La organización no existe ni puede existir fuera de un entorno que le rodea.[4]​ Así que el análisis del entorno empresarial permite fijar las oportunidades y amenazas que el contexto puede presentarle a una organización. El proceso para determinar esas oportunidades o amenazas se puede realizar estableciendo los principales hechos o acontecimientos del ambiente que tiene, o podrían tener, alguna relación con la organización. El análisis externo DAFO puede además complementarse con un Análisis PEST o Análisis PESTEL.

Opportunities

Opportunities are those positive factors that are generated in the environment and that, once identified, can be taken advantage of and become strengths.

They are factors that are positive and favorable in the company's environment. Examples: Regulation in favor, weak competition and poorly served market.

Some of the questions that can be asked and that contribute to the development are:

Threats

Threats are unfavorable and external problems or situations that can directly affect the existence of the organization and, for which, once identified, it is necessary to design an optimal strategy to solve these problems.

Some of the questions that can be asked and that contribute to the development are:

From the combination of strengths with opportunities, potential emerges, which indicate the most promising lines of action for the organization or company. The limitations, determined by a combination of weaknesses and threats, place a serious warning. While the risks (combination of strengths and threats) and challenges (combination of weaknesses and opportunities), determined by their corresponding combination of factors, will require careful consideration when setting the course that the organization must take towards the desirable future, such as the development of a new product.

Decision making is an everyday process through which a choice is made between different alternatives in order to resolve the most varied situations. Decisions must be made at all times.

To make a successful decision regarding an issue, it is necessary to know it, understand it and analyze it, in order to provide a solution. It is important to remember that "without a problem there cannot be a solution."

Therefore, companies should analyze the situation taking into account the particular reality of what is being analyzed, the possible alternatives to choose from and the future consequences of each choice.

What is significant and worrying is that there are a large number of companies that face their problems by making decisions automatically and irrationally (not strategically), and do not take into account that the result of a bad or good choice can have consequences on the success or failure of the company.

Organizations should carry out a more structured process that can give them more information and security for decision making and thus reduce the risk of making errors. This is where the importance of the SWOT Matrix lies as a necessary element to know your real situation. Its preparation allows us to proactively and systematically search and analyze all the variables involved in the business, in order to have more and better information when making decisions.

Although the essential thing for a company is the Business Plan, which reflects the mission, vision, goals, objectives and strategies, by correctly carrying out the SWOT analysis, the Offensive, Defensive, Survival and Reorganization strategies necessary to meet the business objectives can be established.

Based on the data extracted in a SWOT analysis, the strategies to be developed must be established. A complementary analysis appears, the CAME analysis. This consists of Correct weaknesses, Face threats, Maintain strengths and Exploit opportunities. With this analysis, strategies to meet objectives must be extracted, a system less known than SWOT but widely used in business marketing.[5]​.

A SWOT analysis can be used to:.

El análisis DAFO puede utilizarse en cualquier situación de toma de decisiones cuando se define un estado final deseado (objetivo), no sólo en organizaciones con ánimo de lucro"). Los ejemplos incluyen organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro, unidades gubernamentales e individuos. El análisis DAFO también puede utilizarse en la planificación previa a la crisis y en la gestión de crisis preventiva. El análisis DAFO también puede utilizarse para crear una recomendación durante un estudio de viabilidad/encuesta.

Strategy construction

SWOT analysis can be used to build an organizational or personal strategy. The steps necessary to execute strategy-oriented analysis involve the identification of internal and external factors (using the popular 2x2 matrix), the selection and evaluation of the most important factors, and the identification of the relationships between internal and external characteristics.[7]​.

For example, strong relationships between strengths and opportunities can suggest good conditions in the company and allow the use of an aggressive strategy. On the other hand, strong interactions between weaknesses and threats could be analyzed as a potential warning and advice to use a defensive strategy.[8]​.

Pairing and conversion

One way to use SWOT is pairing and conversion. Matching is used to find competitive advantage by matching strengths with opportunities. Another tactic is to turn weaknesses or threats into strengths or opportunities. An example of a conversion strategy is finding new markets. If threats or weaknesses cannot be converted, the company should try to minimize or avoid them.[9]​.

Business planning

As part of developing strategies and plans that allow the organization to achieve its objectives, the organization will use a systematic/rigorous process known as corporate planning. The SWOT together with the PEST/PESTLE") can be used as a basis for the analysis of business and environmental factors.[10]​.

Marketing

In many competitive analyses, marketers prepare detailed profiles of each competitor in the market, focusing especially on their relative competitive strengths and weaknesses using SWOT analysis. Marketing managers will examine each competitor's cost structure, sources of profits, resources and competencies, competitive positioning and product differentiation, degree of vertical integration, historical responses to industry developments, and other factors.

Marketing management often finds it necessary to invest in research to gather the data necessary to perform accurate marketing analysis. Consequently, management often conducts market research (alternatively, marketing research) to obtain this information. Marketing managers use a wide variety of techniques to conduct market research, but some of the most common are:.

Below is an example of a SWOT analysis of the market position of a small management consultancy specialized in human resources (HR) management:[11]​.

Carnap (1993) presents dynamic SWOT, which does not compare internal and external factors, but rather relates past experiences with future development options.[12] Strengths are interpreted as successes in the past - Weaknesses as mistakes in the past. Eliminating errors enables learning and innovation. Its application in critical areas tends to mediate conflicts, increases motivation among all participants and guides solutions. It contains basic learning principles and generates highly participatory innovation processes.

A method to carry out a SWOT analysis based on fuzzy logic was proposed in 2011 and perfected in 2015 by Cuban mathematician Javier Pérez Capdevila, which proposes weighing strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats, under the conception that these do not manifest equally in reality. To do this, he proposes that the experts' votes be made with real numbers between zero and one hundred, and that they then be converted to values ​​between zero and one by dividing by one hundred.[13]​.

La organización no existe ni puede existir fuera de un entorno que le rodea.[4]​ Así que el análisis del entorno empresarial permite fijar las oportunidades y amenazas que el contexto puede presentarle a una organización. El proceso para determinar esas oportunidades o amenazas se puede realizar estableciendo los principales hechos o acontecimientos del ambiente que tiene, o podrían tener, alguna relación con la organización. El análisis externo DAFO puede además complementarse con un Análisis PEST o Análisis PESTEL.

Opportunities

Opportunities are those positive factors that are generated in the environment and that, once identified, can be taken advantage of and become strengths.

They are factors that are positive and favorable in the company's environment. Examples: Regulation in favor, weak competition and poorly served market.

Some of the questions that can be asked and that contribute to the development are:

Threats

Threats are unfavorable and external problems or situations that can directly affect the existence of the organization and, for which, once identified, it is necessary to design an optimal strategy to solve these problems.

Some of the questions that can be asked and that contribute to the development are:

From the combination of strengths with opportunities, potential emerges, which indicate the most promising lines of action for the organization or company. The limitations, determined by a combination of weaknesses and threats, place a serious warning. While the risks (combination of strengths and threats) and challenges (combination of weaknesses and opportunities), determined by their corresponding combination of factors, will require careful consideration when setting the course that the organization must take towards the desirable future, such as the development of a new product.

Decision making is an everyday process through which a choice is made between different alternatives in order to resolve the most varied situations. Decisions must be made at all times.

To make a successful decision regarding an issue, it is necessary to know it, understand it and analyze it, in order to provide a solution. It is important to remember that "without a problem there cannot be a solution."

Therefore, companies should analyze the situation taking into account the particular reality of what is being analyzed, the possible alternatives to choose from and the future consequences of each choice.

What is significant and worrying is that there are a large number of companies that face their problems by making decisions automatically and irrationally (not strategically), and do not take into account that the result of a bad or good choice can have consequences on the success or failure of the company.

Organizations should carry out a more structured process that can give them more information and security for decision making and thus reduce the risk of making errors. This is where the importance of the SWOT Matrix lies as a necessary element to know your real situation. Its preparation allows us to proactively and systematically search and analyze all the variables involved in the business, in order to have more and better information when making decisions.

Although the essential thing for a company is the Business Plan, which reflects the mission, vision, goals, objectives and strategies, by correctly carrying out the SWOT analysis, the Offensive, Defensive, Survival and Reorganization strategies necessary to meet the business objectives can be established.

Based on the data extracted in a SWOT analysis, the strategies to be developed must be established. A complementary analysis appears, the CAME analysis. This consists of Correct weaknesses, Face threats, Maintain strengths and Exploit opportunities. With this analysis, strategies to meet objectives must be extracted, a system less known than SWOT but widely used in business marketing.[5]​.

A SWOT analysis can be used to:.

El análisis DAFO puede utilizarse en cualquier situación de toma de decisiones cuando se define un estado final deseado (objetivo), no sólo en organizaciones con ánimo de lucro"). Los ejemplos incluyen organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro, unidades gubernamentales e individuos. El análisis DAFO también puede utilizarse en la planificación previa a la crisis y en la gestión de crisis preventiva. El análisis DAFO también puede utilizarse para crear una recomendación durante un estudio de viabilidad/encuesta.

Strategy construction

SWOT analysis can be used to build an organizational or personal strategy. The steps necessary to execute strategy-oriented analysis involve the identification of internal and external factors (using the popular 2x2 matrix), the selection and evaluation of the most important factors, and the identification of the relationships between internal and external characteristics.[7]​.

For example, strong relationships between strengths and opportunities can suggest good conditions in the company and allow the use of an aggressive strategy. On the other hand, strong interactions between weaknesses and threats could be analyzed as a potential warning and advice to use a defensive strategy.[8]​.

Pairing and conversion

One way to use SWOT is pairing and conversion. Matching is used to find competitive advantage by matching strengths with opportunities. Another tactic is to turn weaknesses or threats into strengths or opportunities. An example of a conversion strategy is finding new markets. If threats or weaknesses cannot be converted, the company should try to minimize or avoid them.[9]​.

Business planning

As part of developing strategies and plans that allow the organization to achieve its objectives, the organization will use a systematic/rigorous process known as corporate planning. The SWOT together with the PEST/PESTLE") can be used as a basis for the analysis of business and environmental factors.[10]​.

Marketing

In many competitive analyses, marketers prepare detailed profiles of each competitor in the market, focusing especially on their relative competitive strengths and weaknesses using SWOT analysis. Marketing managers will examine each competitor's cost structure, sources of profits, resources and competencies, competitive positioning and product differentiation, degree of vertical integration, historical responses to industry developments, and other factors.

Marketing management often finds it necessary to invest in research to gather the data necessary to perform accurate marketing analysis. Consequently, management often conducts market research (alternatively, marketing research) to obtain this information. Marketing managers use a wide variety of techniques to conduct market research, but some of the most common are:.

Below is an example of a SWOT analysis of the market position of a small management consultancy specialized in human resources (HR) management:[11]​.

Carnap (1993) presents dynamic SWOT, which does not compare internal and external factors, but rather relates past experiences with future development options.[12] Strengths are interpreted as successes in the past - Weaknesses as mistakes in the past. Eliminating errors enables learning and innovation. Its application in critical areas tends to mediate conflicts, increases motivation among all participants and guides solutions. It contains basic learning principles and generates highly participatory innovation processes.

A method to carry out a SWOT analysis based on fuzzy logic was proposed in 2011 and perfected in 2015 by Cuban mathematician Javier Pérez Capdevila, which proposes weighing strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats, under the conception that these do not manifest equally in reality. To do this, he proposes that the experts' votes be made with real numbers between zero and one hundred, and that they then be converted to values ​​between zero and one by dividing by one hundred.[13]​.