Environmental Analysis (PEST) - P.E.S.T. is an acronym for the Political, Economic, Social, and Technological factors of the environment. These environmental factors usually are beyond a firm's control and sometimes present themselves as threats. Many factors are country-specific and a PEST analysis will need to be performed for all countries of interest.
Porter's Five Forces - this is an outside-in business strategy tool that is used to make an analysis of the attractiveness (value, etc.) of an industry structure. the analysis is made by the identification of five fundamental competitive forces: the ENTRY OF COMPETITORS (how easy or difficult is it for new entrant to start to compete, barriers of entry), THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES ( how easy can our product or service be substituted, especially for cheaper), BARGAINING POWER OF BUYERS (how strong is the position of buyers, can they work together to order large volumes), BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS (how strong is the position of suppliers, can they drive prices towards more profitable margins), RIVALRY AMONG THE EXISTING PLAYERS ( is there a strong competition between the existing players, is one player very dominant or all equal is strength/size). This model is probably one of the most often used business strategy tools and has proven its usefulness.
Strategic Group Maps - essential in creating a strategic group map is identifying two top competitive factors within your market. the group map is the charting of relative importance that each has and identifying main players in the market and where you stand. One of the competitive factors should be expressed in a high to low range (i.e. brand image, market penetration, etc...). the other variable is more flexible, but should still reflect the most important competitive factor in your market (i.e. distribution channels, production line mix, strategic focus differentiation). plot them on a map using x and y variables.
Industry Driving Forces - Organizations of all types are continually striving to enhance their business information systems. Four major driving forces affect the strategies that companies might pursue. These drivers include:
Porter's Five Forces - this is an outside-in business strategy tool that is used to make an analysis of the attractiveness (value, etc.) of an industry structure. the analysis is made by the identification of five fundamental competitive forces: the ENTRY OF COMPETITORS (how easy or difficult is it for new entrant to start to compete, barriers of entry), THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES ( how easy can our product or service be substituted, especially for cheaper), BARGAINING POWER OF BUYERS (how strong is the position of buyers, can they work together to order large volumes), BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS (how strong is the position of suppliers, can they drive prices towards more profitable margins), RIVALRY AMONG THE EXISTING PLAYERS ( is there a strong competition between the existing players, is one player very dominant or all equal is strength/size). This model is probably one of the most often used business strategy tools and has proven its usefulness.
Strategic Group Maps - essential in creating a strategic group map is identifying two top competitive factors within your market. the group map is the charting of relative importance that each has and identifying main players in the market and where you stand. One of the competitive factors should be expressed in a high to low range (i.e. brand image, market penetration, etc...). the other variable is more flexible, but should still reflect the most important competitive factor in your market (i.e. distribution channels, production line mix, strategic focus differentiation). plot them on a map using x and y variables.
Industry Driving Forces - Organizations of all types are continually striving to enhance their business information systems. Four major driving forces affect the strategies that companies might pursue. These drivers include:
- Customer needs – The capability and quality of such systems to fulfill the needs of customers often differentiate an organization from its competitors.
- Regulatory changes and emerging standards – Concurrently, organizations are continually under pressure to respond to changes in laws, regulations and policies that govern their operations. Similarly, emerging industry standards may require changes in system functionality.
- Evolving technologies – New functionality in new versions of products or entirely new products provide opportunities to enhance systems. Sometimes, as technology evolves, vendors discontinue support for a component of a system, which in some cases puts mission-critical legacy systems at risk.
- Budget and time constraints – Leaders responsible for legacy systems must endeavor to balance all driving forces with the cost of systems development and operations. In fact, organizations typically face the need to provide more and better functionality in shorter time frames and reduced budgets.