AQA A-level Business | Unit 3.3.3 SWOT Analysis
Build a clear picture of a real company, then turn that picture into a plan.
Netflix is one of the best known streaming companies in the world. By the end of 2025 it had grown to around 325 million paying members and made roughly $45 billion in a single year, while pushing into adverts, live sport and new countries. Big and successful, yes. But every big company faces choices about what to do next.
Example data, as of April 2026. Figures are approximate and used here only as a neutral, real world example to analyse.
You have just joined Opportunity Knocks as a junior strategist. Netflix has invited three firms to pitch for advice on its next move, and Cliff has put your small team forward. The file lands on your desk.
"Right, fresh eyes. First job: sort what we know about this company into a SWOT. Strengths and weaknesses are about Netflix itself. Opportunities and threats are about the world outside it. Get that picture straight, then we make it work for the client. Ready?" Cliff Edge, your mentor
The company used here is real and is included only for neutral, factual analysis. No logos are used and no endorsement or partnership is implied. The consultancy, the mentor and the pitch are invented for the activity.
Figures are approximate and rounded for teaching. Framing is neutral.
Tap a factor to pick it up, then tap the box it belongs in. (You can also drag with a mouse.) Remember Cliff's rule: Strengths and Weaknesses are inside Netflix and within its control; Opportunities and Threats come from the wider market. Place all eight to continue. Each time you open the file, a different eight come up.
"A SWOT is not the answer, it is the raw material. The good stuff happens when you cross it over. Take something we are good at and aim it at something happening in the market. Then take a weak spot and use it to plan against a danger. Build me one of each." Cliff Edge
A SWOT on its own is just four lists. It describes a company, but it does not decide anything. Its real value is what you did next: using it to justify a choice.
The strongest plans came from crossing the lists over. Take something the firm genuinely does well and point it at where the market is heading (a strength meeting an opportunity), and you get a move with real momentum behind it. Take an honest weakness and plan around a danger before it bites (a weakness against a threat), and you protect the business. Pairings that fight that logic, a strength that does not actually help with that opportunity, a fix that does not touch that threat, read as weak fits, and you can feel it when you say them out loud.
So the thinking skill here is not "remember the four boxes". It is: sort the facts cleanly, separate what is inside the firm from what is outside, then decide which way the balance falls and back one clear move. That is what turns analysis into a decision a board can act on.