Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
Environmental Scan and Economic Analysis
MBA 580 – Strategies for Competitive Advantage
University of Phoenix
Environmental Scan and Economic Analysis
The success of an organization depends on its ability to adapt to rapid changes in
its external environment. The management team must understand and be able to make
decisions as changes are occurring. In order to help management make quick and
decisive decisions, they need a method that can provide them information detailing what
is happening in their environment, something that allows for rapid decision making.
Environmental scanning is a method that allows for decision makers to both understand
the external environment and give them the ability to connect the various sectors to gain the ability to plan and make decisions. The objective of environmental scanning is to detect technological, social, economic, events that help define potential threats and opportunities in an organizations competing industry. It is also a systematic way to help management promote future organizational strategic thinking and alert them to trends that are converging, diverging, speeding up, slowing down, or interacting. Environmental scanning involves gathering and analyzing factual and subjective information for tactical or strategic purposes.
Economic Analysis is having the ability to understand trends and information of
an economic nature by using data for forecasting within an organization. Economic
forces affect decisions made within organizations. Changes in economic conditions affect
and are affected by supply and demand, strength of buying power and willingness to
spend, and the intensity of competitive efforts. Such changes influence course of actions
and cause fluctuations in the economy. Because members of management cannot control
economic forces, they must make a concerted effort to monitor economic forces....