Clause 4.1: Understanding the organization and its context

The word ‘issues’ can be misinterpreted as ‘problems.’ It is more useful to think of issues as “conditions” or “attributes.” Organizations should consider a SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT). SWOT analysis can help identify “internal” conditions, while analyzing “threats” can be reinterpreted as “external” issues or conditions, such as competitors, exchange rates, the legal environment, etc.