SWOT analysis is a common business tool, designed to recognize and take account of a company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It's essentially a structured way to look at both your internal company culture and your external business environment as you implement a strategic plan. However, it's not the only tool out there you can use to analyze these factors.
SCOPE -- situation, core competencies, obstacles, prospects and expectations -- attempts to take the SWOT idea a little further. It not only analyzes internal and external factors, but it also attempts to align the internal with the external to provide a road map of strategic development. Situation refers to prevailing conditions under which everything must be considered, while internal core competencies of the business are aligned with external prospects. Obstacles and expectations can be either internal or external. This model can present more information and has more flexibility than SWOT.
SOAR is a positive-thinking method of analysis that identifies strengths, opportunities, aspirations and results. It's intended for creative problem solving, and asks the user to perform five key "I" actions when facing a decision or formulating a strategy: initiate, inquire, imagine, innovate and implement. Proponents of SOAR say it's a way to include the key factors of motivation and engagement into business planning.
This method divides a business's aims into two basic realms. The first is defending its existing product or market and the resulting profits. The second is the offensive aim of gaining new products or markets and, hence, additional profits. Executives can identify both internal and external challenges under each of these two themes. For instance, the defensive aim includes analyzing the business's vulnerability to imitation and innovation by competitors, but it also involves internal costs, quality assurance and the supply chain.
Companies can use this technique in a narrower range of circumstances than a classic SWOT analysis. It's most often used by start-up businesses and entrepreneurs as a method to chart their plans for future growth. CORE stands for capital investment, ownership involvement, risk assessment and exit strategy. It looks at how the business will be funded; what its ownership structure will be and whether those owners also will be managers, what the external and internal risks are to the basic business model and whether the entrepreneur plans to eventually sell the company as a going concern or continue to develop it personally.
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