MGT/498 Week Three Individual Environmental Scan Paper

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.

Discussion Question 3.1: Why is it important for an organization to study and understand its external environment?

The relationship between employees and companies are becoming more and more complex all over the years. This relationship is extremely important since it directly affects how the employees fells about the organization, what are their attitudes about the company and how they effectively perform in their jobs.

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

Analyze the external and internal environment for opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses that impact the firm’s competitiveness.

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.

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.

There are many ways to dissect an organization's performance as well as their opportunities. Since one organization can operate in a vacuum, they are subject to many external factors. Many organizations constantly monitor the competitive landscape however these are not the only external factors that should be considered. For example, if an organization gains market share against another organization, this might not be as important as an impending recession that is about to emerge or a new set of regulations that will affect the entire industry. There is much more to examine an organization that looking at the competitive landscape.

There will be 2 parts to external analysis; it will be done based on general environment and competitive environment. External analysis is basically analyzing the factors that are not within the control of an organization for the general environment part. As for the competitive environment part, the strength of an organization’s current competitive position, and the strength of a position it is considering moving into will be identified to help prepare itself for every possible happenings in the near future.

To assure the success of a business over a long period of time the business must be able to conduct regular analysis of their success. They must be able to determine where they are today and have a goal of where they would like to see themselves 5-10 years down the road. In order to conduct a true analysis of the company, one must complete an environmental scan of their organization. Thus scanning for events, trends, issues and expectations that they may be faced with in the future. Furthermore, examining all internal and external environment challenges. Internal environmental challenges may be with employees, shareholders or board of directors or the overall culture of the organization. External environmental

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).

Organizations need to be aware of what is going on in their environments that might concern them, and more so, during the planning process. Diverse but overlapping environments ought to be monitored; the macro environment, the industrial environment, the competitive environment, and the organization’s internal environment (Ginter, 2013; Pfeiffer, 1986). At Rapha AL, my chosen organization, the environmental scanning will include distinct internal and external factors that would enable Rapha gain excellent understanding of the current and emerging issues that might affect it, and inspire the setting of clear and achievable goals. In this paper, I will analyze and address the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT); discuss current and prospective customers and evaluate the impact of environmental factors on the organization’s effectiveness to achieve the established goals within the strategic plan. Furthermore, I will address evolving external issues that could influence the strategic plan, evaluate the benefits of competitive analysis and Rapha’s capacity to achieve the strategic goals and objectives in a 3-year strategic plan.

It also aims to identify market place opportunities and threats in the external environment and to decide how to use their resources, capabilities and core competencies in the firm’s internal environment to pursue opportunities and overcome threats.