What does an environmental analysis look like?Discuss

What does an environmental analysis look like? What is its purpose?
An environmental analysis is like looking out different windows from the company’s headquarters building and seeing what is happening in the ‘real world outside’ through each of those windows and making an evaluation as to whether what is happening ‘out there’ is something that may help or hinder (that is, it could be either positively or negatively) the organisation to maintain its ongoing success and achieve future goals. You are identifying trends or issues in the environment to help decision makers determine if the current strategy is taking the organisation towards success or catastrophe. That is, you are not critiquing strategy in this assignment – just identifying (and discussing why) issues are salient (have the ability to influence outcomes) for the organisation.

What should I research? Where do I find information about an organisation’s external environment?
The textbook provides excellent insights to the types of information you should seek for completing an external analysis (i.e. a PESTLE analysis). Try searching the library databases and google for industry reports, annual reports, economic data, newspaper articles and press releases (for a general overciew of what the company is doing), and databases such as ABI/Inform (see library ‘business’ databases).

What is the structure for the assignment?
Length or Duration: 1000 words
Introduction
While there is no specific structure for the assignment, I recommend the classic Introducton, Body (Analysis) and Conclusion format. You would probably not want to spend more than 100-150 words on your introduction to provide:
• a general background for the company
• state its current operations and future goals
• the industry in which the organisation is positioned
• What is competition like in the industry?
• state the purpose of the document you are writing
body
You analysis would probably be around 700-800 words in total, and look at each element of your chosen organisation’s environment (note that each part of the model can be called an element, so Political is an element, Economic is an element). For example, the element ‘Economic’ has many areas but only one or two might directly influence your organisation in its decision making. Economic has areas such as Gross Domestic Product, inflation, unemployment. Research these areas, then select the one or maybe two which clearly link by having implications to the company or its way of doing business. To do this you need to apply some judgement to the information you have gathered. Does the information gathered apply generally, or specifically? Analyse the one or two areas in terms of whether they are trends, drivers of change, domestic or global emerging issues that might have a positive or negative impact on the organisation’s operations currently, in the near future or on achievement of its goals. That is, if there is an emerging issue facing this industry or just this organisation, then explain how and why this might impact on the organisation’s current or future operations, its outlook, and the way it does business, what it needs to consider for its ongoing success.
For example, with possible major changes happening to funding the tertiary education sector under the element of Political in the area of government objectives (a decrease in government funding), is this connected to QUT? If so, what should QUT be thinking about as it prepares a new 5-year plan from 2016-2021? Does it just let things happen, play ‘wait and see’ or start to think about the implications? Why? Could this be a driver for change in direction? Might it need to consider doing something about certain courses, how to contain future costs, undertaking its administration and the teaching components differently? Why? Where possible, add academic support for taking a particular stance on this issue.
Do not limit your analysis to areas that might have a negative impact on the organisation. Trends can provide exciting opportunities for further development or expansion of goods and services to take advantage of innovation, changes of government policy, new trade opportunities and new markets.

conclusion

You conclusion should only take around 100-150 words to write. Please note that making recommendations for your chosen organisation to action is not the purpose of this assessment item (that comes later in assessment item 3). It is important, here, to highlight the areas or issues that the company needs to keep in mind as it makes plans for the future. This insightful information that you have gathered will be expanded upon in your next assignment. For this assignment, it is a summary of those areas in each element which have generated your interest when you briefly investigated them and why. That is, the reasoning you come away from ‘the windows to the outside world’ with the view that you have discovered something that is important for senior management to know about and consider!

References
1- Please you should use at least 8 references
One of these references you should use this reference Schermerhorn, J., et al. (2014). Management (5th ed.). Australia: Pearson

Are there any specific formatting requirements, like which font to use?
• 2.5cm margins
• 10pt Arial font
• Single line spacing
• Provide a cover page that includes your name, student number, the title of the report, and the word count (not including your title page or reference list)
• A header or footer on each page should include your name and student number also.