SWOT Analysis

Weaknesses prevent a company from performing at its highest level. They are areas where the business needs to improve to remain competitive, for example:

• Weak brand(s)
• Higher-than-average turnover
• High levels of debt
• Inadequate supply chain
• Lack of capital
• Inefficient systems, tools, processes
• Poor customer experience, service, reviews 

The databases on this page provide news sources and company analysis data to help determine a company's weaknesses. When searching them, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Where can the company improve? 
2. What products are underperforming? 
3. What resources are lacking?

The following are article indexes which provide access to thousands of business publications. Finding articles about a particular company, industry, or product can provide additional context and very current information. Use keywords and phrases such as weakness, lacking, poor decision making, negative product image, resistance to change, etc. For a list of helpful key phrases, check out this Simplicable article, 117 Examples of Business Weaknesses.  

Several Rutgers databases allow the ability to set up news/media alerts, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Access World News and EBSCO (which includes Business Source Premier and Regional Business News).

This is a great way to track company and/or industry trends over time.

See the Media Alert Instruction Sheet below for details.