What does SWOT stand for?

• A. Speed, Wealth, Options, Tactics
• B. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
• C. Strengths, Weaknesses, Operations, Trends
• D. Scale, Workload, Opportunities, Targets

Answer: (B)

SWOT is a strategic planning tool that looks at four categories of factors that affect achieving objectives: internal strengths, internal weaknesses, external opportunities, and external threats. The four words in the acronym are Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This structure helps teams quickly organize what they can leverage, what they need to improve, what favorable conditions they can take advantage of, and what dangers they must guard against.

For example, a company with a strong brand and skilled workforce has strengths; limitations like limited cash flow are weaknesses; opportunities might be a growing market or a regulatory change that reduces barriers; threats could be aggressive competitors or supply chain disruptions. The other option proposals don’t fit because they replace one or more terms with nonstandard terms (like Operations or Trends) or mix internal/external elements incorrectly. As a result, they don’t align with how SWOT categorizes factors.