SWOT Analysis and TOWS Matrix Overview

SWOT Analysis is a strategic tool used to evaluate a business's Strengths, Weaknesses (internal factors), Opportunities, and Threats (external factors). It helps businesses identify areas to improve, opportunities to leverage, and threats to address.

The TOWS Matrix builds on SWOT by turning these insights into actionable strategies. For example:

• SO (Strength-Opportunity): Use strengths to seize opportunities.
• WO (Weakness-Opportunity): Address weaknesses by leveraging opportunities.
• ST (Strength-Threat): Use strengths to counteract threats.
• WT (Weakness-Threat): Minimize weaknesses to reduce risks.

This can be applied to both an existing solution and a new solution under consideration, though the objectives for each differ slightly:

• Existing Solution: Focus on improving performance, introducing new features, or addressing user issues.
• New Solution: Assess its feasibility and strategic potential.

To simplify understanding, I’ve applied this framework to a café scenario below.