A SWOT analysis is a good tool to describe your business and the environment it operates in. Developing this understanding is an important starting point. 

However, to move forward we must develop this understanding into actions. Now that you are armed with good management information, what are you going to do?

A TOWS analysis builds on a SWOT analysis. I’ve often referred to it as SWOT – SO WhaT. It is action focused. It is often represented in a similar way to a SWOT analysis:

This gives you four sets of strategies to maximise your business success:

• SO: How will you use your strengths to maximise your opportunities

• ST: How will you use your strengths to mitigate the threats in the market

• WO: What do you need to do to overcome your weaknesses to be able to take advantages of the opportunities

• WT: What do you need to do to overcome your weaknesses to be able to mitigate threats in the market.

Here are some examples of strategies that would fit into these categories:

• SO: If you considered the Pharmacy Contraceptive Service to be an important opportunity for your business, your strength of having good relationships with the local practices could be leveraged to encourage them to signpost all requests for contraceptives to the pharmacy.

• ST: The strength of your relationship with other local pharmacies could be used to improve the threat of a low level of trust from GP practices in completion of services by creating a patient referral system between pharmacies when a single pharmacy can’t deliver a service

• WO: The weakness of your low confidence in providing a service will limit your opportunity to deliver the service. This could be overcome by finding a mentor to support you or develop a clinical supervision relationship.

• WT: The treat created by lack of awareness of pharmacy services will be exacerbated by the weakness of the absence of a social media strategy for your business. Overcoming this weakness will start to mitigate this threat.

Without a clear idea of the potential for our business we are not able to make effective plans. Using simple tools like a SWOT and TOWS analysis will help you lead your business into a more successful future.