Environmental scanning refers to the continuous process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting information from an organization’s internal and external environment.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The process of environmental scanning typically involves the following steps:
- Identify the Scope and Need for Scanning
- Determine Sources of Information
- Acquisition of Information
- Determine Techniques of Scanning
- Assessing and Evaluating Information
- Dissemination of Information
- Organization and Storage of Information
1. Identify the Scope and Need for Scanning
Organizations must first determine why scanning is needed and what areas (internal or external environment) should be analyzed. This helps set clear objectives and boundaries for the scanning process.
2. Determine Sources of Information
After identification of the scope and need for scanning, Organizations identify reliable sources from which information will be collected. These may include newspapers, industry reports, journals, government publications, databases, websites, competitor analysis, and expert opinions.
3. Acquisition of Information
After determination of relevant sources of information, another process of environmental scanning is to observe and acquire needed information. The acquisition of sufficient and relevant information can provide support to the decision makers to choose the appropriate technique for environmental scanning.
4. Determine Techniques of Scanning
The determination of appropriate technique would be supportive for proper assessing and evaluating the information based on organizational requirement. Select appropriate scanning techniques based on the organization’s needs. Common techniques include:
- SWOT Analysis
- PEST/PESTLE Analysis
- Scenario Building
- Competitor Analysis
- Trend Analysis
5. Assessing and Evaluating Information
After acquiring necessary information and determination of appropriate techniques, Analyze the collected information to identify opportunities, threats, patterns, and possible impacts on the organization’s strategies and operations. This helps convert raw data into meaningful insights so that corrective decision can be taken.
6. Dissemination of Information
The major part of environmental scanning is to disseminate the relevant information. The evaluated information is shared with relevant departments, decision-makers, and managers through reports, presentations, dashboards, or briefings so they can make informed decisions.
7. Organization and Storage of Information
The ultimate part of environmental scanning is to organize all the information in systematic way and store such information in safe and secure in proper location. Such information should be preserved in proper databases, knowledge-management systems, or digital repositories in systematic and secured way for future reference.