What is TOWS (Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses, Strengths)? We have all heard of SWOT, but TOWS takes it to another level and makes your SWOT actually useful and helpful, especially with strategic planning! While SWOT focuses on internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats, TOWS analysis takes it a step further by integrating these factors to develop actionable strategies. This can be particularly helpful with your marketing and is something is a secret super tool for businesses that embrace it!
Understanding TOWS Analysis
Identify Any Possible Threats and Opportunities
Start by revisiting your SWOT analysis and list down all identified threats and opportunities in your business environment. These could be market trends, competitor actions, regulatory changes, technological advancements, etc. Really take your time with this stage as it will help you to get the most out of the following stages. If you are struggling with this, ask others in your business or maybe be brave and ask the questions in a group of similar businesses or your peers!
Assessing Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Review your internal strengths and weaknesses as identified in the SWOT analysis. These could include your resources, capabilities, skills, brand reputation, financial stability, etc. We can sometimes struggle with our identifying our strengths too and focus too much on our weaknesses, but be brave and be bold with this.
Developing Your TOWS Matrix
Once you have your lists of threats, opportunities, strengths, and weaknesses, you can start to create a matrix that combines these factors. This new matrix will help you generate strategic options by matching internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) with external factors (opportunities and threats). This is where the power of TOWS over SWOT really comes into its own and you can start to take advantage of it’s super power!
Generating New Strategies
Strengths-Opportunities (SO) Strategies: These strategies leverage internal strengths to exploit external opportunities. Identify how you can use your strengths to capitalize on available opportunities. For example, if you have a strong brand and there’s a growing demand for eco-friendly products, you could launch a new line of sustainable products to meet this demand.- Strengths-Threats (ST) Strategies: ST strategies focus on using internal strengths to counteract external threats. Determine how you can deploy your strengths to mitigate or overcome potential threats. For instance, if a new competitor enters the market, you could leverage your strong customer loyalty and brand reputation to maintain market share.
Weaknesses-Opportunities (WO) Strategies: WO strategies involve improving internal weaknesses to take advantage of external opportunities. Identify areas where you can strengthen your weaknesses to better capitalize on available opportunities. For example, if you lack a strong online presence but there’s a growing trend towards e-commerce, investing in digital marketing and e-commerce platforms could be a viable strategy.
Weaknesses-Threats (WT) Strategies: WT strategies aim to minimize internal weaknesses and avoid external threats. Determine how you can address your weaknesses to mitigate potential threats. For instance, if your business relies heavily on a single supplier and there’s a risk of supply chain disruptions, diversifying your supplier base could help reduce this vulnerability.
Implementing Your New Strategies:
- Prioritize Strategies: Evaluate and prioritize the TOWS strategies based on their feasibility, impact, and alignment with your business objectives.
- Develop Action Plans: Create detailed action plans for implementing each prioritized strategy, outlining specific tasks, timelines, responsibilities, and resource requirements.
- Monitor and Adjust: Continuously monitor the implementation of TOWS strategies and their outcomes. Be prepared to adapt and adjust your strategies as needed based on changing internal and external factors.
Conclusion
Transitioning from SWOT to TOWS analysis enables you to move beyond mere identification of factors to the development of actionable strategies that leverage your strengths, address your weaknesses, exploit opportunities, and mitigate threats. By systematically integrating internal and external factors, TOWS analysis empowers you to make more informed and strategic decisions to drive your business forward.
Would you like to discuss or discover more strategies to boost your marketing? Why not book a short 1:1 discovery call and speak to us now about your marketing challenges! We love a challenge and know just by discussing your marketing foundations for example we can help you and your business start to make an impact on that list of marketing tasks and challenges!
Over the last thirty years Elizabeth has start up and run a number of successful businesses in a variety of industries including events management, restaurant, webdesign, business training and gardening! This has led to extensive knowledge of business startup, management and marketing.
She is also a qualified and experienced business and life coach with a passion for supporting small business owners. In addition to all of this she is an experienced and qualified further education lecturer, having taught face to face courses and workshops across England, as well as a range of online courses in a range of business and marketing topics .