From 1960s long-range planning, an origin claimed both for Albert S. Humphrey at Stanford Research Institute and for Edmund P. Learned, C. Roland Christensen, Kenneth R. Andrews, and William D. Guth at Harvard (Business Policy, 1965), with the matching step from Heinz Weihrich (The TOWS Matrix, 1982).
Sorts a unit's internal strengths and weaknesses against its external opportunities and threats, then crosses the four lists to produce strategic options.
When to reach for it
At the start of strategic planning, a market entry, or a capability review, when the team needs one shared picture of its position before choosing moves.
How it runs
- Fix the unit of analysis: firm, division, product, or project.
- List strengths and weaknesses inside the unit.
- List opportunities and threats in its environment.
- Cross the lists in a TOWS matrix to generate options.
- Rank the options by impact and feasibility.
- Turn the top options into initiatives with owners and dates.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- SOFT analysis, Stanford Research Institute long-range planning work, 1960s
- Business Policy: Text and Cases, Harvard Business School, 1965
- The TOWS Matrix: A Tool for Situational Analysis, Long Range Planning, 1982