3. SWOT Analysis Strengths What advantages do you have? What do you do well? What relevant resources do you have access to? What do other people see as your strengths? Weaknesses What could you improve? What do you do badly? What should you avoid?
4. Opportunities Where are the good opportunities facing you? What are the interesting trends you are aware of? Threats? What obstacles do you face? What is your competition doing? Are the required specifications for your job, products or services changing? Is changing technology threatening your position?
5. The TOWS Matrix Systematic analysis that facilitates matching of the external threats and opportunities to internal Strengths and Weaknesses TOWS will help you form, ask and answer the following questions: How to make the most of your strengths most efficiently? How do you reduce the effects of your weaknesses? What is the best way to capitalize on your opportunities? How do you avoid or minimize the threats? TOWS matrix may change with time
8. Portfolio Matrix (BCG Matrix) Developed by Boston Consultant Group Simple tool to assess a company’s position in terms of its Product range Helps a company think about its product and services and make decisions about which it should keep, which it should let go and which it should invest in further Two Dimensions - Rate of Market Growth and Market share
9. Stars Stars generate large sums of cash because of their strong relative market share, but also consume large amounts of cash because of their high growth rate. Question Marks Question marks are products that grow rapidly and as a result consume large amounts of cash, but because they have low market shares they don’t generate much cash. Dogs Dogs have a low market share and a low growth rate and neither generate nor consume a large amount of cash. Cows As leaders in a mature market, cash cows exhibit a return on assets that is greater than the market growth rate – so they generate more cash than they consume.
10. References The TOWS Matrix --- A Tool for Situational Analysis by Heinz Weihrich http://www.marketingteacher.com http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_bcgmatrix.html http://www.inspiredbusiness.eu/business-articles/how-to-use-a-swot-analysis-and-a-tows-matrix-to-develop-strategies-for-your-business_4.html http://www.mindtools.com http://www.alumnitsi.net/en/ihm/214-the-tows-matrix
