SWOT Analysis Q's

What options are available to a user of SWOT ANALYSIS?
SWOT analysis is paramount in analyzing a business to develop useful strategies that can enable the business take advantage of new, upcoming opportunities. SWOT analysis also enables a business take advantage of new trends, implement new technology, and deal with changes in competitor operations. The business may, however, have an idea in mind that it wishes to develop a mode of
achieving using the SWOT analysis. In instances where the business cannot change the objective it wants to achieve, there are several options that the business can take in order to achieve the objective. The business can build on the strengths by identifying areas that the business perform well and improve on them. These enable the business build on the competitive advantage. SWOT analysis enable the business identify its weaknesses and other disadvantages facing the business. This enable the business to develop characteristics that minimize the problems the problems that the business faces including achieving the objective in questions. However, while conducting a SWOT analysis, it is important to remain realistic about the problems facing the business so that to deal with them adequately. The objective may seem unachievable but remain an opportunity that the business could take advantage of if a SWOT analysis is carried out. a SWOT analysis enable a business identify possible opportunities that the business could seize by identifying external factors that can aid in the process. A SWOT analysis also enable a business identify threats that are facing a business and facilitate the development of new tactics of dealing with the threat. The threat could be the objective in question (Valentin, 2005).
How serious are the limitations in the practical application of SWOT ANALYSIS?
SWOT analysis probes into the business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to get a clear picture of the business strategic backdrop. Despite its recognition and endurance, the SWOT advance has various limitations that make the resulting assessment ineffective. The SWOT analysis portrays a business internal and external environment as either favorable or unfavorable factors. It facilitates strategic planning by distilling insights to develop a coherent backdrop with which strategist can drive a business forward. However, SWOT analysis has shallow theoretical roots, which are incapable of supporting a prospering business. SWOT analysis shed no light on how noteworthy qualities of the business are to be identified are how are to be classified by order of importance or otherwise. The analysis simply classifies characteristics in the either the external or internal environment of the business as either favorable or unfavorable. It promotes superficial scanning that lacks methodical inquiry. These create a false impression that is likely to impact on the business negatively (Pearce & Robinson, 2008). The SWOT analysis does not accommodate tradeoff because some of the qualities of a business classified as strengths may feature in the threats list in another form. This limits the business ability to deal with the threats without foregoing the strengths.
In what ways is SWOT ANALYSIS useful or not useful?
SWOT analysis has come under serious attack in recent times. It is criticized because it lacks the theoretical grounds to pursue business success in an increasingly unstable environment. The usefulness of the analysis is limited to markets that are mature and offer a stable environment for the business. Despite its limitations, the intuitions behind the analysis seem to be sound. This is because successful strategies are based on a good fit of internal and external environment. The distinct characteristics of a business that are responsible for its success must hook onto the external characteristics that make opportunities possible. Reactions by professionals to the limitations of the SWOT analysis include an attempt to improve of the limitations by combining this tool with others, such as the PEST analysis (Agarwal, Grassl, Pahl, 2012). The SWOT analysis when used with the weaknesses covered facilitate a resource-based view of a business that facilitate decisions makers in the seamless process of information elicitation to develop a list of strategies in line with the business mission statement.
 References
 Agarwal, R., Grassl, W., Pahl, J. (2012). Meta-SWOT: introducing a new strategic planning tool. Journal of Strategy, 33(2), 1  13
Pearce, J. A., & Robinson, R. B. (2008). Strategic management. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Valentin, E. K. (2005). Away With SWOT Analysis: Use Defensive/Offensive Evaluation Instead. The Journal of Applied Business Research, 21(2), 91 - 105