TRENDS, NETWORKS,

AND CRITICAL
THINKING IN THE 21ST
CENTURY

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 In this module, we will define and discuss strategic analysis and intuitive
thinking. We will expound on the different key components in strategic analysis and
intuitive thinking.

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS

According to BNET Business Dictionary the process of conducting research

on the business environment within which an organization operates and, on the
organization, operates and on the organization itself, in order to formulate strategy.

According to Les Worrel (1998), it is a theoretically informed understanding

of the environment in which an organization is operating, together with an
understanding of the organization’s interaction with its environment in order to

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improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness by increasing the organization’s
capacity to deploy its resources intelligently.

Strategic analysis is a process that involves researching an organization’s

business environment within which it operates. Strategic analysis is essential to
formulate strategic planning for decision making and smooth working of that
organization. With the help of strategic planning, the objective or goals that are set
by the organization can be fulfilled.

In a constant strive to improve, organizations must periodically conduct a

strategic analysis which will, in turn, help them determine what areas need
improvement and areas that are already doing well. For an organization to function
efficiently, it is important to think about how positive changes need to be
implemented.

Strategic analysis is essential if a company has a goal and a mission for

themselves. All leading organization who are well known for their achievements
have years of strategic planning being implemented at various stages. Strategic
planning is a long-term task involving continuous and systematic planning and
resource investment. The main question that a company should consider when
performing a strategic analysis is: How is the market constituted? How are the
active clients in this sector? While conducting strategic analysis, organizations must
know their competitors and thus be able to define a strategy that will help them an
unbeatable player in that market. One of the most important functions of strategic
planning is to predict future events and deduce alternative strategies if a certain
plan doesn’t work out as expected.

Types of Strategic Analysis

1. Internal strategic analysis: As the name suggests, through this analysis

organizations look inwards or within the organization and identify the positive and
negative points, and establish the set of resources that can be used to improve the
company’s image within the market. Internal analysis starts from evaluating the
performance of the organization. This includes evaluating the potential of an
organization and its capacity to grow.

The analysis of the strengths of the company should be oriented to the market,
focusing on the client. The strengths only make sense when they helpthe company
to fulfil client’s needs. When doing an internal strategic analysis one should also
know the weaknesses and limitations that a company faces existentially or in the
future.

SW OT analysis is one of the most

reputed techniques for internal strategic
STRENGTHS W EAKNESSES analysis. There is no better way to benefit
from a strategically performed analysis
than to use it to detect the strengths,
SWOT
opportunities, weaknesses, and threats
that your project may suffer.
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS Performing SWOT analysis will help you
create a strong and long term vision
through strategic planning for your

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organization. The important thing is to constantly evaluate the environment in
which the company operates, and act accordingly. It is essential for an organization
to take into account the SWOT principle in order to be able to plan efficiently.
Through a thorough SWOT analysis companies will be able to prevent a number of
problems that can arise if there is no systematic analysis.

Let us further break down these attributes and understand how an

organization can conduct a complete strategic analysis to be able to plan and
perform better with each passing year.

1. Strengths of a company: There are several attributes within the

company that are positive, that you can control in order to obtain better
results, they are your strengths, which makes you stand out from others.
Surely there are certain resources or strategies that have led to your
organization’s process year on year. Knowing these resources or strategies
are also considered as strengths. Knowing this type of information is very
important because these are the elements that give you an advantage over
your competition.

2. Business weakness: It is practically impossible for an organization or a

company to have only strengths and not have weaknesses. Therefore, there
are certain characteristics of an organization that they need to be improved
in order to be able to perform better and compete in the market. These are
called business weaknesses. Most of the factors are foreseeable and an
organization needs to identify them well in advance and approach the
problems with a corrective measure.

3. Threats to an organization: There are going to negative factors that will

affect the growth of the organization and these factors can be analyzed too.
These factors need to detected and a risk management strategy needs to be
put in place so that threats like stronger brand value of the competitors,
better relationship of competitors with retailers etc. don’t have an adverse
effect on the company’s growth. Also, threats like multiple players in the
market with the same products, downturn in economy, better advertising of
the same product by competitors are some threats that have to be dealt with
carefully so that competitors don’t take advantage of the situation.

4. Opportunities for the company: Detect the opportunities you have to

grow. Knowing the path organizations must follow is a great step towards
success. Take advantage of all those external factors that are positive for the
organization. Identify all the opportunities and take advantage of them.

2. External strategic analysis: Once the organization has successfully completed

its internal analysis, the organization needs to know about external factors that can
be a hindrance in their growth. To do so, they need to know how the market
functions and how consumers react or behave to certain products or services.
Measuring customer satisfaction is a common external analysis method. PESTLE
analysis is one of the most widely used external analysis techniques. The process
one is most likely to adopt when using a PESTLE technique is relatively a simple
one.

PESTLE analysis (Political, Economic, Social, Legal and Environmental)

describes a framework of macro-environmental factors used in the environmental
scanning component of external strategic analysis. The model has been extended by
adding Ethics and Demographic factors. It is a part of the external analysis when
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conducting a strategic analysis or doing market research and gives an overview of

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the different macroenvironmental factors that the organization has to take into
consideration. By using PESTLE analysis one can:

1. Find out the key issues beyond the organization’s control, like changes in
political scenario changing rules that can be implemented at any point in
time.
2. Identify the impact of each issue.
3. See how important these issues are to the organization.
4. Rate the likelihood of its occurrence.
5. Briefly consider the implications if the issue did occur.

Political Factors - it always advisable to keep abreast of potential policy changes

in any government because even where the political situation is relatively stable
there may be changes in policy at the highest level and these can have serious
implication.

This may result in changes in government priorities, which in turn can result
in new initiatives being introduce as well as changes to trade regulations or
taxations. These can include changes in
 Employment laws
 Consumer protection laws
 Environmental regulations
 Taxation regulations
 Trade restrictions or reforms
 Health and safety requirements.

Political factors include government attitudes to employment, consumer

protection, the environment, taxation, trade restrictions, and societal reforms, as
well as the burden of bureaucracy and the level of corruption.

Economic Factors – these issues include: assessing potential changes to an

economy’s inflation rate, taxes, interest rates, trading regulations, and exercise
duties.

In terms of your operational efficiency you would also need to consider such
factor as unemployment, skills levels, availability of expertise, wage patterns,
working practices, and labor cost trends. When trying to determine the economic
viability of a market as well as the availability of credit or finance.

Organizations seek to create strategies that can be modified to fit changes in

the economic situation and on particular the financial aspects of the macro-
economic situation. This would include such things as the impact of globalization,
taxation issues, and potential implications of profitability, as well as any trade
tariffs or embargoes.

Official economic indicators, most of which are available online, such as GDP
(Gross Domestic Product), GNP (Gross National Product), and consumer-based
indices often highlight areas where more detailed information in required. In you
PESTLE analysis such indicators would be highlighted so that further investigation
would take place before a conclusion could be drawn.

Social Factors – that need to be considered are those that have an impact on your
market. These include:
 Age distribution
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 Population growth rate

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  Employment levels
 Income statistics
 Education and career trends
 Religious beliefs
 Cultural and social conventions.

You should also consider attitudes towards things like health, career, and
environmental issues. Social factors and cross-cultural communication play a
critical role in intentional and global markets, and your success will depend on the
depth of your research in this area. Getting this wrong is costly and may not come
to light until considerable investment has been made by your organization. It can
become an issue in managing the local labor force as well as promotional issues.

Technological Factors – This element has become a key factor for organizations in
in assessing and listing issues that could have a potential impact on its operations
and that could be critical to its long-term future. The pace of change that impact
your market come from unexpected sources.

Technological factors can broadly divided into two areas: manufacture and
infrastructure. By exploiting opportunities to update or alter their production
an organization can gain market share, thereby attaining a strong competitive
advantage. Such activities include:
 Automation
 Improved quality of parts and end product
 Incentives
 Significant cost saving
 Use of outsourcing to control costs and offer greater flexibility

The impact of technology on the individual has led to legislation being

introduced which aims to protect your privacy and ensure organizations have to
gain your permission before emailing or contacting you. Organizations need to give
careful thought to the type and nature of potential legislation that governments
could introduce to curb what is often seen as the invasive side of the rapid growth
of technology.

Legal Factors – The list of legal factors that should be considered includes current
and impending legislation that may affect the industry in areas such as
employment, competition, and health and safety. Anticipated changes in legislation
in the main trading partner countries should also be investigated.

Recent years have seen a significant rise in the number of regulatory bodies
that have been set up to monitor organizations’ observance of legislation to all
areas of operation, including consumer protection, employee welfare, waste
disposal, and how their earnings and investments will be taxed. The re are also the
trading restrictions, quotas, and excise duties to consider.

All these factors affect the ways in which an organization function and have
cost implications that need to be taken into account when formulating business
strategy. For example: Insurance and banking organizations have to demonstrate
their legal compliance to the regulatory body, which has implications for how they
operate.

Your PESTLE Analysis should consider the impact of your own national laws
as well as those originating in other countries that could have implications for you,

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for example global accounting regulations, safety compliance, etc. this analysis
needs to include those laws affecting working relationships with other
organizations that form part of your overall operations.

Many regulations are applied at a regional as well as a national level and

create another layer of complexity that you must consider when developing your
strategy. It is these types of influences that can be a significant impact on the ease of
operations and require detailed investigation before any decision is made.

Environmental Factors – The issues surrounding environmental protection have

become increasingly important in recent years as the implications of under-regulated
economic activity are seen today. This has become more significant with
globalization as the impact of an organization’s action may be felt outside of its
native country and may incur unquantifiable financial penalties.

Other environmental factors are those that relate weathe r, climate, and
geographical location.

As with the other PESTLE factors you would look at how the potential
changes to weather patterns, climate cycles, and also the pandemic that we
experience nowadays the covid-19 have implications for your organization’s
operations.

This ecological and environmental aspects can have consequences that are
felt both on an economic and a social level.
Source: ISBN 978-1-62620-998-6©www.free-management-ebooks.com

Strengths of Strategic Analysis

1. Strategic analysis allows you to have clarity of the internal positive attributes of
the organization that are under control. By knowing these positive attributes an
organization can focus on the factors that lead to positive performance and can
replicate the strategy wherever applicable.
2. It helps identify strength of both internal as well as external resources, such that
it leads to an increasing competitive advantage.
3. It offers you the internal components that add value or offer a competitive
advantage to your business. When you have a reasonable competitive advantage
over you competitors half the game plan is clear. The only aspect that would
need clarity is what is not going the company’s way.

W eaknesses of Strategic Analysis

1. Strategic analysis can generate too many ideas, but doesn’t help to choose which
one is the best.
2. Sometimes too much time is spent on existential problem solving, such that
there is little, or no time left for innovating new products or making service level
changes at the organizational level.

Greg Githens defined strategic thinking as the individual’s capacity for

thinking conceptually, imaginatively, systematically, and opportunistically with
regard to the attainment of success in the future.

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 He continued by saying that strategic thinking e mploy’s mental process that
are conceptual (abstraction using analogy to translate across context), systematic
(composed of different components, with interfaces that interact to produce
intended or emerged behaviors, patterns finding and connecting situation that are
not obviously related), imaginative (creative and visual), and opportunistic
(searching for and grasping new information and value propositions). The strategic
thinker applies of these cognitive processes in the orientation toward future
succe ss.

Strategic thinking is defined as a mental or thinking process applied by an

individual in the context of achieving a goal or set of goals in a game or other
endeavor. As a cognitive activity, it produces thought.

Strategic analysis refers to the process of conducting research on a

company and its operating environment to formulate a strategy. The definition of
strategic analysis may differ from an academic or business perspective, but the
process involves several common factors:

1. Identifying and evaluating data relevant to the company’s strategy

2. Defining the internal and external environments to be analyzed
3. Using several analytic methods such as Porter’s five forces analysis, SWOT
analysis, and value chain analysis

INTUITIVE THINKING

In Psychology perspective, intuitive thinking is a process that gives us the

ability to know something directly without analytic reasoning, bridging the gap
between the conscious and no conscious parts of our mind, and also between
instinct and reason.

Intuitive Thinking is “quick and ready insight” (Webster’s New Collegiate

Dictionary). Intuitive decision-making is far more than using common sense
because it involves additional sensors to perceive and get aware of the
information from

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outside. Sometimes, it is referred to as gut feeling, sixth sense, inner sense, instinct,
inner voice, spiritual guide, etc.

The following are some well-known people of intuition (Timeforchange.org):

1. Albert Einstein (Theoretical physical who is widely considered one of the

greatest physicist of all time; best known for the theory of relatively, Nobel
Prize in Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect and “for his
services to the Theoretical Physics):

«The only real valuable thing is intuition.»

«There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is

only the way of intuition, which is helped by feeling for the order lying
behind the appearance.»

2. John Naisbitt (Former executive of IBM or Eastman Kodak; American writer

in the area of futures studies; author of several international best sellers like
Megatrends and Reinventing the Corporation):

«Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society

precisely because there is so much data.»

3. Alexis Carrel (French surgeon, biologist, and eugenicist; Nobel Prize in

Physiology or Medicine):

«All great men are gifted with intuition. They know without reasoning or
analysis what they need to know.»

«Intuition comes very close to clairvoyance; it appears to be extrasensory

perception of reality.»

4. Henry Reed (British poet):

«Intuition is the very force or activity of the soul in its experience through
whatever has been the experience of the soul itself.» «It is as if the intuitive
sense acting through the soul in its what makes the raw event into food for
the soul.»

5. Immanuel Kant (German philosopher):

«Intuition and concepts constitute… the elements of all knowledge, so that

neither concepts without an intuition in some way corresponding to them,
nor intuition without concepts, can yield knowledge.»

6. George Crumb (American composer of modern and avant garde music):

«In general, I feel that the more rationalistic approaches to pitch-

organization, including specifically serial technique, have given way, larger,
to a more intuitive approach.»

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 7. Robert Graves (English poet, scholar, and novelist):

«Intuition is the supra-logic that cuts out all the routine process of the thought
and leaps straight from the problem to the answer.»

8. Lao Tzu (ancient Chinese philosopher):

«The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end
of your days.»

9. Anne W ilson Schaef (writer and lecture):

«Trusting our intuition often saves us from disaster.»

The question is not whether rational or intuitive decision-making is

generally better. The question is rather how both approaches can be best combined
for best results and to avoid mistake and prejudices.

Analysis versus Intuition

Analytical Thinking is powerful. It is focused, sharp, and linear, deals with
one thing at a time, contains time, is destructive, contains no perspective, is subject
to disorientation, is brain centered, and trends to the abstract. Analytical thinking is
efficient in the following conditions – sufficient time, relatively static conditions, a
clear differentiation between the observer and the observed. It is best suited for
dealing with complexities, and works best where there are established criteria for
the analysis (for example, rules of law). It is necessary when an explanation is
required, seeks the best option, and can be taught in the classroom to
beginners.

ANALYTICAL INTUITIVE

Time No time
Static Dynamic
Linear Non-linear
One thing Many things
Small picture Big picture
Focused Non-focused
Deliberative Instantaneous
No perspective Perspective
Classroom taught Experience taught
Objective Subjective
Best option Workable option
Needed when explanation required Needed when action required
Deconstructive Constructive
Object differentiation Pattern matching
Objective/subjective differentiation No clear objective/subjective
Brain centered Heart centered
Disoriented Oriented
Abstract Concrete
Historically new Historically old
Lawyers Firefighters

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 Things Highly Intuitive People Do Differently:

1. They listen to that inner voice.

2. They take time for solitude.
3. They create.
4. They practice mindfulness.
5. They observe everything
6. They listen to their bodies.
7. They connect deeply with others.
8. They pay attention to their dreams.
9. They enjoy plenty of down time.
10. They mindfully let go of negative emotions.

Directions: What will you do in the following circumstances? Use your intuitive
thinking in answering. Write your answer in the space provided.
1. During natural disaster (flash floods or strong typhoon)

2. Fire in a certain place

3. Arrival of unexpected visitors

4. Surprise class recitation

5. Wallet is suddenly lost

6. Coming home very late at night

7. Coming to class unprepared

8. Meeting a very popular person

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9. Helping a helpless individual

10. Getting lost

Direction: Give the definition of these terms by giving your real life situation as an
examples.
1. Intuitive Thinking -

2. Strategic Thinking -

3. Analytical Thinking -

4. Intuition -

5. Strategic Analysis -

Activity 1:

Directions: Make a sample of SWOT analysis using the following information.

Target: Improve your academic performance this coming school year.
Outcome: Achieve the general weighted average of 85%

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 Strength W eakness

Opportunities Threats

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Directions: List down the things you do every day which you think are a result of
intuitive thinking or rational thinking.

Intuitive Thinking Rational Thinking

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.

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