TOWS Analysis: Using a TOWS Matrix for Strategic Planning

A TOWS analysis is a strategic planning tool that considers your company’s threats, opportunities, weaknesses, and strengths. It’s a variation on a SWOT analysis. Businesses use a TOWS matrix when they want to take full advantage of opportunities in the external landscape—for example, to increase market share and profits for employees and stockholders.

A TOWS analysis is a business strategy that uses the principles of a traditional SWOT analysis in a reverse-engineered approach. The letters in TOWS (and in SWOT) correspond to threats, opportunities, weaknesses, and strengths.

Since a TOWS analysis fits into the SWOT framework, knowing how a SWOT analysis works can help you compare the two. Using a conventional SWOT matrix, a company looks internally to identify its strengths and weaknesses before considering how those factors drive or give way to opportunities and threats.

In contrast, a TOWS analysis (or TOWS matrix) starts with identifying external threats and opportunities and works backward. Taking the external factors into consideration, decision-makers can strategize how the organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses might be useful for addressing challenges and capitalizing on external opportunities.

A TOWS analysis is a planning tool that examines your company’s threats, opportunities, weaknesses, and strengths. Companies use this type of analysis to strategize for future challenges and initiatives. Here are four variations of a TOWS analysis you might consider using:

1. 1. Strengths-opportunities (SO): This TOWS strategy, also known as the maxi-maxi strategy, is a business plan that pursues opportunities through the sheer force of an organization’s strengths. It places less emphasis on a company's weaknesses. As an example, imagine a company with more robust customer service than its competitors. Using an SO strategy, this company’s marketing campaigns would tirelessly market their customer service to increase brand awareness among individuals who feel unhappy with a competitor’s subpar customer service.
2. 2. Strengths-threats (ST): Also known as the maxi-mini strategy, the ST strategy places a company’s strengths on the front lines of any organizational decisions. Like a sports team with exceptional scoring skills but a weak defense, this strategy forces a company to lean into its strengths to overcome competitors and future obstacles.
3. 3. Weaknesses-opportunities (WO): After a company has identified its weaknesses, it can use the WO strategy, also known as the mini-maxi strategy, to establish initiatives or plans to minimize these target weaknesses. In reducing vulnerabilities in marketing strategy or business processes, the company better enables itself to chase new opportunities, push into fresh markets, and create brand recognition among new demographics.
4. 4. Weaknesses-threats (WT): The WT strategy, or mini-mini strategy, aims to predict external threats before they appear and minimize any internal weaknesses that might leave the company vulnerable. Using this strategy, a company can start brainstorming strategic options for overcoming future hurdles.

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