Comment on the following: TOWS strategies are product of trade off between internal and external factors.

Answer 6(d) TOWS analysis scans opportunities and threats existing in external environment of any organization, and then generates, compares and selects strategies based on internal strengths and weakness to utilize such opportunities and reduce threats. SWOT Analysis starts with an internal analysis whereas the TOWS analyis starts with an external environment analysis. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors and opportunities and threats are external factors. This trade-off is the point where four potential strategies derive their importance, these are Strength/Opportunity (SO), Weakness/Opportunity (WO), Strength/Threat (ST) and Weakness/Threat (WT). This is shown in matrix given below: TOWS Analysis INTERNAL FACTORS EXTERNAL FACTORS Strengths (S) Weaknesses (W) Opportunities (O) Strengths/ Opportunities (SO) Weaknesses/ Opportunities (WO) Threats (T) Strengths/ Threats (ST) Weaknesses/ Threats (WT) Thus, there are 4 types of strategies in TOWS: Aggressive strategy (SO-maxi-maxi strategy) - Strategies that use strength to maximise opportunities. Conservative strategy (ST-maxi-mini strategy) - Strategies that use strengths to minimize threats. Competitive strategy (WO-mini-maxi strategy) - Strategies that minimize weaknesses by taking advantage of opportunities Defensive strategy (WT-mini-mini strategy) - Strategies that minimize weaknesses and avoid threats.