TOWS Analysis:

An effective way to plan for competitive advantage is to understand the threats and opportunities in the
firm’s environment. We define the firm’s environment variables to include:

1. Cultural; These include norms, values, traditions, events, food, dress. languages, and so forth.
2. Demographic; age, gender, income, status, hobbies. Likes, dislikes,
3. Economic: GNP, GDP, tax levels. Gold reserves, inflation, currency fluctuations, trade.
International relations, foreign policies, oil prices,
4. Political / legal: How strong is political and legal system,
5. Technological: advancement of technology, robotics, virtual reality, 5G, and others.
6. Publics:
I. Investors, creditors, and bankers (sources of capital)
II. Suppliers (sources of raw material and components)
III. Distributors and customers (those who provide orders)
IV. Employees (those who provide the human resources)
V. Competitors (those that fight for orders)
VI. Legal systems, government, special interest groups, and regulators (those that set
parameters of acceptable actions)
Education: curriculum HEC, FBR, abide by state rules. SOPs for COVID 19.

Opportunities Threats

Strengths

Match strengths with Avoid Threats

Opportunities

Weakness Avoid Weakness Dangerous

Strategy Procedure: firms evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities and threats
of the environment. Then the firm positions itself through its strategic and tactical decisions to have
competitive advantage. It is unique attribute or characteristics of a product, firm or service. Example,
first movers advantage, giant in size, good location, support from government, technological
advancement, and so on.

Oxford university, Cambridge, university in SPAIN, university of SALAMANKA. This university was
established in 1212.
University in Karachi IBA, it established 1950.

Strategic decisions and operation management:

1. Product Strategy: it defines much of the transformation process cost of product, design,
features, packaging, labeling and quality standards.
2. Process Strategy: these are based on the technology, quality, HR and maintenance,
3. Location strategy: facility location decisions for both manufacturing and service firms may
determine the ultimate success of the firms.