Of the six or seven ways to make a strategic plan, the SWOT method, developed at Harvard decades ago, is the most widely used and also one of the simplest. This simplicity can lead to simplifications and errors. In some companies, only the four central themes of the scheme are analyzed:
1- Opportunities that are open to any company within the major economic, technological, cultural or social trends in the sector of its activities.
2- Threats that loom over the companies in the sector, originating from the same factors.
3- Strengths of the company compared to the competition.
4- Currentcomparative weaknesses of the organization.
The full model is much more complex, and a first elementary error is in basing future action plans on simply four lists of factors.
A second common mistake in the use of SWOT is to identify "Opportunities" and "Threats" directly related to the current situation of the company or institution itself. That is not the point. The analysis should be carried out on the opportunities and threats that any company in the sector would have, without focusing on the company itself, in order to make a broad analysis of the entire sector.
Similarly, the third mistake is to analyze the company's internal "strengths" and "weaknesses" without understanding that this must be done comparatively with the competition: for example, if they are all strong in finance, this is not a strength on which to base the strategy.
The complete scheme requires a detailed analysis of the strategies of competing companies, the evolution of the business model and the critical success factors in the sector; finally, the detailed and sequential plan of objectives and strategic actions framed in a vision and mission of the company. This way of strategic planning is interactive in the sense that in the sense that the different elements reinforce each other all the time.
The poet tells us that "All human foresight is poor/ because on more than one occasion/ what is not expected comes out" . But we can avoid some failures if we do not fall into the mistakes described above and if we are finally clear that having a plan is not enough, since it is essential to react to unforeseen events and changes.
Half of the strategic success is in the realization and in the batteries to detect and straighten the course. The essence of strategy is the choice of various options, an art that is exercised over time and in processes of acute competition with other companies that also want to succeed.
