Strategic Analysis & Environmental Scanning Flashcards

Which PESTEL factor would a strategist consider when analyzing the impact of aging demographics on a healthcare company's long-term strategy?

Answer: Social

Aging demographics fall under the Social factor in PESTEL analysis, capturing population trends and cultural shifts.

A firm conducts a competitive analysis and finds that switching costs for customers are very high. Under Porter's Five Forces, this most directly affects which force?

Answer: Bargaining power of buyers

High switching costs reduce buyers' bargaining power because customers are less able to move to competitors or alternatives.

In scenario planning, what is the primary purpose of identifying 'driving forces' during the environmental scanning process?

Answer: To determine which trends and uncertainties will shape future scenarios

Driving forces are key trends and uncertainties that scenario planners use to construct plausible future environments.

What does the term 'strategic inflection point' (as coined by Andy Grove) refer to in environmental scanning?

Answer: A point where the balance of competitive forces shifts dramatically, requiring strategy change

A strategic inflection point is when fundamental forces affecting a business change so dramatically that the existing strategy must be reconsidered.

Which analysis technique maps an organization's capabilities against competitor capabilities to reveal relative strengths and gaps?

Answer: Competitive benchmarking

Competitive benchmarking systematically compares the firm's capabilities and performance metrics against those of key rivals.

An environmental scan reveals that a new technology could make a company's core product obsolete within five years. This finding is best classified as which SWOT element?

Answer: Threat

An external factor that could harm the organization's competitive position is classified as a Threat in SWOT analysis.

The 'weak signals' concept in strategic scanning refers to:

Answer: Early and ambiguous indicators of emerging trends or discontinuities

Weak signals are faint, early-warning indicators of potentially significant changes that may not yet be visible in mainstream data.