A Practical Tool for Business — and Marketing
Some years ago when I was pursuing my MBA at the University of San Francisco (USF), I was privileged to take a class from Professor Heinz Weirich, who taught International Business Management and Behavioral Science. I found him to be a quiet, knowledgeable and unassuming gentleman with a delightful German accent, who had developed innovative tools for developing strategies from what he called a “situational analysis” approach. One of the tools he had developed was called the T.O.W.S. Matrix.
As Professor Weirich explained, the T.O.W.S. Matrix is a strategic analytical and planning tool (basically, a modified S.W.O.T. analysis) which cross-references the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats facing a company or organization in order to generate actionable strategies and tactics. As Professor Weirich developed it, the T.O.W.S. Matrix was useful for making strategic business and operational decisions. Being a dyed-in-the-wool marketing guy, I also saw practical applications of the T.O.W.S. Matrix for marketing — to brainstorm and identify effective ideas for generating situational marketing strategies and tactics.
Over my marketing career, I have used this tool to help brainstorm marketing strategies and tactics, develop news angles and messaging, identify target groups, and much more.
Let’s take a look at how the T.O.W.S. Matrix works:
T.O.W.S. Takes Traditional S.W.O.T. Analysis One Step Further
T.O.W.S. Analysis is a variant of the classic business tool, S.W.O.T. Analysis. T.O.W.S. and S.W.O.T. are acronyms for different arrangements of the words Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
By analyzing the external environment (threats and opportunities), and your internal environment (weaknesses and strengths), you can use these techniques to think about the strategy of your whole organization, a department or a team. You can also use them to think about a process, a marketing campaign, or even your own skills and experience.
In essence, think of T.O.W.S as a modified, cross-referenced S.W.O.T. analysis. It goes deeper than simply listing up Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats ― It is a means of looking for relationships between each to “brainstorm” possible strategies and tactics.
At a practical level, the only difference between T.O.W.S. and S.W.O.T. is that T.O.W.S. emphasizes the external environment while S.W.O.T. emphasizes the internal environment. In both cases, this analysis begins with a S.W.O.T. Matrix like the one shown below:
Let’s look at how you can extend your use of S.W.O.T. to think in detail about the strategic options open to you through modifying this S.W.O.T. into a T.O.W.S. Matrix.
Identifying Strategic Options
T.O.W.S. analysis helps you get a better understanding of the strategic choices that you face. It helps you ask, and answer, the following questions:
- How do you make the most of your strengths?
- How do you circumvent your weaknesses?
- How do you capitalize on your opportunities?
- How do you mitigate and manage your threats?
Through the process of rearranging your S.W.O.T. into a T.O.W.S. Matrix, you are able to think about the options that you could pursue. To do this you match or cross-reference external opportunities and threats with your internal strengths and weaknesses, as illustrated in the example below:
This arrangement helps you to identify strategic alternatives that address the following additional questions:
- Strengths and Opportunities (S/O) – How can you use your internal strengths to take advantage of the existing external opportunities?
- Strengths and Threats (S/T) – How can you take advantage of your strengths to avoid or mitigate real and potential external threats?
- Weaknesses and Opportunities (W/O) – How can you use the external opportunities to overcome the internal weaknesses you are experiencing?
- Weaknesses and Threats (W/T) – What can you do to minimize your internal weaknesses and avoid external threats?
Note:
The WT quadrant – weaknesses and threats – is concerned with defensive strategies. Put these into place to protect yourself from loss, however don’t rely on them to create success.
Keep in mind that The T.O.W.S. Matrix is a way to list up possible strategic choices. The ideas that you list in each quadrant are not listed in any priority; think of the items listed in each quadrant as a “grab bag” of possible ideas to choose from. For each item you list, make reference with notations (examples: S1/O2 , S3/T1, W1/O2, W3/T2, etc.) to indicate which S.W.O.T. items are being referenced to come up with the idea listed in the inner T.O.W.S. quadrants. Here’s an example:
Once you’ve listed up your ideas in each inner quadrant, evaluate the options you’ve generated and identify the ones that give the greatest benefit and that best achieve the your goals. Add these to the other strategic options that you’re considering.
Below are some examples of the T.O.W.S. Matrix in use in various industries:
Here is a T.O.W.S. Matrix that I developed for the YMCA of Santa Clara County:
A New Way of Matching Variables
Professor Weirich taught that “today most business enterprises engage in strategic planning, although the degrees of sophistication and formality vary considerably. Strategic planning is an extremely complex process, which demands a systematic approach for identifying and analyzing factors external to the organization and matching them with the firm’s capabilities…The TOWS Matrix, has a wider scope and has different emphases as a conceptual framework for a systematic analysis…Although the sets of variables used in the T.O.W.S. Matrix are not new, matching them in a systematic fashion is.” (Source: Professor Heinz Weirich, The T.O.W.S. Matrix — A Tool for Situational Analysis, 1982)
I have found in my marketing career that The T.O.W.S. Matrix is a relatively simple yet powerful tool for generating strategic options. It has helped me to be more systematic, guided and thorough in my brainstorming of marketing strategies and tactics. By using T.O.W.S., you can look intelligently at how you can best take advantage of the opportunities open to you, at the same time that you minimize the impact of weaknesses and protect against threats. Give it a try in your own brainstorming sessions!
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