How to translate particle とも and 絞る?

Question

The sentence in question: そうした逆風の中、潜在的な需要を掘り起こそうと各社とも知恵を絞った対策に乗り出しています。

For full context: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/business_tokushu/2018_0621.html?utm_int=news_contents_tokushu_004

My attempt at translation: "All companies certainly set out to new measures which squeezed out wisdom, trying to dig up potential demand in the midst of such adversary circumstances (="adverse wind")."

I'm also not sure whether I interpreted the use of volitional form correctly here, so some feedback on this part would be nice as well.

I think that I know where the phrase 知恵を絞った is going, but I lack the creativity to come up with a proper translation, since the literal one definitely is very very "clunky" and almost incomprehensible. I think its about "using all their brain power" to come up with a good idea to deal with the problem at hand.

Finally, jisho outputted とも as the particle meaning "certainly". It definitely works here, although I wonder whether the algorithm parsed correctly because it doesn't add much. On the other hand, splitting it into と and も seems wrong to me. So I just wanted to ask for confirmation.

Answer 1

「そうした逆風{ぎゃくふう}の中{なか}、潜在的{せんざいてき}な需要{じゅよう}を掘{ほ}り起{お}こそうと各社{かくしゃ}とも知恵{ちえ}を絞{しぼ}った対策{たいさく}に乗{の}り出{だ}しています。」

Your TL:

"All companies certainly set out to new measures which squeezed out wisdom, trying to dig up potential demand in the midst of such adversary circumstances (="adverse wind")."

Your translation looks okay.

"I'm also not sure whether I interpreted the use of volitional form correctly here, so some feedback on this part would be nice as well."

Your understanding is good.

「Verb A in Volitional Form + と + Verb B」

indeed means:

"to (Verb B) in an attempt to (Verb A)"

Moving on to 「知恵を絞る」...

It would be best to remember it as a common idiomatic expression meaning "to rack one's brains" or simply "to think very hard" instead of trying to translate each word in it.

"Finally, jisho outputted とも as the particle meaning "certainly". It definitely works here, "

I am afraid it does not work here. You looked up the wrong 「とも」, namely, the sentence-ending particle 「とも」 as in 「いいとも！」.

「とも」 in this sentence means "all of", "both ~~ and ~~", "each of ~~". So, 「各社とも」 means "all of the companies", "each and every company", etc. It has a kanji 「共」.