Business Strategy Analysis 2022

Student’s Last Name 1
Business Strategy
By (Name)
Course
Professor
University
Date

Student’s Last Name 2
Executive Summary
Strategic analysis tools are important in analyzing the environmental factors of any
business organization. The environment encompasses both internal and external conditions that
affect the operations of the business. There are numerous tools used to analyze these conditions
and establish how a business can adapt to the change in business operations for maximum
competitive advantage. Among the common tools include the TOWS analysis, VRIO framework,
and Porter diamond network. The TOWS analysis analyses the strength, weakness, opportunities,
and threats of the business and provide ways of using the strengths to counter the weakness and
opportunities to mitigate threats. VRIO analysis is based on evaluating the resources of the
business for competitive advantage, while the Porter Diamond analyses the external conditions
of the business by analyzing nations’ business environments.

Student’s Last Name 3
Introduction
I have determined that strategic business analysis tools and techniques are important
ways of enabling an organization to think more strategically about their business operations. It
caught my attention that there are several kinds of analysis tools that have been developed to
help a business analyze its competitive market (Tassabehji and Isherwood, 2014, pp.70). In the
course of my research, I did establish that organizations rely on these tools to analyze both the
internal and external factors that may affect the operation of their business. In my reflection, I
will focus on three main analysis tools that include the TOWS, VRIO framework, and Porter’s
diamond. I will investigate their usage, benefits, and challenges in applying them.
The TOWS Matrix
As a student of Business strategy, I am mostly surprised that other students or
participants in business seminars are very familiar with the SWOT analysis framework
(strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats.) I understand that the SWOT analysis helps the
business in identifying its strengths and weakness based on the internal conditions and
opportunities and threats based on the external factors (Santalova, 2015, pp.120). However, very
rarely have I encountered those who are particularly conversant with the variant of the SWOT
analysis known as the TOWS analysis.
Usage
The Tows analysis has the same basic principle as the SWOT analysis of listing the
strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats but I have established that with the TOWS
matrix, the opportunities and threats are analyzed first, followed by the strength and weakness.

Student’s Last Name 4
Through my interactions with various managers from companies in London, I established that
the TOWS matrix helps them to get a better understanding of the choices they face in their daily
business operations. The TOWS help them, to analyze critical question such as; How can they
maximize on their, strengths, how can they resolve the weaknesses, ways they can use to
capitalize on the opportunities present, and strategies to manage the threats that they face in the
business. The TOWS analysis has additionally facilitated the managers with new options that
they can integrate into their business. One of the managers I talked to told me that he uses the
TOWS matrix to match the external opportunities and threats with strength and weakness. In his
matrix, I noticed that he incorporated the following method.
 Strength and Opportunities (SO)- in this area, he analyzes how the internal factor
of strength can take advantage of the opportunity present. For instance, the company was dealing
with making sports apparel, and among the strengths he had was high skilled workers (Wright,
Paroutis and Blettner, 2013, pp.100). The opportunity that manifested was the high demand in
the global market for sports wears. The manager established that he can use his skilled workforce
to increase his product mix to exploit the emerging markets.
 Strengths and Threats (ST)- in this grouping, the manager was hoping to use the
strength of his company to avoid any potential threats that may alter his business operations.
 Weakness and opportunities (WO)-in this regard, the manager explained to me
that he was aiming at countering the weakness with the opportunities that are available for the
business.
 Weakness and threats (WT)- according to the manager, he was aiming at
establishing ways of minimizing the weaknesses in the business and avoiding threats.