When sailing we keep an outlook for the changing winds as they may push us off course. This is a good analogy for keeping our eye on the changes that may affect our business strategies. Maybe this is why we refer to identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis) affecting our business as an environmental scan. Completing an environmental scan is nothing other than keeping our eye on the winds of change and adjusting our course accordingly. Like sailing, sometimes there is a major storm which causes a crisis within the business, and like sailing we don't change the initial destination. We may need to sail to another port for safe harbour and when the storm passes or the crisis is resolved we set sail again to our original destination - unless of course there is no longer a business case for that aspect of the business. During the strategic planning process we complete an environmental scan to determine the push and pull of the winds buffering our business. How do we do this? First we don't wait until we have a strategic retreat to complete the scan. Environmental scanning is an ongoing process and we use the strategic retreat to review the information to get a clear sense of what will affect our business in the coming one to five years. And since it is an ongoing process we may be able to avoid a business crisis in advance of it hitting the business. We shift the strategies to meet the winds of change but we don't change the destination barring the exception stated above. This allows us to view our Strategic Plan as a "living document" and we adjust it to meet changes in our marketplace. Here are eight ways to keep an eye on the winds of change within the marketplaces:
The winds of change in the broader market place are outside of our control, but constantly having our antenna up will pay dividends in managing our strategies and will keep our businesses in a constant state of renewal. Up-dated from the Archives of Fontanie Learning Solutions.
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