Application of SWOT and Principal Component Analysis in a Textile Company - A Case Study

Many companies are conducting a SWOT analysis as part of their strategic planning. This is the process to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats before proceeding to the formulation of their long and short term strategy. This article seeks to identify the SWOT variables to make better strategic planning through empirical study. After identifying thirty three SWOT variables, a rating type questionnaire have been made, and all the top management, managerial level and supervisory level (125 no) staff members were surveyed by interview method in a leading textile company in south India. Principal component analysis was used to reduce and group the SWOT variables. From this analysis nine non-significant variables are removed from the SWOT data set, and twenty four are found as significant for further analysis. After identifying twenty four SWOT variables, SWOT matrix was formed based the prioritized SWOT variables with four quadrants; maxi - mini (ST strategy), mini - mini (WT strategy), mini - maxi (WO strategy) and maxi- maxi (SO strategy). This will help the company to overcome the external threats and also to plan their short term and long term strategies.

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