Two tools for navigating crisis and dramatic change

Executive overview

When a major disruption hits — economic crash, pandemic, or business-specific crisis — most teams react without a framework. Triage buys breathing room; the SWT analysis turns that space into strategy.

First, cut costs and preserve cash to stabilise. Then use SWT — a trends-first evolution of SWOT — to find the pivots that lead to thriving, not just surviving.

Survival is the floor; the right framework turns crisis into competitive advantage.

Step 1: triage to buy breathing room

• Cut costs aggressively and shed non-core lines of business
• Preserve cash and protect the core
• Goal is room to think, not a permanent state

Step 2: SWT analysis

• SWT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Trends) is a strategic evolution of SWOT
• Identify the top 5–6 core strengths and weaknesses — the ones that don't change
• Then map trends exhaustively: start in your industry, then expand to culture, technology, society
• "Skate to where the puck is going" — surface what's developing, not what exists
• Connect trends to weaknesses for defensive strategies
• Connect trends to strengths for opportunistic ones
• Insights from this process reveal differentiation, novel practices, and pivot options