Stakeholder SWOT

byTam M. | reviewed 17/07/2023

Using SWOT as a Stakeholder Analysis tool

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It is a tool most commonly used for strategic planning and risk assessment, but it is also a useful Stakeholder Analysis tool (get the stakeholder SWOT analysis template). In this scenario each stakeholder is assessed as follows:

	Questions to drive SWOT analysis
Strengths	What are the Stakeholder's strengths? Could these strengths help the project or business? Could these strengths hinder the project?
Weaknesses	What are the stakeholder's weaknesses? What are the stakeholder liabilities? Could these weaknessess help or hinder the project?
Opportunities	What positive expertise, connections, influence does this stakeholder have? Could these be useful?
Threats	What threats could the stakeholder bring to the project? Could the stakeholder put the project or business at risk? How can these threats be reduced?

Note on 'stakeholder liability'.

A Stakeholder Liability is a current obligation a stakeholder may have arising from past transactions or events. This could be an obligation to your project, your organization or to an outside body or group. stakeholdermap.com

The results of the analysis should be documented and actions considered as part of your stakeholder engagement strategy.

SWOT example

See also 6 SWOT Analysis Templates in Excel.

This method is simple and quick to use. It is best completed as part of a team and should be focused on a few key stakeholders. It may be particularly interesting for assessing those stakeholders who have high influence but low interest in your project or organization. These stakeholders won't be the most visible, but they have the power to cause serious issues and they could also become your champions if you can increase their interest level.

For example:

a stakeholder that is influential, but has a low interest in the project, may bring significant opportunities which can be identified through SWOT analysis, and exploited by raising their interest level in the project or organization.

On the other hand these stakeholders can represent a significant threat, for example regulatory authorities will present a threat if they identify compliance issues late on in a project. Planning Law in the UK must be complied with on construction projects. Planning Officers can stop work and even cause buildings to be demolished if construction starts before planning permission has been granted. For example see Farmer who built secret castle behind straw bales loses court bid to save it from demolition.