Analyzing External Business Environment
Analyzing External Business Environment
Structure
4.1 Introduction
4.2 General Environment and Strategy
4.3 Process for analyzing the External Environment
4.4 External Environment
4.5 Industrial Organization Model
4.6 PESTLE Framework
4.7 External Factor Evaluation Matrix
4.8 Summary
4.9 Keywords
4.10 Self-Assessment Questions
4.11 References and Further Readings
4.1 INTRODUCTION
Strategic analysis is basically concerned with structuring the relationship
between a business and its environment. The environment in which a business
operates has a greater influence on their successes or failures. There is a strong
linkage between the changing environment, the strategic response of the business
to such changes and the performance. It is therefore important to understand the
forces of external environment the way they influence the linkage. The external
environment which is dynamic and changing holds both opportunities and threats
for the organizations. The organizations while attempting at strategic realignments,
try to capture these opportunities and avoid the emerging threats. At the same
time the changes in the environment affect the attractiveness or risk levels of
various investments of the organizations or the investors.
The first level of the external analysis i.e. understanding of the macro environment
has an influence on the success or failure of an organization’s strategies. The
impact of the changes of the macro environment is felt on the organization and
its strategies through their influences on the competitive forces of the competitive 63
Environmental Analysis environment. Assessing the external environment is also known as environmental
scanning or industry analysis. In this unit we will learn a practical approach to
assessing and analyzing the external information and understand the concept of
Industrial Organization (I/O) model.
The PESTLE analysis gives a number of factors and their likely influences.
However it is important to identify the specific factors which may influence an
industry and force them towards competitive adjustments. These factors are
termed as structural drivers of change which have the likely effect on the structure
of an industry or on the competitive environment.
As a first step based on PESTLE analysis, the key driving forces need to be
identified and then impact of the combined effect of these forces should also be
made. Increasing globalization of the industry and the E enabled era could make
such driving forces capable of affecting the structure of an industry or its
environment.
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Figure 4.1: Industrial Organization Model
Environmental Analysis This model is important for the organizations as it helps them assess the strategic
position of the organization.
Economic factors
Exhibit 3 gives you a view of broad indicators which give the economic picture
of the general environment and these should be carefully looked into while doing
the environmental analysis.
Exhibit 3: Common Economic Indicators
Economic factors throw light on the nature and direction of the economy in
which an organization operates. The organizations must focus on economic trends
in segments that affect their industry. For example the trend of low interest rates
on personal savings may compel individuals to move towards equity and bond
markets leading to a boom in the capital market activity and the mutual fund
industry. Consumption patterns are usually governed by the relative affluence of
market segments and organizations must understand them through the level of
disposable income and the tendency of people to spend. Interest rates, inflation
rates, unemployment rates and trends in the gross national product, government
policies and sectoral growth rates are other economic influences it must consider.
The services sector’s contribution to national income is increasing year after
year and the family incomes are rising faster than individual incomes, job
opportunities are more diverse and therefore these speak for different types of
opportunities and challenges which are emerging before the business. With the
opening up of the economy, trends in the global market needs a careful look. The
above needs to be analyzed and incorporated in your inferences for the general
environment and its other forces and how all these together may influence
business.
Activity 2
Suppose the foreign exchange reserves in the nation gets depleted by half of
the present level because of few developments in the outside world. Discuss
the environmental effects it may lead to.
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Social factors
Socio-cultural factors have a major impact on the markets, products, services
and customers. Almost all the organizations face challenges arising from the
changes in demographic and cultural variables. Let us discuss these in brief.
Demographic Factors: Demographic characteristics such as population, age
distribution, literacy levels, inter-state migration, rural-urban mobility, income
distribution etc. are the key indicators for understanding the demographic impact
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Environmental Analysis on environment. The shifts in age distribution caused by improved birth control
methods have created opportunities for youth centric products ranging from
clothes to entertainment to media. The growing number of senior citizens and
their livelihood needs have been highlighted and the government is paying more
attention in the form of social security benefits etc.
Considering literacy and the composition of literates in the nation creates
opportunities for particular type of industries and type of jobs. For example on
one hand, the presence of a large number of English speaking engineers
encouraged many software giants to set up shops in India and on the other, the
availability of cheap labour, India becomes a destination for labour intensive
projects. Moreover, large labour mobility across different occupations and regions,
in recent times, has cut down wage differentials greatly and this has an impact
for businesses which needs to be understood.
Cultural Factors: Social attitudes, values, customs, beliefs, rituals and practices
also influence business practices in a major way. Festivals in India offer great
business opportunity for certain industries like clothes and garments, jewellery,
gift items, sweetmeats and many others, the list could be endless.
Social values and beliefs are important as they affect our buying behaviour. For
example, a multinational fast food chain does not serve the beef burgers in India
because Indians do not have cow meat since the animal is considered holy and
sacred. A related example of an entertainment giant also brings out clearly, the
impact different cultures may bring to business. This organization which has
been so successful in the US market could not be so successful in European
nations because of the difference in the way in which people entertain themselves
there. Due to this they had to customize its offerings in order to be successful in
these markets. The spread of consumerism, the rise of the middle class with high
disposable income, the flashy lifestyles of people working in software, telecom,
media and multinational companies seem to have changed the socio-cultural
scenario and these needs to be understood deeply. The pandemic crisis bringing
the Work from Home (WFH) culture also has impacted the way the market is
perceived. Values in society also determine the work culture, approach towards
stakeholders and the various responsibilities the organization thinks of owing to
its stockholders and the society.
Activity 3
There has been a thrust on women literacy. Discuss the influences you see in the
social environment and their impact on business.
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Technological factors
Technological factors represent major opportunities and threats which must be
taken into account while formulating strategies. Technological breakthroughs
can drastically influence the organization’s products, services markets, suppliers,
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distributors, competitors, customers, manufacturing processes, marketing External Environment
practices and competitive position. Technological advancements can open up
new markets, change the relative position of industry and render existing
products and services obsolete. Technological changes can reduce or eliminate
cost barriers between businesses, create shorter production runs, create shortages
in technical skills and result in changing values and expectations of customers
and employees.
The impact of information technology (IT) which combines fruits of both
telecommunications and computers has been revolutionary in every field. Not
only has it opened up new vistas of business but also has changed the way the
businesses are done. IT has specifically brought in another dimension ‘Speed’
which organizations recognize as the additional source of competitive advantage
beyond low cost and differentiation. Manufacturers, bankers and retailers have
used IT to carry out their traditional tasks at lower costs and deliver higher
value added products and services. The pandemic situation has altogether
changed the way the organizations work. Artificial intelligence, robotics, cloud
computing, blockchain technology etc. have penetrated the business world to
a large extent.
Activity 4
Enumerate few of the technological advances in the field of agriculture and discuss
its role in tapping better opportunities in the overseas markets.
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Legal factors
Activity 5
Discuss the legislation on patents in India and its impact on the business.
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Environmental Analysis Environmental factors
Environment conservation and protection is an issue, which has gained
prominence because of deteriorating environmental balance which is threatening
the sustainability of life and nature. Largely, businesses are also held responsible
for such situations as emissions from industries polluting the air, excessive
chemical effluents drained out in water making it poisonous and unfit for use,
usage of bio non-degradable resources affecting the bio-chain adversely and
exposure of employees to hazardous radiations bring their life in danger. All
these have been taken very seriously by different stakeholders in the society
including the government and legislations and movements are creating pressure
for an environment friendly business. These have far reaching implications for
businesses ranging from the kind of business, the product being manufactured,
how it is manufactured and how friendly it is for mankind and nature. Many
multinationals that come under the purview of the society regarding the
environmental hazards have started using more sustainable methods to survive
in the [Link] businesses all over are now concentrating more on preserving
the nature than harming it.
The competitive environment refers to the situation which organization’s face
within its specific area of operation, and this can be understood at an industry
level or with respect to smaller groups called Strategic groups. Generally
understood, an industry in the economy is recognized as a group of organizations
producing the same principal product or more broadly the group of organizations
producing products that are close substitutes for each other and in a given
industry different organizations have different intermediate basis of
understanding its relative position with respect to other organizations in the
industry.
Activity 6
List out five major industries which in your view, may pose danger to the
[Link] measures as to how these industries may act in an
environment friendly nature.
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Opportunities
4.8 SUMMARY
Understanding of the general environment in which an organization operates is
the foremost prerequisite towards strategy formulation. The six broad dimensions
which this PESTLE framework provides the environment-political, economic,
socio- cultural, technological, legal and environmental are capable of giving a
comprehensive overview of how things may be unfolding. The objective of the
76 analysis of this framework however should not only restrict to the present and
past but the real focus should be on projecting the trends into future in order to External Environment
get the real feel of the environment. This shall enable the organizations to
proactively strategize for future considering the general [Link] matrix
is used to assess these factors.
The immediate competitive environment influences an organization and therefore
has to be understood alongside the general environment. It is therefore a
challenging task for managers to imitate and formulate strategies which can
effectively neutralize the negative impact on the competitive structure of industry
generated by these forces.
4.9 KEYWORDS
PESTLE Framework : This framework categorizes environmental
influences into 6 main types — political,
economic, social, technological,
legal and environmental.
Structural Drivers of Change : The factors which have a likely effect on the
structure of an industry or on the
competitive environment.
Environmental Scanning : One of the few ways to detect future driving
forces.
Competitive Environment : It refers to the situation which an
organization faces within its specific arena
of operation.
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