SWOT analysis

Definition

A framework examining Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, beloved by consultants who charge thousands to list obvious things in four quadrants.

Example Usage

Our SWOT analysis revealed that our strength is pizza Fridays and our biggest threat is literally everything else.

Origin

Developed at Stanford in the 1960s-70s by Albert Humphrey

Fun Fact

Despite being taught in every business school for fifty years, SWOT analyses are remarkably bad at predicting actual business outcomes.

Source: Strategic planning and business school terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

cascade communication

A top-down information flow where messages trickle from executives through management layers to front-line employees, losing clarity and gaining confusion at each level like a game of corporate telephone.

💼 Corporate / Business

Advanced

compeer

An equal or peer—someone you can actually match wits with rather than talk down to. A genuinely competitive companion in the truest sense.

💼 Corporate / Business

Intermediate

change fatigue

The exhausted apathy employees develop after the seventh reorganization this year, rendering them immune to urgent transformation initiatives. The organizational equivalent of 'boy who cried wolf' syndrome.

💼 Corporate / Business

Intermediate

variation

A change or deviation from the standard, baseline, or expected outcome; the business world's way of saying 'something didn't go according to plan, and we need to investigate why.'

💼 Corporate / Business

Advanced

hygiene factors

Basic workplace elements that don't motivate employees but cause dissatisfaction when absent, like adequate salary, clean facilities, or functional equipment. They're the vegetables of job satisfaction—necessary but not exciting.

💼 Corporate / Business

Intermediate

Core Competency

The one thing your company claims to be really good at, which is usually just the thing you've been doing the longest. Like a restaurant saying their core competency is food -- technically true but not exactly inspiring.

💼 Corporate / Business

Translate This Term

See “SWOT analysis” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Advanced

Protein Synthesis

Your body building new muscle proteins after training stimulus. The biological reason protein matters and why your gym b...