Reference no: EM133379176

Select three characteristics on the external environment (not your competitors, but things like socio-economic indicators, epidemiological data, changes in technology, etc.) that you think are crucial to strategic thinking and ultimately to strategic management. Submit three paragraphs (each paragraph should have at least six sentences) to explain each of them, and why they are important to consider for strategic thinking purposes. Sourcing and citing is encouraged!

The Situational Analysis

The competitive environment is complex and in a constant state of flux. How does an organization assess the competitive situation that it faces? The organization uses a model to simplify the situation to help with decision making. The Situational Analysis is such a model; remember models are not perfect. Models are created by people who by definition are imperfect. We use them because we have to make decisions. Making no decision could lead us to the worst outcome. So we take our particular decision are break it into three components:

Internal Environment - who are we as an organization and what are we capable of doing (Chapter 2 in your text);

External Environment - what is happening around our organization? What are the demographics, the epidemiology (market)? Who lives in the community and what is their source of payment?

External Environment - Who is our competition? What are they good at, where are they weak? Are they a threat to us or does their weakness create an opportunity for us to increase our business.