Environmental Analysis

Dr. E. Jalaja
Factors influencing Environmental analysis

Influence of
Nature of Age of Size of
busines
Business Business Business
organization

Geographical Volatility of Managerial Managerial

dimension environment attitudes Calibre.
Key External Forces
(1) economic forces;
(2) social, cultural, demographic, and natural environment forces;
(3) political, governmental, and legal forces;
(4) technological forces; and
(5) competitive forces.
 The Process of performing External Audit

1 2 3 4 5
gather competitive monitor various sources of other sources of Evaluate the information Prioritize the ideas
intelligence and information information, such as key vital information- Internet,
about economic, social, magazines, trade journals, Suppliers, distributors,
cultural, demographic, and newspapers. salespersons, customers,
environmental, political, and competitors represent
governmental, legal, and
technological trends.
 Economic Forces
• Foreign countries’ economic conditions
• Availability of credit
• Import/export factors
• Level of disposable income
• Demand shifts for different categories of goods and services
• Propensity of people to spend
• Income differences by region and consumer groups
• Interest rates
• Price fluctuations
• Inflation rates Money market rates
• Export of labor and capital
• Federal government budget deficits
• Monetary policies Fiscal policies
• Gross domestic product trend
• Tax rates
• Consumption patterns
• Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
• Unemployment trends policies
• Worker productivity levels • Coalitions of Lesser Developed Countries (LDC) policies
• Value of the dollar in world markets
• Stock market trends
Advantages and Disadvantages of a Weak Dollar for Domestic Firms
Technological Forces

• Internet
• AI
• ML
• VR
• AR
 1. What are the major competitors’ strengths?
2. What are the major competitors’ weaknesses?
3. What are the major competitors’ objectives and strategies?
4. How will the major competitors most likely respond to current economic,
social, cultural, demographic, environmental, political, governmental, legal,
technological, and competitive trends affecting our industry?
5. How vulnerable are the major competitors to our alternative company
strategies?

Competitive 6. How vulnerable are our alternative strategies to successful counterattack by

our major competitors?

forces 7. How are our products or services positioned relative to major competitors?
8. To what extent are new firms entering and old firms leaving this industry?
9. What key factors have resulted in our present competitive position in this
industry?
10. How have the sales and profit rankings of major competitors in the industry
changed over recent years? Why have these rankings changed that way?
11. What is the nature of supplier and distributor relationships in this industry?
12. To what extent could substitute products or services be a threat to
competitors in this industry?
Components of External Environmental Analysis

• Scanning - Identifying early signals of environmental changes and

trends
• Monitoring - Detecting meaning through ongoing observations of
environmental changes and trends
• Forecasting - Developing projections of anticipated outcomes
based on monitored changes and trends
• Assessing - Determining the timing and importance of
environmental changes and trends for firms’ strategies and their
management
SWOT Analysis

• Strengths are the qualities that enable us to accomplish the organization’s mission.
These are the basis on which continued success can be made and
continued/sustained.
• Weaknesses are the qualities that prevent us from accomplishing our mission and
achieving our full potential
• An opportunity is a condition in the general environment that, if exploited, helps a
company achieve strategic competitiveness.
• A threat is a condition in the general environment that may hinder a company’s efforts
to achieve strategic competitiveness.
• https://www.thestrategywatch.com/swot-analysis-of-tesla-
motors/#:~:text=The%20SWOT%20analysis%20of%20Tesla%20Motors%20is%20also,guide%20overall%20busine
ss%20strategy%20session%20of%20Tesla%20Motors.
PESTEL Analysis

• Political- Politics highlights the role of governments

• Economic - Economics refers to macro-economic factors such as exchange rates, business cycles and differential
economic growth rates around the world;
• Social- Social influences include changing cultures and demographics, for example ageing populations in many
Western societies.
• Technological - Technological influences refer to innovations such as the Internet, nanotechnology or the rise of
new composite materials
• Environmental - Environmental stands specifically for ‘green’ issues, such as pollution and waste;
• Legal - finally Legal embraces legislative constraints or changes, such as health and safety legislation or
restrictions on company mergers and acquisitions.

• http://panmore.com/tesla-motors-inc-pestel-pestle-analysis-recommendations
PORTERS FIVE FORCE MODEL
Five Force Model – Airline Industry

• Threat of new entrants –

• The threat of new entrants in the airline industry can be considered as low to medium as
investment is high.
• licenses, insurances, distribution channels and other qualifications are not easy to obtain.
• existing players have built up a large base of experience over the years to cut costs and increase
service levels.
• However, due to the liberalization of market access and the availability of leasing options and
external finance from banks, investors, and aircraft manufacturers, new doors are opening for
potential entrants.
• Many low-cost carriers like Southwest Airlines, RyanAir and EasyJet have successfully entered
the industry over the years by introducing innovative cost-cutting business models, thereby
shaking up original players like American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and KLM.
Five Force Model – Airline Industry

• Bargaining power of suppliers

• The bargaining power of suppliers in the airline industry can be considered very
high.
• No control on fuel and aircraft
• The price of aviation fuel is subject to the fluctuations in the global market for oil,
which can change wildly because of geopolitical and other factors.
• In terms of aircrafts for example, only two major suppliers exist: Boeing and Airbus.
Boeing and Airbus therefore have substantial bargaining power on the prices they
charge.
Five Force Model – Airline Industry

• Bargaining power of buyers

• Bargaining power of buyers in the airline industry is high.
• Customers are able to check prices of different airline companies fast through the
many online price comparisons websites such as Skyscanner and Expedia.
• No switching cost is involved in the process for customers.
• Brand loyalty is not that high for the customers. They are looking for cost and
availability.
• Some airline companies are trying to change this with frequent flyer programs
aimed at rewarding customers that come back to them from time to time.
Five Force Model – Airline Industry

• Threat of substitute products

• Many alternatives are available for travelling
• Depending on the urgency and distance, customers could take the train or go by car.
• Especially in Asia, more and more people make use of highspeed trains such as Bullet
Trains and Maglev Trains.
• the airline industry might get some serious future competition from Elon Musk’s
Hyperloop concept in which passengers will be traveling in capsules through a vacuum
tube reaching speed limits of 1200 km/h.
• Taken this altogether, the threat of substitutes in the airline industry can be considered
at least medium to high.
Five Force Model – Airline Industry

• Rivalry among existing competitors

• the industry is extremely competitive because of a number of reasons
which include the entry of low-cost carriers.
• safety become paramount leading to high fixed costs and high barriers to
exit, and the fact that the industry is very stagnant in terms of growth at the
moment.
• The switching costs for customers are also very low and many players in
the industry are similar in size (see graph below) leading to extra fierce
competition between those firms.
• Taken altogether, it can be said that rivalry among existing competitors in
the airline industry is high.
Other Models
Hambrick and Fredrickson’s Strategy Diamond

• According to this model, a strategy consist of five essential

parts that together should form a unified whole: Arenas,
Vehicles, Differentiators, Staging and Economic Logic.
• Choice is made with what to do and what not to do.
• choices made within one element should reinforce and match
choices made in the other four elements.
 Hambrick and Fredrickson’s Strategy
Diamond

• Arena – (where will we be active with our company?)IKEA sells relatively cheap but stylish home furnishing products to white-collar customers worldwide. Have
control on design and selling outsources manufacturing to keep production costs low and sell the products cheap.

• Vehicles – (how to get there) IKEA has primarily chosen organic expansion is having wholly owned stores rather than acquisitions (IKEA’s innovative
concept). IKEA’s belief that its own management should fully control its international expansion activities in order to be successful and to minimize risk
for brand damage. IKEA wouldn’t have this control with licensing or franchising agreements.

• Differentiators – ( how will it convince customers to come its way?) IKEA doesn’t offer the best quality furniture but at least it offers reliable quality
for very low prices. It also differentiates itself by offering a massive visually exciting store where customers can envision the possibilities of
rearranging an incredible amount of furniture themselves.

• Staging – (the speed and sequence) IKEA started in Scandinavia and expanded internationally rapidly to get economies of scale. This move has further lowered the cost. For entering
international markets IKEA has adopted Uppsala Model.

• Economic logic (how profits will be generated.) IKEA’s economic logic comes from its economies of scale and the standardized products its sells
worldwide. No other furniture retailer can create similar scale economies and is therefore not able to charge lower or even similar prices for similar quality.

All decisions on the Arenas, Vehicles, Differentiators and Staging seem to come together here to jointly reinforce IKEA’s unique selling point.
Uppsala Model

• The Uppsala model is one of the best-known models of how firms set about the
internationalization process.
• it suggests that a firm should firstly establish itself in its domestic market, and then increase its
commitment and resources in the target country in stages, progressing to the next stage once
sufficient understanding and knowledge of the foreign market conditions have been attainted.
• four different modes of entering an international market,
• Stage 1: No regular export activities (sporadic export).
• Stage 2: Export via independent representatives (export modes).
• Stage 3: Establishment of a foreign sales subsidiary.
• Stage 4: Foreign production manufacturing units.
IKEA – Geographical Expansion and Time line
 Treacy and Wiersema’s Value Disciplines

• The Value Disciplines framework builds upon the key message of Porter’s Generic Strategies (i.e. companies
should have a clear focus in what they want to be known for and what they want to excel in).
• If a company tries to excel in multiple (often contradicting) disciplines, it is likely to end up stuck somewhere in
the middle
• . Treacy and Wiersema propose three value disciplines from which companies can choose from in order to
become a market leader:
• Product Leadership (the best and most innovative product offering), E.g. McDonald’s, Southwest Airlines, Wal-Mart
and IKEA.
• Operational Excellence (the cheapest products through a cost-efficient production process), E.g. Apple, Nike, Rolex,
Microsoft and Harley-Davidson.
• Customer Intimacy (amazing customer service and customer relationship management). E.g. Amazon and Nordstrom

• Choosing each one of the disciplines has tremendous consequences on how the company should be operating
in terms of structure, processes and culture.
Value Disciplines
Organic strategic planning model

• Organic strategy enables the organization to use their own

resources and mostly rely on their values that they have kept
since the organization is established.
• Through its natural approach it: prevents resources wastage,
cheap funds, and enhances the ability to survive, even
surrounded by companies who don’t use organic strategy.
Organic strategic planning model

• Organizations that rely on the organic strategy make it a point

to choose natural means to achieve their objectives: the most
prominent of them all is conserving funds or not using money
at all to build and implement such strategy.
plan might fit with an organic strategy if it has the
following key factors:

• organization’s vision and stakeholders pertain a large unit of people and

usually takes a while to fulfill.
• Distinctive people are involved in exerting effort to fulfill the vision.
• The organization’s culture is intolerant when it comes to organized
tasks.
• The values and vision’s responsibility are of the utmost importance.
• If the organization relies on stakeholders or sponsors for budget or
funding, they don’t worry about presenting a conventional means,
objectives, and strategies.
Steps in organic Planning

1. Clarify and articulate the organization’s cultural values. Use dialogue and story-boarding techniques.
2. Articulate the group’s vision for the organization. Use dialogue and storyboarding techniques.
3. On an ongoing basis, e.g., once every quarter, dialogue about what processes are needed to arrive at the vision
and what the group is going to do now about those processes.
4. Continually remind yourself and others that this type of naturalistic planning is never really “over with,” and that,
rather, the group needs to learn to conduct its own values clarification, dialogue/reflection, and process updates.
5. Be very, very patient.
6. Focus on learning and less on method.
7. Ask the group to reflect on how the organization will portray its strategic plans to stakeholders, etc., who often
expect the “mechanistic, linear” plan formats.
8. Select the most likely external changes to effect the organization, e.g., over the next three to five years, and identify
the most reasonable strategies the organization can undertake to respond to the change.
Steps in organic Planning
Real Time Strategic Model

• La Piana Consulting has developed the Real-Time Strategic

Planning methodology, which results in:
• clarity about an organization’s long-term direction
• new tools to guide the day-by-day response to new information in
a way that keeps a nonprofit aligned towards its organizational
strategy
• The real-time planning model is best suited, especially to
organizations with very rapidly changing environments outside the
organization.
Real Time Strategic Model

• The real-time method of strategic planning is even more fluid than

the organic model. It helps articulate an organization’s mission
and, sometimes, its vision and values. Real-time strategic
planning often involves presenting lists to board members or
management for further discussion.
• Like the organic model, real-time strategic planning is a
continuous process and works best for rapidly changing
organizations that might not have the need for set, detailed, or
traditional strategic planning.
Steps

1. Articulate the mission, the vision and/or values.

2. research the external environment and suggest a list of opportunities and
of threats facing the organization.
3. Present the lists to the Board and other members of the organization for
strategic thinking and discussions.
4. evaluate the internal workings of the organization and suggest a list of
strengths and of weaknesses in the organization.
5. Present these lists to the Board and other members of the organization for
strategic thinking and discussions.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 regularly, for example, every six months or year and
document the results in a Strategic Plan.
VRIO Framework

• VRIO (value, rarity, imitability, and organization) is a framework that deals primarily with the
vision statement, rather than the entire strategy for a company. By answering four main
questions, an organization should be able to create a vision statement to take it through the rest
of the planning process. This results in a competitive advantage in your marketplace.
• Below are the four main questions:
• Value: Using a particular resource, can you exploit an opportunity or get rid of a threat?
• Rarity: Is there a lot of competition in your market, or do a few entities control most of the market?
• Imitability: Can anyone else do what you do?
• Organization: Are you organized enough as a company to adequately exploit your product or service?
• Companies can use the VRIO framework to evaluate its resources and capabilities as part of the
overall strategic planning process. VRIO comes into play after a company creates a vision
statement, but before the rest of the planning process. The advantages you identify help
determine what you need to do in order to achieve them.
 Blue Ocean Strategy

• Created by professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne in 2005, the blue ocean strategy is a
relatively new planning framework. The idea of a blue ocean is to create an uncontested market space for
your company. By contrast, a red ocean is a market space that is already developed and saturated.
• A blue ocean is the unknown. A company creates demand for a product or service instead of fighting over
it, so there is plenty of opportunity for everyone. The idea is to pursue differentiation, thereby creating
market share instead of trying to beat competitors.
• A red ocean is the known market space. Industries in that space define and accept the boundaries that
exist, and they play by the rules. The only way to get ahead is to outperform rivals to claim a bigger share
of the market. The competition can be bloody, which leads to the term red ocean.
• An example of an organization that found a blue ocean is Cirque du Soleil. Instead of operating as a
typical circus, it found and expanded on a niche. The key to the blue ocean strategy is to make the
competition irrelevant because you are doing something the others are not.
 • McKinsey’s Strategic Horizons framework
McKinsey’s Strategic Horizons focuses on growth and innovation by
categorizing goals into three categories: the
core business, emerging opportunities, and new
business.
• The first horizon deals mostly with core
activities in which a company is already
engaged. Existing revenue is placed here, so
goals mostly deal with improving margins and
processes, as well as maintaining incoming
cash flow.
• The second horizon involves taking what is
already happening and expanding it into new
areas.
• The third horizon involves new directions,
possibly including research and new programs.
Wright recommends a 70/20/10 split between
the three horizons.
• Fast-growing and startup organizations might
find McKinsey’s framework helpful
 The Bryson Model or Strategy Change
Cycle
• John M. Bryson, McKnight, created the Bryson model.
• There are 10 standard steps in the cycle, but Bryson stresses they are not sequential and often
happen simultaneously.
• Initiate and agree on a strategic planning process
• Identify organizational mandates
• Clarify organizational mission and values
• Assess the external and internal environment to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT)
• Identify the issues facing the organization
• Formulate strategies to manage the issues
• Review and adopt the strategies or strategic plan
• Establish an effective organizational vision
• Develop an effective implementation process
• Reassess the strategies and the strategic planning process
• Bryson explains. “We try to let the mission and goals emerge from the conversations rather than
starting there.”
How to Decide Which Strategic Planning
Model or Framework to Use

• There is no right or wrong way to decide which model or framework to use for your strategic
planning process. The key is to figure out which one best applies to your company and its needs
— for example, VRIO can help you create a vision statement, and BSC can help keep plans on
track. Additionally, some methods work well together.
• “The perfect plan is the one that actually gets done,” says Wright. “A poor plan well executed is
worth more than a great plan that never gets off the ground. Most people know what they need
to do; it’s getting the traction and about democratizing the process. Constantly, people
undervalue the role of buy-in with strategic planning. People need to be involved.”
• “The framework you choose would have to deal with the sophistication of your business,” says
Ted Jackson, founder and managing partner of ClearPoint Strategy. He recommends adapting a
model or framework to meet your needs, rather than attempting to stick to hard and fast rules
that might come from a book or a similar source. “I think if you read a book and try to implement
it exactly [as the book outlines it] to your organization, you will fail,” he says.
Below are other criteria to help you decide:

• Check the size of your organization and the resources you can
devote to planning.
• If your organization is in trouble, you might want to focus on a
framework or model that addresses immediate issues rather than
tackles the longer term.
• Look at the health of your organization and its developmental
stage.
• See who is excited about the planning process.
Internal Environmental Analysis/
Organizational Appraisal

• Includes – Resources, Behavior, Strengths, Weaknesses, Synergy, Competencies.

• Identifying the company’s strengths & resource capabilities-
• Skill or important expertise – Strong e-commerce expertise, technical know-how, defect free
manufacturing, low-cost manufacturing capabilities
• Physical assets – Plant and equipment, real estate location, ownership of natural resources,
worldwide distribution network, cutting edge information system,
• Human assets – talented employees, knowledge and intellectual capacity, loyal employees
• Organizational assets – Key Patents, proven quality control systems, loyal customers, strong
balance sheet, credit rating, proprietary technology.
• Intangible asset – brand name, brand image, company reputation, motivated and energized
workforce
• Competitive capabilities – short development times, new product introduction, strong dealer
network, R&D organization, higher trained customer service.
• Market Advantage – Overall low cost , Market share leadership, superior product, strong name
selection.
 Strengths of the organization may include
• Powerful strategy supported value skills and experience.
• Strong financial conditions
• Strong brand name image
• Widely recognized market leader and attractive customer base
• Ability to take advantage of economies of scale
• Superior technology skills and intellectual capital relative to rivals
• Cot advantages
• Strong advertising and promotion
• Product innovation skills
• Skills in improving production processes
• Wide geographical coverage
• Better quality Product
Weaknesses of the organization may include

• No clear strategic direction

• Obsolete facilities
• Weak balance sheet and too many debts
• Higher overall costs
• Internal operating problems
• Missing some skills and competencies
• Falling behind rivals in putting e-commerce capabilities
• Too narrow product line
• Weka dealer network
• Short on financial resources
• Lots of underutilized plat capacity
• Behind on product quality and R&D
• Not able to attract new customer as rapidly as rivals.
Techniques used for Organizational Appraisal

• Classified into three parts

1. Internal Analysis
1. Value chain analysis
2. Quantitative analysis
3. Qualitative analysis
2. Comparative analysis
1. Historical analysis
2. Industry norms
3. Benchmarking
3. Comprehensive analysis
1. Balanced scorecard
2. Key Factor Rating
Value Chain Analysis

• Introduced by Porter in 1985.

• Assess the strengths and weaknesses basing on series of activities.
• It is a set of interlinked value-creating activities performed by an organization.
• Activities starts from procurement of raw material and end at the range of
marketing the end product to the ultimate consumer.
• Value chain – activities divided into
• Primary – Inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, Marketing and sales,
service
• Secondary – Procurement, HRD, Technology development, Infrastructure.
Quantitative analysis

• This method relay on numbers

• Popular techniques for assessing the performance of an
organization
• Dealt in two ways
• Financial – Ratio Analysis, Economic Value added technique (EVA),
Activity Based Cost (ABC).
 II. Comparative Analysis

• Strengths and weaknesses compared with rivals

• Historical analysis – How they related to the situation and comparing one’s own
performance over a period.
• Industry analysis – cost incurring comparing with others in the industry
• Benchmarking – best practice within an outside the industry to which an
organization belong. The purpose is matching one’s own performance with then
and even surpassing them.

1. Process Benchmarking 2.Performance Benchmarking

3. Strategic Benchmarking 4. Internal Benchmarking
5. Competitive Benchmarking 6. Functional Benchmarking
7.Generic Benchmarking
III. Comprehensive analysis

• Key Factor Rating • Operation capability

• Looks for Organizational capability • Production system
profile • Operation and control
• Financial Capability • Personal capability
• Use of Funds • Personal system and Employee
• Management of Funds characteristics
• Marketing Capability • Industrial Relations
• Product Related
• General Management Capability
• Price Related
• General Management System
• Promotion Related
• External Relations
• Integrative and Systematic
• Organization Climate
 Balanced Scorecard

• Useful in Describing, tracking, and managing strategy

• Integrates Financial and Non-financial measures
• Links performance and drivers with outcomes
• Translates the vision and strategy of business unit into objectives and measures
in four areas
• Financial-includes cost, measurement, revenue generation, rate of return, operating income
etc.
• Customer – measures levels of customer satisfaction, customer retention, and market share.
• Internal Business Process- includes cost and quality related issues in the business process
• Learning and Growth-learning curve, employee satisfaction, knowledge management etc.
Competitive Analysis

• competitive analysis is a strategy where you identify major

competitors and research their products, sales, and marketing
strategies. By doing this, you can create solid business strategies
that improve upon your competitor’s.
• A competitive analysis helps you learn the ins and outs of how
your competition works.
• It also helps you identify what they're doing right and opportunities
where you can easily one-up them by using a strategy, they
haven't taken advantage of.
How to do a Competitive Analysis

1.Determine who your competitors are.

2.Determine what products your competitors offer.
3.Research your competitor’s sales tactics and results.
4.Analyze how your competitors market their products.
5.Take note of your competition's content strategy.
6.Analyze the level of engagement on your competitor's content.
7.Observe how they promote marketing content.
8.Look at their social media presence, strategies, and go-to platforms
9.Perform a SWOT Analysis to learn their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats.
1. Determine who your competitors are.

• Divide your “competitors” into two categories: direct and indirect.

• Direct competitors are businesses that offer a product or service that could pass as a similar
substitute for yours, and that operate in your same geographic area.
• an indirect competitor is one that provides products that are not the same but could satisfy the
same customer need or solve the same problem.
• When comparing your brand, you should only focus on your direct competitors.
• Keep these brands on your radar since they could shift positions at any time and cross over into
the direct competitor zone.
• Routinely run a competitor analysis because the market can and will shift at anytime, and if
you're not constantly scoping it out, you won't be aware of these changes until it's too late.
2. Determine what products your competitors
offer.
• analyze your competitor's complete product line and the quality of the
products or services they're offering.
• also take note of their pricing and any discounts they're offering
customers.
• Some questions to consider include:
• Are they a low-cost or high-cost provider?
• Are they working mainly volume sales or one-o purchases?
• What is their market share?
• What are characteristics and needs of their ideal customers?
• Are they using different pricing strategies for online purchases versus brick
and mortar?
• How does the company differentiate itself from its competitors?
3. Research your competitor’s sales tactics and
results.

• track down the answers to questions such as:

• What does the sales process look like?
• What channels are they selling through?
• Do they have multiple locations and how does this give them an advantage?
• Are they expanding? Scaling down?
• Do they have partner reselling programs?
• What are their customers reasons for not buying? For ending their relationship with the
company?
• What are their revenues each year? What about total sales volume?
• Do they regularly discount their products or services?
• How involved is a salesperson in the process?
• be sure to follow up the with prospect to determine why you lost to your
competitor.
4. Analyze how your competitors market their
products.
• Analyzing your competitor's website is the fastest way to gauge their marketing efforts.
• Take note of any of the following items and copy down the specific URL for future reference:
• Do they have a blog?
• Are they creating whitepapers or e-books?
• Do they post videos or webinars?
• Do they have a podcast?
• Are they using static visual content such as infographics and cartoons?
• What about slide decks?
• Do they have a FAQs section?
• Are there featured articles?
• Do you see press releases?
• Do they have a media kit?
• What about case studies?
• Do they publish buying guides and data sheets?
• What online and off-line advertising campaigns are they running?
5. Take note of your competition's content
strategy.

• Do they have several hundred blog posts or a small handful?

• determine the frequency of these content assets.
• Are they publishing something new each week or once a month? How often does a new e-book or case study come
out?
• evaluate the quality of their content.
• When analyzing your competitor's content, consider the following questions:
• How accurate is their content?
• Are spelling or grammar errors present?
• How in-depth does their content go? (Is it introductory level that just scratches the surface or more advanced topics with high-
level ideas?)
• What tone do they use?
• Is the content structured for readability? (Are they using bullet points, bold headings, and numbered lists?)
• Is their content free and available to anyone or do their readers need to opt-in?
• Who is writing their content? (In-house team? One person? Multiple contributors?)
• Is there a visible byline or bio attached to their articles?
6. Analyze the level of engagement on your
competitor's content.

• To gauge how engaging your competitor's content is to their readers, you'll

need to see how their target audience responds to what they're posting.
• Check the average number of comments, shares, and likes on your
competitor's content and find out if:
• Certain topics resonate better than others
• The comments are negative, positive, or a mix
• People are tweeting about specific topics more than others
• Readers respond better to Facebook updates about certain content
• Don't forget to note if your competitor categorizes their content using tags, and if they
have social media follow and share buttons attached to each piece of content. Both of
these will act as engagement activity.
 7. Observe how they promote their marketing
content.

• From engagement, you'll move right along to your competitor's content promotion
strategy.
• Keyword density in the copy itself
• Image ALT text tags
• Use of internal linking
• The following questions can also help you prioritize and focus on what to pay attention
to:
• Which keywords are your competitors focusing on that you still haven't tapped into?
• What content of theirs is highly shared and linked to? How does your content compare?
• Which social media platforms is your target audience using and the most active on?
• What other sites are linking back to your competitor's site, but not yours?
• Who else is sharing what your competitors are publishing?
• Who is referring traffic to your competitor's site?
• For the keywords you want to focus on, what is the diffculty level? There are several free (and
8. Look at their social media presence,
strategies, and go-to platforms

• Look for competitor's social media presence and engagement

rates.
• visit the following sites to see if your competition has an account
on these platforms:
• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest
• Then, take note of the following quantitative items from each
platform:
• Number of fans/followers
• Posting frequency and consistency
• Content engagement (Are users leaving comments or sharing their posts?)
• Content virality (How many shares, repins, and retweets do their posts
9. Perform a SWOT Analysis to learn their
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats

• Some questions to get you started include:

• What is your competitor doing really well with? (Products, content
marketing, social
media, etc.)
• Where does your competitor have the advantage over your brand?
• What is the weakest area for your competitor?
• Where does your brand have the advantage over your competitor?
• What could they do better with?
• In what areas would you consider this competitor as a threat?
• Are there opportunities in the market that your competitor has identified?
Strategy Development Process
Strategy Development Process

• Purpose : Creating short-term and long-term opportunities for

the organization
• The opportunities created should have value.
• Requires top management commitment, leadership and
critical thinking.
 Requirements for strategy development

Source: Dr.JohnPersico/strategy-development-process
Source: https://www.strategy-business.com/media/image/35398124_as.gif
Eight Dimensions of Strategy

Leadership
Culture and Values
Strategic Thinking and Planning
Strategic Alignment
Performance measurement
Performance management
Process Improvement
Sustainability of strategic management
What is strategy Formulation?

• It is the process of developing the strategy through which the

organization chooses the appropriate course of action to
achieve the desired goals.
• Starts from the vision and Mission.
• Always takes into consideration the value system.