Environmental Scanning For Strategy Formulation

The management science perspective replying on systems approach does view organizations as multidimensional and multi-functional entities. But the flaw with structural-functional analysis is that it is essentially an historical study overemphasizing the appearances at the cost the realities. The quantitative information collected about the internal functioning as well as environment indicates only symptoms or trends. In the name of scanning, managers are apt to underplay the information which could yield deeper understanding of the causation of the present reality. The economics, politics and societies develop historically in zigzag patterns rather than following a linear or even a curvilinear path. These could be examined if a historical perspective aimed at outlining laws of societal evolutions was followed.

In social norms have come to the present stage or state intervention has increased to the extent that is visible in various economies, it is not so sudden or unexpected a development. Futurology which should be treated as the mother science of environmental analysis for strategic management has a historical underpinning. But any exercise in plotting future only through Delphi exercises or time series analysis of quantitative data shall be inadequate. Any business in order to success has to anticipate future challenges, be these of competitive threats or demand constraints. Strategy formulation or the outlining of “the pattern of major objectives purpose or goals and essential policies and plants for achieving those goals stated in such a way as to define what business the company is in or is to be in and the kind of economy it is or it is to be”, is partly an exercise in visualizing future. It requires a historical perspective not only on the internal developments of the company but the environmental factors too. In fact, strategy aims at building a linkage with the external environment and the means of preserving it despite future developments which are outside the control of the management. The survival or growth of business depends upon a coherent, consistent and explicit understanding of its strategy.

In order to make a strategy work in a business, the environmental scanning activity has to be carried out an ongoing basis. The scanning activity has to be carried out an ongoing basis. The scanning activity has to be carried out an ongoing basis. The scanning activity in order to be meaning has to percolate the understanding of the environment to all levels of management. The information about the environment is by its very nature not a amenable to quantification. It is overwhelmingly by unstructured or semi-structured but has to be future oriented in nature. The relevance of information has to be judged in consultations with outside professionals and the external information needs have to work. Since most of the business organizations in India are not able to maintain their own information systems for environmental scanning, they have to rely on secondary sources of environment. That is why the present work on environmental analysis is being taken up.