What is environmental scanning?
Environmental scanning is the communication of external information about facts that could influence an organization on its’ strategic decision-making process. It is a method of analyzing relevant gathered information and use to determine strategic and premeditated action on the business environment. The environmental scanning process seek obtain both realistic and subjective information on the business environments where a corporation is functioning or considering entering. It is the possession and use of information concerning events, trends, and interaction in an organization's external environment, the data of which could support management in scheduling the organization's future line of action.
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Environmental scanning helps an organization in acting strategically manner on external factors over which it has small, if any, control. Through regular monitoring of outside influences, organizations can form their own internal procedures and policy to reflect required and efficient responses. The course of understanding the correlation between external influences and internal procedures assists in adjusting organizational structure and strategic procedure that are intended to be more efficient and flexible to changing market.
Environmental scanning should not be a stagnant process. It should be continuous and ongoing in order to sustain a preparative posture as environmental influences take place. This organizational learning practice is a key element to organizational success. Through regular monitoring of the environment, management has the capability to formulate essential adjustments in the organization's reaction to the factors that can turn out to be the difference between success and failure.
External Environments
‘There are many factors in the macro-environment that will effect the decisions of the managers of any organisation. Tax changes, new laws, trade barriers, demographic change and government policy changes are all examples of macro change. To help analyse these factors managers can categorise them using the PESTEL model.’ Gillespie (2007) • Political: Local, national, and
External and internal environmental analysis is a critical component for an organization seeking to achieve its goals. The follow information within this paper presents a complete external environmental and an internal competitive environmental scan for JetBlue Airways. The information provided identifies and analyzes the most important external environmental factor in the remote, industry, and external operating environments. When addressing external environment it speaks to a set of forces and conditions outside the organization that can influence its performance. The most common forces include political, economic, social,
Environmental scanning involves an organization to look at any trend, opportunity or threat that could create issues for their company. Once any of these issues are identified, the organization should consider new strategies that react to these external factors. Issues should be examined that involve not only direct customers and suppliers, but also competitors, any changes in regulations and possible political involvement. External factors will be constantly changing so environmental scanning should occur frequently and regularly to ensure the current issues have been captured. Research and data analysis can help drive decisions regarding overall marketing changes that might be necessary.
When manipulating a business’s strategy, it is important to focus on the external factors in the environment. An external analysis is where a business conducts environmental scanning that present a company with the key external forces influencing the organization. The facets of external forces examined are the business environment, remote environment, or the competitive environment. A business environment is all of the external factors in the general environment that a firm cannot control, but can affect their strategy. The remote environment is the forces that affect most firms. Lastly, a competitive environment is the firm’s specific industry and its entirety. The external analysis is pertinent to a company called Dick’s Drive- In; without it, Dick’s would not be a thriving popular business today.
Environmental scanning can be viewed as a way of acquiring information about outside events that can aid organizations in first identifying potential trends, then interpreting them
There are many external and internal factors that impact the planning functions of management. We must all be mindful of these factors because they could have an enormous impact on organizations productivity. The process of assessing the external and internal factors that an organization will face can be vital to the planning function of management. One must determine a set of issues and constraints and then list the assumptions that will impact the implementation of the plan. The environmental assessment develops understanding of external and internal processes that influence the organizations success rate. The purpose of the environmental assessment is to identify and analyze the key trends, forces,
The following paper will discuss the research that I completed regarding the internal and external environments of both Allstate Insurance and the Target stores as a corporation. What will be provided is information on the competitive advantages of each company and the types of strategies that they each use. What will also be discussed is how each of these organizations create value and how they maintain a competitive advantage through their business strategy. I will also cover what types of measurement guidelines both Allstate Insurance and Target is using and how effective these measurement guidelines are for their organization.
To stay tuned to the recent situation in order not to miss perspective opportunities, an organization should go on with continuous scanning of its environment. According to Jobber, environmental scanning is “the process of monitoring and analyzing the marketing environment of a company” (Jobber, 2010, p.93). Aguilar states (Aguilar, 1967, cited in Costa, 1995, pp.4-5) that environmental scanning serves the purpose of gathering information about the facts and events happening around the company in order to let the management lead the organization in the right direction. Most of the authors agree on the same main function of environmental scanning.
Environmental scan in essence analyzes and evaluates the internal as well as external data and factors that influence the organization. Environmental scan entails the acknowledgment of a company’s environment that has potential effect on the organization’s operations and consequently, is critical in devising and implementing successful strategies. Apple Inc. is a leading international company that specializes in the production of computer software, commercial servers and consumer electronics. Its key products include iPhones, iPad, iPod and Mackintosh computers. The company has been in operation for the past 36 years.
Environmental analysis is largely strategic thinking and strategic planning and consists of understanding the issues in the external environment to determine the implications of those issues for the organization (Ginter,2013). Strategic management does not replace traditional management activities such as budgeting, planning, monitoring, marketing, reporting, and controlling. Rather, it integrates them into a broader context, taking into account the external environment, internal organizational capabilities, and your organization's overall purpose and direction. With having a strategic plan and someone to administer the plan, the organization can flow
33 8. What strategic issues need to be addressed? 34 9. External environmental analysis 35 10. Internal environment analysis 60 11.
Scanning of internal and external environment are key part for decision making and planning for achieving of organizational objectives. Internal and external environment are called SWOT Analysis.
An analysis of the external environment includes the factors in a business’s external environment about a business's industry, competition, and political and social environments, and affects the firm’s strategy (Aaker, 2001).
An organization is an open system; therefore it interacts with its environment. To manage the relationship with the environment, a large part of strategic planning is concerned. The environmental factors can be divided to 2 main categories, which is MACRO and MICRO .Macro environmental factors seriously affect an organization business practice, profitability and future progress. It can
Organizations are open systems and must relate to their environments. They must acquire the resources and information needed to function; they must deliver products or services that are valued by customers. An organization 's strategy--how it acquires resources and delivers outputs--is shaped by particular aspects, and features of the environment. Thus, organizations can devise a number of responses for managing environmental interfaces, from internal administrative responses, such as creating special units to scan the environment, to external ,collective responses, such as forming strategic alliances with other organizations.
2. Environmental monitoring. Examining the macro, industrial, competitive, and internal environments will produce the reasoning and ongoing analysis as to why this plan will support the senior leaders and new employees achieve their best performance.