SWOT TOWS

Collaborative Tools for Strategic Line Planning

Presented by Lynette Seebohm, Principal

ProductCamp Provo / Revised December 2014
SWoT
Leads to community clarity and dispels:
UNCERTAINTY  

FUZZINESS   AMBIGUITY  

NONSPECIFICITY  

DISCORD  

Source: Klir and Yuan (1995)

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What is TOWS?
Driving value from the SWOT analysis
Originally designed by
G. Weirich, TOWS matrix
provides a min/max
strategy framework to your
SWOT analysis.
Four classes of strategies
are developed post SWOT
development in reverse
order to maximize
strengths and limit
weaknesses.

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Collaborative process

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Collaborative inclusion
Who’s at the table?
•  Management
•  Operations
•  Marketing
•  Sales
•  Research &
Development
•  Others?

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Why include as many
participants as possible?
Involving a wide variety of
perspectives and backgrounds by
staff and stakeholders will make
blind spots and distortions in
SWOT evaluations less likely.

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Needed information for
a SWOT analysis
•  Market and competition
•  Products and technologies
•  Financial performance
•  Demographic trends
•  Political and economic trends
•  New technologies
•  New materials, fabrics,
processes

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Early considerations
•  How to make a product customers want
•  How to price a product customers are
willing to buy
•  Being the product leader in innovation
(expensive and risky) versus following in
the footsteps of proven innovation

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Considerations of
information relevancy
QuanAty  of  the   Recency  of  the  
relevant  supporAng   relevant  supporAng  
evidence   evidence  

Dependability  of  the   Quality  of  

Variety  of    
relevant  supporAng   the  SWOT   perspecAves  involved  
evidence   Analysis  

The  adequacy  of  the   Reliability  of  the  

compeAAve  
benchmarking/
interpretaAon  of  the  
benchtrending   evidence  
Source: H. Weihrich

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SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Internal activities and active
Weaknesses
internal activities and active
Opportunities
New techniques, new research and actionable
Threats
External changes in market and political environment

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SWOT Analysis

S   W  
O   T  
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Strengths: existing S   W  
•  Price, quality, cost, services, production
and distribution systems, facilities, and
O   T  
locations
•  Managerial environment and labor force
•  Product distribution channels
•  Brand name identification, company
image, customer awareness

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Weaknesses: existing S   W  
•  Limits to technology, materials,
and fabrics O   T  
•  Financially underperforming
product line
•  Innovation risk / long term development
•  Access to channels
•  Competitive pricing
•  Diversified consumer focus
•  Viability, feasibility, desirability

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Strengths/Weaknesses
Practical application 0   2000  4000  6000  8000  10000  

TradiAonal  Brand  
What do you see? Owner  
Early  Adopter  W/  
2010/2011   New  AdaptaAon  
 11,000    
New  Market  
2011/2012  
 9,000     Entrant1  
2012/2013  
 7,000     Market  Exiter  

 5,000     New  Market  

Entrant2  
 3,000     Company  X  Recall  
-­‐  Under   2010  
 1,000    
Small  Market   2011  

 (1,000)   CompeAtor   2012  

New  Market   2013  

Entrant  

Market  Dabbler  

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Opportunities:
near future S   W  
•  New technology not fully realized
O   T  
•  Innovative ideas
•  In development fabrics or materials
•  Stage of product or market evolution
•  Address resources, scope, and schedule
•  People, process, tools, and IP
•  Internal and external

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Threats: long term S   W  
•  Limited access to capital
•  PEST: Political, Economic, Social and
O   T  
Technological concerns
•  Demographic factors
•  Phase of the business cycle, access to
new employee skills/expertise
•  Public demand for clean air, water, and
clean environment
•  Market retrenchment

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SWOT to TOWS

S   W  
O   T  
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SWOT to TOWS
Creates a strategic matrix of connective
elements between the external,
competitive and political environment
and the organization’s internal assets.

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SWOT to TOWS

S   W  
O   T  
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TOWS Strategies

S   W  
O  
SO   WO  
T  
ST   WT  

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TOWS Strategies

S   W  
O   SO   WO  

T   ST   WT  

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SO: Strategies S   W  
•  Maxi Maxi Strategies
O   SO   WO  
•  Attacking strategy that leverages
strengths to maximize
T   ST   WT  
opportunities
•  Can be realized in 3-4 months and
must be actionable

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SO: Strategic examples S   W  
•  Specialize or concentrate
O   SO   WO  
•  Diversification into new markets
•  Reduce cost of well-selling ST   WT  
product T  
•  Improve quality
•  Focus on innovation (new
products or new services)
•  Capitalize on new techniques or
technology

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WO: Strategies S   W  
•  Mini Maxi Strategies
O   SO   WO  
•  Minimize weaknesses and
maximize opportunities
T   ST   WT  
•  Counters weaknesses to support
attacking strategies
•  Leverage opportunities and
strengths to resolve the
weakness
•  Should be able to accomplish in
3-4 months

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WO: Strategic examples S   W  
•  Develop visual brand language
O   SO   WO  
•  Develop market personas
•  Forward integration strategy (add ST   WT  
new dealers or channels) T  
•  Backward integration strategy
(new vendors, steady flow of
supplies)
•  Improve operational process to
decrease cost (LEAN)

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ST: Strategies S   W  
•  Maxi Mini Strategies
O   SO   WO  
•  Defensive strategy—leverage
strengths to minimize threats
T   ST   WT  
•  Consider stage of product
evolution (product life cycle)
•  Vet risk of progress on new
concepts
•  Must be able to solve within six
months

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ST: Strategic examples S   W  
•  Innovation and new technology
O   SO   WO  
•  Upcoming yet not available fabrics
•  Materials, and technology
developments T   ST   WT  
•  Risky new concepts in development
•  International strategy (reaching
beyond current environmental limits)
•  Retrenchment
•  Joint ventures

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WT: Strategies S   W  
•  Mini Mini Strategies
O   SO   WO  
•  Minimize both weaknesses and
threats
T   ST   WT  
•  Include resolutions of new hires,
new approaches, collaboration
with other competitors
•  May involve liquidation of poor
performing products or concepts
•  Issues may take a year or more to
resolve

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WT: Strategic examples S   W  
•  Problems of inflation, access to
capital, demographic factors, O   SO   WO  
political and environmental factors
•  Consider phase of the business T   ST   WT  
cycle
•  Access to new employee skills/
expertise
•  Public and social concerns for
clean air, water, and clean
environment

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SWOT Analysis leads to
TOWS Strategies

S   W  
O   SO   WO  

T   ST   WT  

Ref: Heinz Weihrich, Ph.D., UCSF

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Natural next steps
At this stage in the process groups tend to have
community supported strategies for the next
cycle of development.
Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Tactics (GOST)
should be summarized and role responsibilities
assigned.

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 GOST: Goals, Objectives,
Strategies and Tactics review
Goals are defined as a broad aim toward which your
efforts are directed. It’s a what, not a how.
Objectives are closely tied to goals. An objective is
a specific and measureable milestone that must be
achieved in order to reach a goal and is generally
tracked via a metric.

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GOST
Strategies describes a major approach or method for
obtaining to achieve an objective. Strategies tell you how
you’re going to get there, the overall direction you are
going to do.
–  Utilize new technological capabilities
–  New fabrics and materials
Tactics are specific things done to deliver on a strategy.
–  Automate pattern cutting
–  Develop stitch less construction
–  Accelerate development using new NPD software

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Prioritization models
•  Affinity mapping of natural groupings or
relationships using contextual inquiry of
collaboration
•  Multi-vote—democratic decisionmaking
•  Leader-directed—autocratic or authoritarian
decision making
•  Time sequencing (now versus later)
•  Mix of all of the above

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 “Some organizations may need to develop their
human resources by a fair margin, improve their
planning procedures and their market intelligence to
make the desirable SWOT enhancement possible.”

—Adam J. Koch

Adam J. Koch akoch@swin.edu.au is on the faculty of the School of Business, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria. Australia.

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 Thank you

www.ConcurrentStrategies.com
Lynette@ConcurrentStrategies.com
801.842.7630

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