ISO 9001 SWOT Analysis
The Tool to Understanding Your Business

A key element of ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 27001 is the identification and analysis of risks and opportunities in and to the business. Successful identification and analysis of risks and opportunities to a business’s ability to provide its services or products can be massively enhanced by undertaking an ISO 9001 SWOT Analysis.

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A SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) is basically a process that you can use to analyze the factors that could influence a business risk or decision. It’s a great way for you and your team to evaluate potential business risks and opportunities from all angles.

The process itself was created back in the 1960s at the Stanford Research Institute to look into why planning by companies consistently failed and it’s as relevant and effective today as it has ever been. So – how does it work?

The beauty of the SWOT Analysis is the simplicity of the process. Generally, your team will create a table of four boxes entitled: STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES and THREATS – a bit like this:

Having undertaken the SWOT analysis, this is where it starts to get really interesting – it’s time to come up with some recommendations or strategies to move things forward.

So in the example above, it’s quite clear that there are some short term threats that have unknown outcomes – e.g. Brexit and legislation changes. But this isn’t necessarily a reason to halt the expansion – it may be more prudent to look for a shorter-term lease for the new offices with an appropriate termination clause should the threats end up being worse than anticipated. I’m sure you can think of some other recommendations for these business owners.

We then need to record this and the easiest way to do this is to develop a risk and opportunities matrix which then details the areas in the SWOT analysis that you deem most important and allocate control or monitoring actions to achieve or manage the risk or opportunity. Don’t forget to add responsibility and time frame in the matrix.

The SWOT and Risk and Opportunities Matrix goes a very long way to demonstrating compliance to clause 4 and 6 in ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 27001. If you would like any more information on ISO management and implementation or any areas of compliance, please get in touch;