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Here are 6 tools to help you analyze situations.

The lesson of Hamlet in one line: Analysis is paralysis.
- Anon

The future is called 'perhaps'.
- Tennessee Williams

The best prophet of the future is the past.
- Anon

1. STAKE HOLDER ANALYSIS
It is a multi-step analysis of various elements and reaching a decision.

Step 1: List all potentially affected parties – The affected community, decision makers, customers, industry in which the business operates, shareholders, bondholders, suppliers and their industry, employees and their families, social interest groups (industrial, consumer, environmental, political, unions). The list may be longer. At the analysis stage the list is narrowed to the significant players, then a situational analysis is performed, and eventually a decision is reached.
Step 2: Evaluate all the ‘harms’ and ‘benefits’.
Step 3: Determine each of the affected parties’ ‘Rights’ and ‘Responsibilities’.
For example, employees have the right to a fair wage and safe working conditions, but they also have the responsibility to be productive for the company.

RELATIVISM
We can’t decide on matters of right or wrong, or good
and evil since things are rarely black or white. There are so many shades of grey. Examining why we often ignore ethics in our decision-making, relativism says that ethics are ‘relative’ to the personal, social, and cultural circumstances in which one finds oneself. Relativism has four forms:

1. Naive Relativism: Every person has his own standard that enables him or her to make choices.
2. Role Relativism: It distinguishes between private selves and public selves. Public roles call for a ‘special’ morality, like, we must let go our individual biases and preferences while making decisions in a professional position.
3. Social Relativism: Just like Naive Relativism. Evident in terms like “Industry Practices”, “club rules”, “professional” code of conduct”, and “accepted practices”.
4. Cultural Relativism: It says that there is no Universal Moral Code. It is evident in the saying, “When in Rome, be a Roman”.

- Steve Silbger, ’10 Day MBA’

2. SWOT ANALYSIS: GENERAL
- Strength
- Weaknesses
- Opportunities
- Threats

SWOT ANALYSIS: ORGANIZATION

Internal Analysis
The internal analysis is a comprehensive evaluation of the internal environment's potential strengths and weaknesses. Factors should be evaluated across the organization in areas such as:
- Company culture
- Company image
- Organizational structure
- Key staff
- Access to natural resources
- Position on the experience curve
- Operational efficiency
- Operational capacity
- Brand awareness
- Market share
- Financial resources
- Exclusive contracts
- Patents and trade secrets

External Analysis
- Customers
- Competitors
- Market trends
- Suppliers
- Partners
- Social changes
- New technology
- Economic environment
- Political and regulatory environment

SWOT ANALYSIS TEMPLATE

Subject of SWOT analysis: (define the subject of the analysis here)

Strengths
Advantages of proposition?
Capabilities?
Competitive advantages?
USP's (unique selling points)?
Resources, Assets, People?
Experience, knowledge, data?
Financial reserves, likely returns?
Marketing - reach, distribution, awareness?
Innovative aspects?
Location and geographical?
Price, value, quality?
Accreditations, qualifications, certifications?
Processes, systems, IT, communications?
Cultural, attitudinal, behavioral?
Management cover, succession?

Weaknesses
Disadvantages of proposition?
Gaps in capabilities?
Lack of competitive strength?
Reputation, presence and reach?
Financials?
Own known vulnerabilities?
Timescales, deadlines and pressures?
Cashflow, start-up cash-drain?
Continuity, supply chain robustness?
Effects on core activities, distraction?
Reliability of data, plan predictability?
Morale, commitment, leadership?
Accreditations, etc?
Processes and systems, etc?
Management cover, succession?

Opportunities
Market developments?
Competitors' vulnerabilities?
Industry or lifestyle trends?
Technology development and innovation?
Global influences?
New markets, vertical, horizontal?
Niche target markets?
Geographical, export, import?
New USP's?
Tactics - surprise, major contracts, etc?
Business and product development?
Information and research?
Partnerships, agencies, distribution?
Volumes, production, economies?
Seasonal, weather, fashion influences?

Threats
Political effects?
Legislative effects?
Environmental effects?
IT developments?
Competitor intentions - various?
Market demand?
New technologies, services, ideas?
Vital contracts and partners?
Sustaining internal capabilities?
Obstacles faced?
Insurmountable weaknesses?
Loss of key staff?
Sustainable financial backing?
Economy - home, abroad?
Seasonality, weather effects?

3. 5 C SITUATION ANALYSIS

Company
Product line
Image in the market
Technology and experience
Culture
Goals

Collaborators
Distributors
Suppliers
Alliances

Customers
Market size and growth
Market segments
Benefits that consumer is seeking, tangible and intangible.
Motivation behind purchase; value drivers, benefits vs. costs
Decision maker or decision-making unit
Retail channel - where does the consumer actually purchase the product?
Consumer information sources - where does the customer obtain information about the product?
Buying process; e.g. impulse or careful comparison
Frequency of purchase, seasonal factors
Quantity purchased at a time
Trends - how consumer needs and preferences change over time

Competitors
Actual or potential
Direct or indirect
Products
Positioning
Market shares
Strengths and weaknesses of competitors

Climate (or context)
The climate or macro-environmental factors are:
- Political & regulatory environment - governmental policies and regulations that affect the market
- Economic environment - business cycle, inflation rate, interest rates, and other macroeconomic issues
- Social/Cultural environment - society's trends and fashions
- Technological environment - new knowledge that makes possible new ways of satisfying needs; the impact of technology on the demand for existing products.

4. PEST ANALYSIS
A PEST analysis is an analysis of the external macro-environment that affects all firms. P.E.S.T. is an acronym for the Political, Economic, Social, and Technological factors of the external macro-environment.

Political Analysis
Political stability
Risk of military invasion
Legal framework for contract enforcement
Intellectual property protection
Trade regulations & tariffs
Favored trading partners
Anti-trust laws
Pricing regulations
Taxation - tax rates and incentives
Wage legislation - minimum wage and overtime
Work week
Mandatory employee benefits
Industrial safety regulations
Product labeling requirements

Economic Analysis
Type of economic system in countries of operation
Government intervention in the free market
Comparative advantages of host country
Exchange rates & stability of host country currency
Efficiency of financial markets
Infrastructure quality
Skill level of workforce
Labor costs
Business cycle stage (e.g. prosperity, recession, recovery)
Economic growth rate
Discretionary income
Unemployment rate
Inflation rate
Interest rates

Social Analysis
Demographics
Class structure
Education
Culture (gender roles, etc.)
Entrepreneurial spirit
Attitudes (health, environmental consciousness, etc.)
Leisure interests

Technological Analysis
Recent technological developments
Technology's impact on product offering
- Impact on cost structure
- Impact on value chain structure
- Rate of technological diffusion

5. HOW TO ANALYZE ACTIONS & EVENTS
1. Gather all the players.
2. Introduction and rules.
3. Review events leading to the activity (what was supposed to happen).
4. Give a brief statement of the specific activity.
5. Summarize the key events. Encourage participation.
6. Have junior leaders restate portions of their part of the activity.
7. Do not turn it into a critique or lecture. The following will help:
* Ask why certain actions were taken.
* Ask how they reacted to certain situations.
* Ask when actions were initiated.
* Ask leading and thought provoking questions.
* Exchange "war stories" (lessons learned).
* Ask employees what happened in their own point of view.
* Relate events to subsequent results.
* Explore alternative courses of actions that might have been more effective.
* Complaints are handled positively.
* When the discussion turns to errors made, emphasize the positive and point out the difficulties of making tough decisions.
* Summarize.
* Allow junior leaders to discuss the events with their people in private.
* Follow-up on needed actions.
Source: The After Action Review (AAR) Format, U.S. Army

6. PROGRAM EVALUATION AND REVIEW TECHNIQUE
The Program Evaluation and Review Technique commonly abbreviated PERT is a model for project management invented by Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. Terminology

- A PERT event: is a point that marks the start or completion of one (or more) tasks. It consumes no time, and uses no resources. It marks the completion of one (or more) tasks, and is not “reached” until all of the activities leading to that event have been completed.
- A predecessor event: an event (or events) that immediately precedes some other event without any other events intervening. It may be the consequence of more than one activity.
- A successor event: an event (or events) that immediately follows some other event without any other events intervening. It may be the consequence of more than one activity.
- A PERT activity: is the actual performance of a task. It consumes time, it requires resources (such as labor, materials, space, machinery), and it can be understood as representing the time, effort, and resources required to move from one event to another. A PERT activity cannot be completed until the event preceding it has occurred.
- Optimistic time (O): the minimum possible time required to accomplish a task, assuming everything proceeds better than is normally expected
- Pessimistic time (P): the maximum possible time required to accomplish a task, assuming everything goes wrong (but excluding major catastrophes).
- Most likely time (M): the best estimate of the time required to accomplish a task, assuming everything proceeds as normal.
- Expected time (TE): the best estimate of the time required to accomplish a task, assuming everything proceeds as normal (the implication being that the expected time is the average time the task would require if the task were repeated on a number of occasions over an extended period of time).
TE = (O + 4M + P) ÷ 6
- Critical Path: the longest possible continuous pathway taken from the initial event to the terminal event. It determines the total calendar time required for the project; and, therefore, any time delays along the critical path will delay the reaching of the terminal event by at least the same amount.
- Lead time: the time by which a predecessor event must be completed in order to allow sufficient time for the activities that must elapse before a specific PERT event is reached to be completed.
- Lag time: the earliest time by which a successor event can follow a specific PERT event.
- Slack: the slack of an event is a measure of the excess time and resources available in achieving this event. Positive slack(+) would indicate ahead of schedule; negative slack would indicate behind schedule; and zero slack would indicate on schedule.

By itself, the network diagram pictured above does not give much more information than a Gantt chart; however, it can be expanded to display more information. The most common information shown is:

1. The activity name
2. The normal duration time
3. The early start time (ES)
4. The early finish time (EF)
5. The late start time (LS)
6. The late finish time (LF)
The slack

Also Read
25 Ways to Solve Problems - Part 1
25 Ways to Solve Problems - Part 1

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