"Besides strategic problems, we distinguish a second type of issue: strategic opportunities. We define a strategic opportunity as a positive development or event that may allow your firm to substantially and structurally raise its overarching performance objective. ...
Such opportunities also create performance gaps: difference between your firm’s old objective and its new, raised objective (see Fig. 3.1). Opportunities require new strategies for your firm to realize its raised overarching objective. Whereas problems create performance gaps by reducing your firm’s realized performance, opportunities create gaps by raising your firm’s objective. Both types of issues require exploring a performance gap for developing insights into how best to close your firm’s gap.
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Although you may know that your firm has a problem, you may only imagine you have an opportunity. An opportunity gap is not about a decline of the realized performance but about an increase of the objective, that is potential performance.
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You cannot measure the opportunity gap right away, like a problem gap. You need to explore the opportunity by starting to investigate its potential sources: Why would there be an opportunity? Potential sources of opportunities are a firm’s strengths and external opportunities. Here you use components of your SWOT analysis. In an opportunity exploration, you may even start with an exploration of your firm’s potential strengths and potential external opportunities.
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How to use your SWOT to identify opportunities for your firm? You create a two-by-two confrontation map. You map the strengths and weaknesses on one axis against the opportunities and threats on the other. Next you search for matches of internal components (strengths and weaknesses) and external components (opportunities and threats). By pairing internal and external components you create four quadrants in the map. Two quadrants point to opportunities. The other two quadrants point to potential explanations for problem gaps.
- Matches between strengths and opportunities are high-priority opportunities because they offer the biggest upside potential for the firm.
- Matches between weaknesses and opportunities are low-priority opportunities because your firm (at present) lacks the potential to seize the opportunities.
- Matches between weaknesses and threats are high-priority problems because they present the biggest downward risk for your firm.
- Matches between strengths and threats are low-priority problems because your firm has the potential to counter these threats and thus solve these problems.”
Excerto de: Marc Baaij. “Mapping a Winning Strategy”
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