2nd Week - Strategic Management
2nd Week - Strategic Management
2nd Week - Strategic Management
2nd WEEK
Soft trend: something that might happen and for which the
probability that it might happen can be estimated.
Example: Continuing budget deficits
Competitive intelligence: a firm’s activities of collecting
and interpreting data on competitors, defining and
understanding the industry, and identifying competitors’
strengths and weaknesses.
TRENDS AND TECHNOLOGIES BUSINESS
Environmental forecasting: The development of plausible
projections about the direction, scope, speed, and
intensity of environmental change.
• Environmental forecasting predicts change
– Plausible projections about
• Direction of environmental change?
• Scope of environmental change?
• Speed of environmental change?
• Intensity of environmental change?
• Scenario analysis involves detailed
assessments of the ways trends may affect an
issue & development of alternative futures
based on these assessments
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is a basic technique for analyzing firm and industry
conditions
• Firm or internal conditions = Strengths & Weaknesses: Where the
firm excels or where it may be lacking
• Environmental or external conditions = Opportunities & Threats:
Developments that exist in the general environment & activities
among firms competing for the same customers
The General Environment
The general environment is composed of factors that
are both hard to predict and difficult to control:
• Demographic • Technological
• Sociocultural • Economic
• Political/Legal • Global
Demographic segment of the general environment: genetic and
observable characteristics of a population, including the levels
and growth of age, density, sex, race, ethnicity, education,
geographic region, and income.