MKTG90005 Chap.6 Internal Analysis, SWOT and TOWS
Internal Analysis, SWOT and TOWS
Internal analysis examines performance, organisational alignment, value-chain activities, activity systems, portfolio choices and marketing capabilities to determine what the organisation can sustain. SWOT then summarises supported internal strengths and weaknesses alongside external opportunities and threats. TOWS converts the most important interactions into strategic alternatives.
The chapter rejects generic labels and asks each item to include evidence, comparison and a consequence for the live decision. A valuable resource becomes strategically important only when linked routines create customer value or lower cost in a way competitors cannot readily reproduce. The 7S lens checks whether strategy, structure, systems, shared values, style, staff and skills reinforce one another.
Value-chain and activity-system analysis then locate where that capability is produced. SWOT sits at the end as a summary, and TOWS uses selected interactions to propose alternative responses while keeping remaining weaknesses and threats visible.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Resources, capabilities and core competence
- 02
Organisational alignment through 7S
- 03
Value chains and activity systems
- 04
Marketing capability assessment
- 05
Evidence based SWOT summaries
- 06
TOWS response design
Worked example · free
Convert SWOT evidence into a TOWS response
- 1Classify supplier relationships and demand data as strengths, delivery coverage as a weakness and the market changes as external conditions.
- 1Use the strengths to offer rotating local menus for clustered corporate wellbeing programmes.
- 1Defend through freshness, provenance and responsiveness rather than matching the national price across all customers.
- 1Use scheduled drop points to contain the delivery weakness and scale only when route density and repeat contribution are proven.
Key terms
- Core competence
- A core competence is a coordinated capability that creates customer value, supports strategic access and resists easy imitation.
- Activity system
- An activity system is a set of mutually reinforcing organisational choices that deliver a strategic position.
- SWOT analysis
- SWOT summarises supported internal strengths and weaknesses together with external opportunities and threats.
- TOWS analysis
- TOWS combines selected internal and external findings to develop strategic responses with explicit mechanisms and trade-offs.
- Value chain
- A value chain separates activities so analysts can locate sources of customer value, cost and coordination friction.
- Organisational alignment
- Organisational alignment exists when structure, systems, people and shared priorities support the chosen strategy.
Internal Analysis, SWOT and TOWS FAQ
What makes a capability strategically important?
A capability matters when it supports customer value or cost in the chosen strategy, is difficult for rivals to reproduce and can be delivered consistently through people, systems and linked activities. A positive attribute or single skilled employee is not automatically a core competence.
Why should SWOT come after analysis?
SWOT is a synthesis, so its items should come from verified external and internal evidence. Writing it first encourages generic labels, classification errors and confirmation bias. Each item should state the fact, comparison and strategic consequence, then point back to the table or analysis that supports it.
How does TOWS create strategy?
TOWS asks how strengths can exploit opportunities or reduce threats, how opportunities might help address weaknesses and how the organisation should protect itself when weaknesses meet threats. Useful pairings contain a credible mechanism and produce alternative choices, not word combinations that simply fill every matrix cell.
How should a strength be evidenced?
State the resource or capability, compare it with relevant rivals or requirements and explain the consequence for the objective. Use performance across time and the activity system behind the result. A favourable quarter or popular internal belief is not enough to establish a durable strength.
Assessment move
Begin by distinguishing resources from capabilities and capabilities from core competence. For every claimed strength, ask what linked routines make it repeatable, which customer value or cost it supports and why competitors cannot quickly copy it. Use the 7S lens to test alignment among strategy, structure, systems, shared values, style, staff and skills, then locate the relevant activities in the value chain.
Build SWOT only after those checks and the external analysis. Rewrite each entry as evidence, comparison and consequence. Limit the matrix to the items that materially affect the objective. For TOWS, combine only pairs with a credible mechanism, compare the resulting alternatives and state the weakness or threat that remains.
Practise explaining why one response is primary and what operational change must occur before the promised position is believable. Reverse the exercise by starting with the recommendation and tracing every required capability to a resource, routine and 7S condition. Any broken link identifies implementation work or an unsupported claim.
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