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logo 39 • the CAMLOG Partner Magazine • November 2016 32 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT Recognizing market potentials The so-called SWOT analysis is suitable for analyzing the future viability of a dental practice. This was developed in the 1960s at the Harvard Business School. "SWOT" is an acronym and stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The SWOT analysis is used both for determining the current position of the company on the market and evaluating market potentials. The goal of this process is to carefully analyze the opportunities and risks of the environment, and to become aware of own strengths and weaknesses. The SWOT analysis can be used as a meaningful basis for deriving strategy development for a business. During my work as a consultant I have often found that SWOT analyses are not conducted properly, so that their results are hardly meaningful. The strengths and weaknesses of the practice to be analyzed relate to internal business areas – the results are therefore unique. The opportunities and risks are external and relate to the market environment of the practice. The results should therefore be analog to comparable practices in the region. However, external opportunities are often mistaken for internal strengths. These must be considered strictly separate. The conclusion of the analysis provides meaningful combinations for maximizing the benefits from the strengths and opportunities and minimizing possible losses from the weaknesses and risks or dangers. A SWOT analysis is the easiest form of a practice analysis. It is recommended to repeat this every two to five years. It has proven very effective, if the analysis is conducted in a workshop as a team with the entire practice personnel. It is also useful, if the employees obtain feedback from friends or family on the external image of the practice. This is sensible in that it preempts the potential risk of own subjectiveness and allows outlining a realistic as possible picture. The social desirability of all answers should therefore be communicated openly to the team to produce an effective result. The SWOT analysis can also act as basis for future marketing planning. A strategy is always preceded by a vision. A vision is made up of two elements: one is a clear concept of what is to be achieved in the opinion of the business over a longer time period. The other is a consideration of the substantive core that makes up a company, that is, its fundamental values and beliefs. Particularly for smaller to medium-sized owner-operated companies such as dental practices, it is essential that these beliefs correspond to the personal values of the owner or the practice partners. Therefore both elements need to be determined professionally for solid strategy planning. Ideally the analysis is already conducted during start- up to be more effective in terms of planning, thus saving time and costs. However, various analytical tools to check or adapt the strategy and concrete plans for measures can be used at a later date. In this article, I will be looking at which tools can be used for sensible planning and development of a practice strategy. ANALYSIS STEP ONE FOR A GOOD STRATEGY Andrea Stix, M.Sc., MBA Consultant for Communication Strategy and Practice Marketing Syst. Business Coach, Reiss-Profile-Master, NLP Coach