Analyse the External Environment

It is important for the Management Committee to analyse the external environment to ensure that the  organisation is best placed to respond to developments and changes.

Organisations need to have information about the challenges, opportunities and future trends, inside and outside. So whether your organisation is just starting up or is already established, the first step in the planning process is to assess the external and internal position of an organisation. A SWOT analysis is one method commonly used to identify.

S – Strengths

W – Weaknesses

O – Opportunities

T – Threats

For more detail on SWOT please click here.

Another approach is to consider a PEST analysis:

P- Political

E -Economic

S -Social

T -Technological

This provides a framework for groups to survey the external environment in a systematic way to assess the key challenges and opportunities which are coming towards them.