Environmental Scan Paper

External and internal environmental analysis is a critical component for an organization seeking to achieve its goals. The follow information within this paper presents a complete external environmental and an internal competitive environmental scan for JetBlue Airways. The information provided identifies and analyzes the most important external environmental factor in the remote, industry, and external operating environments. When addressing external environment it speaks to a set of forces and conditions outside the organization that can influence its performance. The most common forces include political, economic, social,

1. Environmental scanning – A version of environmental scanning in which the firm identifies desirable markets by using the environmental forces to eliminate the less desirable markets

‘We believe that the principal competitive factors in our retail businesses include selection, price, and convenience, including fast and reliable fulfilment. Additional competitive factors for our seller and enterprise services include the quality, speed, and reliability of our services and tools, as well as customers’ ability and willingness to change business practices’ (Amazon10-K report 2015).

To stay tuned to the recent situation in order not to miss perspective opportunities, an organization should go on with continuous scanning of its environment. According to Jobber, environmental scanning is “the process of monitoring and analyzing the marketing environment of a company” (Jobber, 2010, p.93). Aguilar states (Aguilar, 1967, cited in Costa, 1995, pp.4-5) that environmental scanning serves the purpose of gathering information about the facts and events happening around the company in order to let the management lead the organization in the right direction. Most of the authors agree on the same main function of environmental scanning.

Environmental scan in essence analyzes and evaluates the internal as well as external data and factors that influence the organization. Environmental scan entails the acknowledgment of a company’s environment that has potential effect on the organization’s operations and consequently, is critical in devising and implementing successful strategies. Apple Inc. is a leading international company that specializes in the production of computer software, commercial servers and consumer electronics. Its key products include iPhones, iPad, iPod and Mackintosh computers. The company has been in operation for the past 36 years.

The business environment of an organization reveals much about its competitiveness and the possible influences on the success of its strategies. The focus of this paper will be an environmental scan of the internal and external environments of two real-world firms, their competitive advantages and company strategies for creating value and sustaining competitiveness, measurement guidelines for verifying strategic effectiveness and their evaluation.

Arizona Eye Institute (AEI) will scan for environmental changes, new events and trends in the marketplace. Hillestad and Berkowitz (2013) contend that external environment marketing strategies must be planned around major changes, events and trends by continuously developing an environmental scanning process. This environmental process will monitor and screen for local and macro trends that affect the organization 's strategy. The environmental assessment is a formal process used to predict the environmental outcomes (positive or negative) of an organization 's plan, policy, or projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. Organizations that assess the following environmental trends:

Environmental analysis is important for a company. This allows for the company to look at external factors that will help them to succeed or fail. Environmental analysis could be internal as well as external. The internal analysis allows the company to look within and analyze the successes and see where improvement can and should be made. The external analysis looks at factors such as location, marketing, and surrounding areas to analyze if the these factors are what is best for the company.

Scanning of internal and external environment are key part for decision making and planning for achieving of organizational objectives. Internal and external environment are called SWOT Analysis.

There are mainly 4 priorities of Amazon when they established their online venture. The four priorities are convenience, selection, price, and customer service. E-business gave the Amazon a major advantage i.e it opens for 24 hrs or anyone can buy anything 24hrs a day. Various functions such as reviews, e-mail notifications , product recommendations, etc are given by Amazon in their website. Wide range of products are also provided by Amazon. They have an inventory of millions of products at a time.

Environmental audit, which is the systematic collection and evaluation of information from the wider marketing environment which might affect the organisation and its strategic marketing activities, is undertaken by marketing planners (pg. 333, Marketing Planning 2007-2008, Karen Beamish, Ruth Ashford). It is undertaken on a daily basis as it is considered to be very important for reputation management and public relations. Marketers should be aware of the changes in environment that could potentially bring impact on factors like customers, competitors, suppliers and markets. Although, the organisations are unable to control the players of the environment, gathering information on what is going around the environment

Organizations need to be aware of what is going on in their environments that might concern them, and more so, during the planning process. Diverse but overlapping environments ought to be monitored; the macro environment, the industrial environment, the competitive environment, and the organization’s internal environment (Ginter, 2013; Pfeiffer, 1986). At Rapha AL, my chosen organization, the environmental scanning will include distinct internal and external factors that would enable Rapha gain excellent understanding of the current and emerging issues that might affect it, and inspire the setting of clear and achievable goals. In this paper, I will analyze and address the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT); discuss current and prospective customers and evaluate the impact of environmental factors on the organization’s effectiveness to achieve the established goals within the strategic plan. Furthermore, I will address evolving external issues that could influence the strategic plan, evaluate the benefits of competitive analysis and Rapha’s capacity to achieve the strategic goals and objectives in a 3-year strategic plan.

Organizations are open systems and must relate to their environments. They must acquire the resources and information needed to function; they must deliver products or services that are valued by customers. An organization 's strategy--how it acquires resources and delivers outputs--is shaped by particular aspects, and features of the environment. Thus, organizations can devise a number of responses for managing environmental interfaces, from internal administrative responses, such as creating special units to scan the environment, to external ,collective responses, such as forming strategic alliances with other organizations.

This paper analyzes an organizations environmental challenges and how Information Technology can play a role in helping to meet those challenges whether internal or external to the organization.

2. Environmental monitoring. Examining the macro, industrial, competitive, and internal environments will produce the reasoning and ongoing analysis as to why this plan will support the senior leaders and new employees achieve their best performance.