The TOWS matrix illustrates how the external opportunities and threats facing a particular corporation can be matched with company's internal strengths and weaknesses to result in possible strategic alternatives to be competitive. It is a good way to use brainstorming and to create alternative strategies that might not otherwise be considered.

It forces strategic managers to design various growth, stability or retrenchment strategies. It can be used to generate corporate as well as business strategies.

Moreover, TOWS Matrix is very useful for generating a series of alternatives that the decision makers of a company or business unit might not otherwise have considered. Nevertheless, the TOWS Matrix is only one of the many ways to generate alternative strategies.

In a way TOWS is considered to be an improvement over the SWOT. However, it is not undermining the SWOT analysis.