Most frequently cited
= Often cited
= Commonly cited
= Occasionally cited
= Seldom or never cited
Strengths Weaknesses
S-O strategies W-O strategies
Strength: Offers a high quality education to its service area.
Weakness: Responsiveness to workforce needs.
Opportunity: Local community relations and fundraising.
Opportunity: Partner with business, industry and government
Strategy: Promote and market programs of distinction more aggressively to community.
Strategy: Form workforce advising boards for each college, promote linkages with faculty and students.
S-T strategies W-T strategies
Strength: Low cost. Weakness: Faculty and staff salaries.
Threat: Increased competition from other and online providers.
Threat: High cost of living and housing.
Strategy: Media campaign to promote value of our education.
Strategy: Consider university-sponsored housing.
Op
po
rtu
nit
ies
Th
reat
s
Figure 3.1 Sample TOWS Matrix
OPPORTUNITIES
(1) Partner with business, industry and gov’t
(2) Distance learning
(3) Growth in population
STRENGTHS
(1) High quality education
(2) Multi-campus structure
(3) Low cost
(4) Diversity of students
S-0 STRATEGIES
• Promote preparation of employees who are comfortable with multiple cultures and diverse languages (4, 1)
• Increase accessibility to mixed modes of instruction on partner campuses (2, 2)
• Increase continuing education offerings (1, 1)
Limitations
The SWOT results are not statistically representative
Analyzing open-ended responses is labor-intensive
Consider using a PEST approach
Find our paper at:
http://iea.fau.edu/inst/sair05.doc
SAIR
October 22 – 25, 2005
Charleston, South Carolina