We're currently going through the SWOT process, where you identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, to help refine our strategic direction for the future. After having spent most of today in a meeting going over our results so far, I have to say that it's a fascinating, if mentally exhausting, process. But well worth doing for pretty much any business, including meetings.
How it works: After you ID your SWOTs, you look through the lists for things you can actually do something about (there will be some things that are just beyond your control), then prioritize what's left and design ways to better use your strengths, shore up weak areas, take advantage of opportunities, and fight back against threats. As I sat down to analyze my piece of the overall Meetings Group puzzle (our online products), the synergies and connections between all the different areas really popped out at me, and solutions began to seem pretty obvious.
It takes a fair amount of time and thought, but I think it's well worth doing to take a step back and really look at what you have going on at this point in time, particularly if you're in a place where you want to think more strategically about what you're doing.
S