Competitive advantage can be the following aspects:

● Advantages of technical skills: unique production technology, low-cost production mode, leading innovation ability, strong technical strength, perfect quality control system, rich marketing experience, excellent customer service and excellent large-scale purchasing skills.

Advantages of tangible assets: advanced production lines, modern factories and equipment, rich natural resources reserves, attractive real estate location, sufficient funds and complete information.

● Advantages of intangible assets: excellent brand image, good commercial credit and aggressive corporate culture.

● Advantages of human resources: employees with professional knowledge in key fields have high work enthusiasm, strong organizational learning ability and rich experience.

Advantages of organizational system: high-quality management and control system, perfect information management system, loyal customer base and strong financing ability.

● Competitive advantage: short product development cycle, strong dealer network, good cooperative relationship with suppliers, sensitive response to changes in market environment and leading market share.

B. Competitive disadvantage (W) refers to what a company lacks or does badly, or what will put the company at a disadvantage.

Factors that may lead to internal defects are:

Lack of competitive skills and technology

Lack of competitive tangible assets, intangible assets, human resources and organizational assets.

● Competitiveness in key areas is being lost.

C. potential opportunities facing the company (o):

Market opportunity is the main factor affecting the company's strategy. Company managers should identify every opportunity, evaluate the growth and profit prospects of every opportunity, and choose the best opportunity that can match the company's financial and organizational resources and make the company have the greatest competitive advantage potential.

The potential development opportunities may be:

● The expanding trend of customer base or product market segment.

● Transfer skills and technologies to new products and businesses to serve a larger customer base.

● Forward or backward integration

The market entry threshold is low.

● Ability to acquire competitors.

● Strong market demand growth and rapid expansion.

● Have the opportunity to expand to other geographical regions and expand market share.

D. external threats endangering the company (t):

In the external environment of the company, there are always some factors that threaten the profitability and market position of the company. Company managers should identify threats that endanger the future interests of the company in time, make assessments and take corresponding strategic actions to offset or mitigate its impact.

The external threats of the company may be:

Strong new competitors will enter the market.

● Substitutes seize the company's sales.

● The market growth rate of major products declined.

● Adverse changes in exchange rate and foreign trade policies.

● Adverse changes in demographic characteristics and social consumption patterns.

● The negotiation ability of customers or suppliers is improved.

● Reduced market demand

● Vulnerable to economic depression and business cycle.

Because of the integrity of enterprises and the extensive sources of competitive advantages, when analyzing advantages and disadvantages, we must make a detailed comparison between enterprises and competitors from every link of the whole value chain. For example, whether the products are novel, whether the manufacturing process is complex, whether the sales channels are smooth and whether the prices are competitive.

If an enterprise's advantages in one aspect or several aspects are the key success factors that enterprises in this industry should have, then its comprehensive competitive advantage may be stronger. It should be pointed out that whether an enterprise and its products have competitive advantages can only be measured from the perspective of existing potential users, not from the perspective of enterprises.

In the process of maintaining competitive advantage, enterprises must deeply understand their own resources and capabilities and take corresponding measures. Because once an enterprise has a competitive advantage in a certain aspect, it will inevitably attract the attention of competitors. Generally speaking, after a period of efforts, enterprises have established a certain competitive advantage; Then, while maintaining this competitive advantage, competitors began to react gradually; Then, if competitors directly attack the advantages of enterprises or adopt other more powerful strategies, this advantage will be weakened. Therefore, enterprises should ensure the lasting competitive advantage of their resources. 1, Opportunity and Threat Analysis (OT)

With the rapid development of economy, society, science and technology, especially the acceleration of globalization and integration of the world economy, the establishment of global information network and the diversification of consumer demand, the environment in which enterprises are located is more open and turbulent. This change has a far-reaching impact on almost all enterprises. Because of this, environmental analysis has become an increasingly important enterprise function.

The trend of environmental development can be divided into two categories: one represents environmental threats, and the other represents environmental opportunities. Environmental threat refers to the challenge brought by the unfavorable development trend in the environment. If decisive strategic actions are not taken, this unfavorable trend will weaken the competitive position of the company. Environmental opportunity is an attractive field for company behavior, in which the company will have a competitive advantage.

The analysis of the environment can also have different angles. For example, a concise method is PEST analysis, and another commonly used method is Porter's five forces analysis.

2. Advantages and disadvantages analysis (SW)

It is one thing to identify attractive opportunities in the environment, and it is another to have the competitive ability necessary to succeed in these opportunities. Every enterprise should regularly check its own advantages and disadvantages, which can be carried out with the help of "enterprise management checklist". Enterprises or consulting organizations outside enterprises can use this format to check the marketing, finance, manufacturing and organizational capabilities of enterprises. Each element should be graded according to super strong, slightly strong, medium, slightly weak or super weak.

When two enterprises are in the same market or have the ability to provide products and services to the same customer group, if one of them has a high profit rate or profit potential, then we think that this enterprise has a competitive advantage over the other enterprise. In other words, the so-called competitive advantage refers to the ability of an enterprise to surpass its competitors, which helps to achieve its main goal-profit. However, it is worth noting that the competitive advantage is not necessarily fully reflected in the higher profit rate, because sometimes enterprises are more inclined to increase market share or reward managers or employees.

Competitive advantage can refer to any advantage that an enterprise or its products are different from competitors in the eyes of consumers. It can be the width of the product line, the size, quality, reliability, applicability, style and image of the product, and the timeliness and enthusiasm of the service. Although competitive advantage actually means that an enterprise has a stronger comprehensive advantage than its competitors, it is more meaningful to clarify which aspect of the enterprise has advantages, because only in this way can we foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, or attack the virtual with real ones.

Because the enterprise is a whole and the sources of competitive advantage are very extensive, it is necessary to compare the enterprise and its competitors in detail from every link of the whole value chain when analyzing its advantages and disadvantages. For example, whether the products are novel, whether the manufacturing process is complex, whether the sales channels are smooth and whether the prices are competitive. If an enterprise's advantages in one aspect or several aspects are the key success factors that enterprises in this industry should have, then its comprehensive competitive advantage may be stronger. It should be pointed out that whether an enterprise and its products have competitive advantages can only be measured from the perspective of existing potential users, not from the perspective of enterprises.

In the process of maintaining competitive advantage, enterprises must deeply understand their own resources and capabilities and take corresponding measures. Because once an enterprise has a competitive advantage in a certain aspect, it will inevitably attract the attention of competitors. Generally speaking, after a period of efforts, enterprises have established a certain competitive advantage; Then, while maintaining this competitive advantage, competitors began to react gradually; Then, if competitors directly attack the advantages of enterprises or adopt other more powerful strategies, this advantage will be weakened.

There are three key factors that affect the duration of an enterprise's competitive advantage:

1. How long will it take to build this advantage?

2. What are the advantages?

3. How long does it take for competitors to respond strongly?

If enterprises analyze these three factors clearly, they will know their position in establishing and maintaining competitive advantage.

Obviously, the company should not correct all its shortcomings or take advantage of its advantages. The main problem is whether the company should study the opportunities it already has advantages, or whether it should acquire and develop some advantages to find better opportunities. Sometimes, the slow development of enterprises is not because the department has no advantages, but because of poor coordination. For example, in a large electronics company, engineers look down on salesmen and regard them as "engineers who don't understand technology"; Sales people look down on people in the service department and regard them as "sales people who can't do business". Therefore, it is very important to evaluate the working relationship between internal departments as internal audit.

Boston Consulting Group pointed out that the company that can win is the enterprise that obtains the internal advantages of the company, not just the core competence of the company. Every company should manage some basic procedures, such as new product development, raw material procurement, sales guidance of orders, cash realization of customer orders, time to solve customer problems and so on. Every program creates value and needs the cooperation of internal departments. Although each department has a core competence, it is still a challenge to manage the development of these advantages.

SWOT analysis method is often used to formulate the group development strategy and analyze competitors. In strategic analysis, it is one of the most commonly used methods. SWOT analysis mainly includes the following aspects:

I. Analysis of environmental factors

Using various investigation and research methods, this paper analyzes various environmental factors of the company, namely external environmental factors and internal capacity factors. External environmental factors, including opportunities and threats, are favorable and unfavorable factors that directly affect the company's development and belong to objective factors. Internal environmental factors, including advantages and disadvantages, are positive and negative factors in the development of the company itself. When investigating and analyzing these factors, we should not only consider the history and present situation, but also consider the future development.

Second, build a SWOT matrix.

The SWOT matrix is constructed by sorting the factors obtained in the survey according to their priority or influence degree. In this process, those factors that have a direct, important, massive, urgent and lasting impact on the company's development are given priority, while those indirect, secondary, rare, urgent and short-lived factors are ranked behind.

Third, make an action plan.

After analyzing the environmental factors and constructing the SWOT matrix, the corresponding action plan can be made. The basic idea of making a plan is: give full play to advantages, overcome disadvantages, take advantage of opportunities and defuse threats; Consider the past, base on the present and focus on the future. Using the comprehensive analysis method of system analysis, the various environmental factors considered in the arrangement are matched and combined, and a series of optional countermeasures for the company's future development are obtained.

Defects of SWOT

From the perspective of strategic management teaching, many strategic management textbooks still use SWOT analysis as the layout of the whole book. People are familiar with SWOT analysis, and most of them must use it for case analysis. In the field of enterprise management consulting, many strategic consulting reports use this as an analysis tool. So SWOT analysis is a perfect analysis tool? What are its problems and defects?

SWOT analysis was first put forward by Learned et al. in 1965, and has been widely used in the field of strategic management. The internal analysis of enterprises, from the initial simple checklist to the concept of characteristic ability, value chain and core ability, can be regarded as the development of advantages. For the external analysis of enterprises, in addition to PEST analysis, Porter's competitive strategy theory analyzes the external environment of enterprises and further refines the industry, which undoubtedly has an important impact on the development of strategic management theory and practice.

[1] SWOT model, like many other strategic models, was put forward by McKinsey a long time ago and has the limitations of the times. In the past, enterprises may pay more attention to cost and quality, but now enterprises may pay more attention to organizational processes. For example, how to transform the old electric typewriter into a printer? Should I be a printer or other mechanical and electrical products? From the SWOT analysis, the advantage of electric typewriter manufacturers lies in electromechanical, but it seems that there are more opportunities to develop printers. As a result, some developed towards printers and died miserably; Some companies have made great progress in razor production. See if you want an opportunistic growth strategy or a competent growth strategy. SWOT does not take into account the initiative of enterprises to change the status quo. Enterprises can create their own advantages by looking for new resources, so as to achieve strategic goals that could not be achieved in the past.

In the process of using SWOT analysis, you may encounter some problems, which is its adaptability. Because SWOT analysis can be used in too many occasions, it must be adaptable. However, this will also lead to abnormal phenomena. The problems caused by the basic SWOT analysis method can be solved by the more advanced POWERSWOT analysis method.

[2] Simple application of SWOT rules

In SWOT analysis, we must have an objective understanding of the company's strengths and weaknesses;

When conducting SWOT analysis, we must distinguish the present situation and prospect of the company;

In SWOT analysis, we must consider all aspects.

SWOT analysis must be compared with competitors, such as superior or inferior to your competitors;

Keep the SWOT analysis concise and avoid complexity and over-analysis;

SWOT analysis varies from person to person.

Once the key issues are determined by SWOT analysis, the marketing objectives are also determined. SWOT analysis can be used with tools such as PESTanalysis and Porter's Five Forces Analysis. Marketing students are keen on SWOT analysis because it is easy to learn and use. When using SWOT analysis method, it is easy to include unused elements in relevant tables.

Implicit assumption of SWOT

Strategic decision-making needs information, and SWOT analysis distinguishes the information needed for strategic decision-making: internal and external, that is, information about the enterprise itself and information about the environment in which the enterprise is located; The distinction of interests refers to the internal advantages (S) and external opportunities (O) that are beneficial to the enterprise, and the internal disadvantages (W) and external threats (T) that are harmful to the enterprise. Undoubtedly, this classification greatly clarifies and simplifies the information that enterprises need to master when formulating strategies, but it also leads to the implicit assumption of SWOT defects. In SWOT analysis, it is generally believed that opportunities and threats only exist in the external environment, while strengths and weaknesses only exist in the internal environment. But in fact, strengths and weaknesses may appear outside the enterprise, and opportunities and threats may also appear inside the enterprise. Penrose pointed out that the development opportunities of enterprises often exist within enterprises, and the remaining productive resources within enterprises are important opportunities for enterprise growth. More importantly, it is often difficult to separate the inside and outside of an enterprise. Chamberlain believes that the capabilities of enterprises are nested in an interdependent network, and the interdependence in this network exists both within the enterprise and between the enterprise and the environment. Barney thinks that environmental analysis usually can't get excess returns. If it gets excess returns, it's luck, because the methods and information of environmental analysis are open and can be obtained by any enterprise. Only by analyzing the unique assets of the enterprise to implement the product market strategy, such as proprietary technology, can we obtain excess returns. Barney's analysis is still divided into internal and external. Even if the analysis environment is influenced by internal factors of the enterprise, the value of organizational assets can only be displayed in a certain environment, and the analysis of internal and external integration can show a more complete strategic picture. If SWOT analysis lists the internal strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise and the opportunities and threats of the external environment in a general and fragmented way, and then establishes some standards for internal and external relations and weaknesses, it is often based on the historical performance of the enterprise's business needs and organizational characteristics. Threats and opportunities can be aimed at the same event, because if the enterprise grasps or handles it well, it will have the opportunity to take the lead, otherwise it may be "depressed", which may become a crisis. For example, China's accession to the WTO is the case for many China enterprises. Therefore, the strength and weakness of SWOT split the continuous unity of the internal situation of the enterprise, while the distinction between opportunity and threat can not reflect the interests of the same event, thus forming the strategy of the enterprise, which is obviously dangerous and proved to be difficult to operate in practice. The change of enterprise's exterior leads to the change of enterprise's advantage, which also explains the close degree of enterprise's internal and external relations from another side. In other words, the division of internal and external environment is only for the convenience of analysis, not the reality of the enterprise.

Interest differentiation hypothesis

The judgment of advantages and disadvantages is actually a complicated measurement problem. From the point of view of measurement, the measurement of internal and external conditions of enterprises often shows a continuum. The relativity and degree of advantages and disadvantages require the use of SWOT analysis to adopt appropriate measurement standards, which is more objective than clearly distinguishing advantages and disadvantages. However, there is a lack of clear criteria for measuring strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. For example, is the advantage better than the enterprise's own history, early planning and competitors, or is it better than the customer's needs? Stevenson's research shows that there are three criteria for evaluating strengths and weaknesses: historicity, competitiveness and planning. Enterprises use historical and competitive standards to measure their strengths, while planning standards are usually used for weaknesses. Although the evaluation steps adopted by enterprises are similar, there is no unified standard and evaluation has two sides.

Static analysis hypothesis

SWOT analysis usually scans the inside and outside of an enterprise at a certain point, and then analyzes the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities, thus forming four internal and external matching strategies, namely SO strategy: relying on internal advantages and utilizing external opportunities; ST strategy: using internal advantages to avoid external threats; WO strategy: using external opportunities to overcome internal weaknesses; WT strategy: reduce internal weaknesses and avoid external threats. Although some scholars have different specific explanations for each kind of matching, it is difficult to ensure that the internal and external matching that does not actually happen will be realized in the current static analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of enterprises, for example, whether the advantages of enterprises are strong enough to seize opportunities and confront threats, and whether the disadvantages of enterprises are weak enough to miss opportunities and bear threats. For example, SO strategy includes two strategic planning processes, namely, the external-oriented strategic planning process (five-force analysis → industrial positioning → value activities → driving factors) and the internal-oriented strategic planning process (identifying resources and capabilities → evaluating resources and capabilities → utilizing resources and capabilities → filling resource gaps). In the period of stable external environment of enterprises, it has a certain guiding role in the strategic formulation of enterprises, but in the period of turbulent external environment of enterprises: the industrial structure is vague, the resources and capabilities of enterprises are no longer effective, and the static analysis and internal and external matching of SWOT are difficult to have practical significance. In other words, SWOT analysis is not helpful to formulate an intertemporal development strategy including industrial evolution and capacity evolution. SWOT analysis implies confidence in people's rational ability, and mechanical internal and external matching strategy ignores that internal and external matching is often a process of trial and error and learning.

To sum up, the assumptions implied in SWOT analysis can be said to have the advantages of simplifying information classification, but also the disadvantages of not fully grasping information, which can be said to be a potential threat to people who use SWOT. However, the strategic management research in recent years has provided us with rich opportunities for SWOT analysis and understanding.

SWOT analysis is usually widely used as the first step of strategic planning. However, the use of SWOT analysis often leads to difficulties in strategic choice, which leads to widespread criticism, which is related to the organization's cognition in the process of formulating strategic planning. Stevenson's research found that a person's cognition of the advantages and disadvantages of his organization is strongly influenced by his personal characteristics rather than organizational characteristics, such as his position in the organization, including the level of position, the type of responsibility, professional background and service years, which greatly affect the managers' evaluation of the current objective reality of the enterprise. Position will also affect managers' choice of organizational characteristics to be evaluated. For example, top managers usually pay attention to organizational aspects, while low-level managers pay more attention to financial aspects; Management rarely can accurately agree on the strengths and weaknesses of the company, and many organizational characteristics are both strengths and weaknesses. Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of an enterprise is also influenced by some other factors, such as scenario analysis, the need for self-protection and maintaining the status quo, and the ability to define and calculate strengths and weaknesses.

Mintzberg questioned and criticized the design school with SWOT analysis as its core. He believes that it is difficult for enterprises to know whether the established capabilities are advantages or disadvantages, and the advantages are often proved to be narrow and the disadvantages are wide. Management's feelings are often manifested as self-interested attribution model. Wagner and Gooding's research results show that when dealing with causal information about organizational performance, managers often attribute positive results to organizational advantages and negative results to environmental threats. When evaluating other organizations, the situation is just the opposite.

Green criticized the depersonalization of organizational core competence (1mpersonal). Through research, it is found that the definition of organizational identity 1 by groups within an organization will affect the perception of core competence. Taking an excellent shipyard in Selznick as an example, it shows that the company is very good at high-quality technology. The management of the company decided to expand the low-cost speedboat business and put it into production in large quantities, but it was difficult to change the attitude of workers and keep them away from their historical beliefs on quality and technology. The management was forced to rearrange the speedboat production and recruit some independent labor. The new business failed because the history and culture of the organization did not adapt to its new task. Therefore, employees' cognition here will limit the application scope of enterprise's specific capabilities (advantages) and correspondingly affect the success of enterprise strategy implementation.

If the cognitive deviation of strategic planners will affect the formulation of strategic planning, then the cognition of implementers will affect the implementation of strategic planning. Therefore, in the process of strategic planning, we should consider how to organize strategic planning activities, effectively handle different understandings in the planning process, and consider the possible impact of the cognition of strategy implementers.

conclusion

The advantages and disadvantages are always relative to the things to be done, and do not involve the specific problems to be solved. Advantages and disadvantages are often difficult to define, and opportunities and threats are always relative to advantages and disadvantages. However, if the enterprise makes clear its strategic objectives, strengths and weaknesses, as well as threats and opportunities, it seems to become more clear. Leng Ci (1980) put forward the concept of strategic capability, and described three dimensions of strategic capability, namely, knowledge and technical basis for creating value, general management technology, and ability to generate and acquire resources. Taking the obstacles that may hinder the realization of strategic objectives as the criteria for evaluating strategic capabilities, the analytical framework of strategic capabilities largely avoids the internal and external assumptions of SWOT and the distinction of interests. If the barriers that hinder the implementation of the strategy are of great significance in the future, then the strategy formed by the enterprise has dynamic significance. Of course, enterprises should also consider the cognition of strategic planners and implementers when making strategic plans.

SWOT has occupied our brain for a long time, and it is gone forever like spinning silk. If we follow the SWOT analysis framework, then the questions raised according to it can still trigger our strategic thinking. However, how to better surpass the three assumptions of SWOT and replace it with a concise analytical framework of internal and external integration, comprehensive analysis and dynamic learning needs further thinking and exploration by strategists.

Application of SWOT in Personal Job Search and Career Planning

You can use this tool to have a physical examination from the inside out when applying for a job.

SWOT analysis is a useful tool to check personal skills, abilities, occupations, preferences and career opportunities. If you make a detailed SWOT analysis of yourself, then you will clearly know where your personal strengths and weaknesses are, and you will carefully evaluate the opportunities and threats of different career paths that you are interested in.

Generally speaking, job seekers should follow the following four steps when conducting SWOT analysis:

1. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses.

Each of us has our own unique skills, talents and abilities. In today's market economy with a very fine division of labor, everyone is good at a certain field, not everything (unless, of course, he is a genius). For example, some people don't like sitting at their desks all day, while others feel numb and nervous at the thought of having to deal with strangers. Please list what you like to do and your strengths (if you find it difficult to define your strengths, you can find some test exercises to do, and you will find your strengths after you finish). Similarly, through the list, you can find out what you don't like to do and your weaknesses. Finding out the shortcomings is as important as finding out the advantages, because you can make two choices according to your strengths and weaknesses: one is to try to correct your common mistakes and improve your skills, and the other is to give up those occupations that require high skills and are not good at them. List the advantages and disadvantages that you think are important and have an impact on your career choice, and then mark the advantages and disadvantages that you think are important to you.

2. Identify career opportunities and threats.

We know that different industries (including different companies in these industries) face different external opportunities and threats, so finding out these external factors will help you successfully find a job that suits you, which is very important for job hunting, because these opportunities and threats will affect your first job and future career development. If the company is in an industry that is often affected by external unfavorable factors, naturally, the company can provide fewer career opportunities, and there is no chance of career promotion. On the contrary, industries full of many positive external factors will provide job seekers with broad career prospects. Please list one or two industries you are interested in (for example, health care, financial services or telecommunications), and then carefully evaluate the opportunities and threats faced by these industries.

3. Outline your career goals in the next five years.

Make a SWOT analysis and evaluation of yourself carefully, and list four or five career goals that you want to achieve most within five years after graduation from school. These goals can include: what kind of career you want to pursue, how many people you will manage, and what level of salary you want to get. Please always remember: you must try your best to give full play to your advantages and match them perfectly with the job opportunities provided by the industry.

4. Outline the career action plan for the next five years.

This step mainly involves some concrete things. Please draw up an action plan to achieve each of the goals listed in the third step above, and explain in detail everything you must do to achieve each goal, and when to finish these things. If you think you need some outside help, please explain what kind of help you need and how to get it. For example, your personal SWOT analysis may show that in order to achieve your ideal career goals, you need to attend more management courses, so your career action plan should indicate when to attend these courses. A detailed action plan will help you make a decision, just as a company's prior plan provides a guide for professional managers.

Doing such a personal SWOT analysis will take up time and need to be taken seriously. However, a detailed personal SWOT analysis is worthwhile, because after the detailed personal SWOT analysis, you will have a clear and feasible personal career strategy for your reference. In today's competitive market economy society, it is everyone's dream to have a high-paying job that is both challenging and fun, but not everyone can realize this dream. Therefore, in order to make your job search and personal career development more competitive, please take some time to clarify your personal strengths and weaknesses, and then make a strategic action plan and ensure its effective completion, then your prospects will be bright!

Yours is too difficult. I'm sorry.