Environmental Scanning & Monitoring Environmental scanning is a concept from business management by which businesses gather information from

the environment, to better achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. To sustain competitive a dvantage the company must also respond to the information gathered from environm ental scanning by altering its strategies and plans when the need arises.

Environmental Scanning & Monitoring- Techniques SWOT PEST Techniques QUEST Industry Analysis Competitor Analysis

SWOT (Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat) Identification of threats and Opportunities in the environment (External) and st rengths and Weaknesses of the firm (Internal) is the cornerstone of business pol icy formulation; it is these factors which determine the course of action to ens ure the survival and growth of the firm.

SWOT Analysis

 The SWOT analysis is an extremely useful tool for understanding and decision-mak ing for all sorts of situations in business and organizations. SWOT is an acrony m for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. SWOT analysis came from the research conducted at Stanford Research Institute from 1960-1970. The backgroun d to SWOT stemmed from the need to find out why corporate planning failed. The r esearch was funded by the fortune 500 companies to find out what could be done a bout this failure. The Research Team were Marion Dosher, Dr Otis Benepe, Albert Humphrey, Robert Stewart, Birger Lie. It all began with the corporate planning t rend, which seemed to appear first at Du Pont in 1949. By 1960 every Fortune 500 company had a 'corporate planning manager' (or equivalent) and 'associations of long range corporate planners' had sprung up in both the USA and the UK.

Strategic and Creative Use of S.W.O.T Analysis : Orienting to An Objective If SWOT analysis does not start with defining a desired end state or objective, it runs the risk of being useless. A SWOT analysis may be incorporated into the strategic planning model. An example of a strategic planning technique that inco rporates an objective-driven SWOT analysis is SCAN analysis.

SWOT: Studying Internal & External Environment The aim of any SWOT analysis is to identify the key internal and external factor s that are important to achieving the objective. SWOT analysis groups key pieces of information into two main categories: Internal factors The strengths and wea knesses internal to the organization. External factors The opportunities and thr eats presented by the external environment.

 If a clear objective has been identified, SWOT analysis can be used to help in t he pursuit of that objective. In this case, SWOTs are: Strengths: attributes of t he organization that are helpful to achieving the objective. Weaknesses: attribut es of the organization that are harmful to achieving the objective. Opportunities : external conditions that are helpful to achieving the objective. Threats: exter nal conditions that are harmful to achieving the objective.

Examples of SWOTs Strengths and Weaknesses Resources: financial, intellectual, location Cost advantages from proprietary kn owhow Creativity / ability to develop new products Valuable intangible assets: i ntellectual capital Competitive capabilities Big campus selection

 Opportunities and Threats Takeovers Market Trends Economic condition Mergers Joint ventures ances Expectations of stakeholders Technology Public expectations Competitors an d competitive actions Poor Public Relations Development Criticism (Editorial) Gl obal Markets Environmental conditions

 Corporate planning Set objectives defining what the organisation is intending to do Environmental scanning Internal appraisals of the organisations SWOT, this needs to include an assessme nt of the present situation as well as a portfolio of products/services and an a nalysis of the product/service life cycle Uses of SWOT Analysis Analysis of existing strategies, this should determine relevance from the result s of an internal/external appraisal. This may include gap analysis (compare its actual performance with its potential performance which will look at environment al factors) Strategic Issues defined key factors in the development of a corpora te plan which needs to be addressed by the organisation

 Develop new/revised strategies revised analysis of strategic issues may mean the objectives need to change Establish critical success factors the achievement of objectives and strategy implementation Preparation of operational, resource, pr ojects plans for strategy implementation Monitoring results mapping against plan s, taking corrective action which may mean amending objectives/strategies.

Also; Use SWOT analysis for business planning, strategic planning, competitor evaluati on, marketing, business and product development and research reports.

Handling SWOTs Strengths (maintain, build and leverage) Opportunities (prioritise and optimise) Weaknesses (remedy or exit) Threats (counter)