7+ PESTLE Analysis Templates – PDF
Change. Not many people can adapt to it, even though most would admit they can and will. Who are we fooling? Change is an adjustment, another start to the unknown, forcing us to leave familiarity and comfort and the ease to which we live our lives by the same, often monotonous cycle. You can also like audience analysis templates.
But change, especially in an era where it is everywhere. From the internet to our personal and work lives, it is something we cannot escape, especially when it comes to business. Changes in the business environment, just like any type of change can either create opportunities or cause significant threats, depending on how you deal with them. You can also see fault tree analysis.
Business School PEST Analysis
munich-business-school.deSample PESTLE Analysis
assets.publishing.service.gov.ukUniversity PESTLE Analysis Sample
worcester.ac.ukPESTLE Analysis
PESTLE Analysis is one simple and common and effective tool that can help you analyze the Political Economic, Socio-Cultural, Technological and Environmental changes in the corporate setting, specifically in the current state of your company. By using the tool, you have better chances at understanding the bigger picture regarding elements of change that affects your business and from this, make use of the opportunities that they are able to present. You may also like customer analysis templates.
About the Tool
In his 1967 book, “Scanning the Business Environment,” Harvard professor Francis Aguilar developed a scanning tool he called ETPS which was later improved to create the current acronym as we know it. A PESTEL analysis is an acronym for a strategy which is used in identifying the macro or external factors which an organization faces. You can also like company analysis report templates.
The letters in the acronym stand for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal. Organizations may reduce the acronym to PEST depending on what they find more applicable to their needs. Either that or they can add to some areas, such as international. You may also see behavior analysis templates.
The PESTLE is part of a situational analysis conducted before any kind of strategy takes place in marketing, which is ideally repeated regularly where 6 months is the minimum in order to expose the changes in the macro environment which is fundamental in forming strategies and plans for the business. Organizations that are following the regular monitoring and responding to changes in their external environment are able to rise above the competition thereby creating a competitive leverage.
A PESTEL analysis helps a business identify the macro-environment that could greatly affect their market, its movement, and trend, as well as analyze how such factors can directly affect their business. It is however important when conducting this analysis that the forces affecting the company aren’t only identified but also evaluated. You can also read market segmentation analysis templates.
For instance, what impact could they have on the business/ How would these factors affect sales, profit, etc? The results of a PESTEL analysis would then be very useful in filling opportunities and threats in a SWOT analysis, which brings us to this: A SWOT analysis isn’t a PESTEL analysis, although they often go hand in hand when trying to check an organization’s current position.
Variants developed on the PEST framework also include:
- PESTEL or PESTLE, adding legal and environmental factors which are common in the United Kingdom
- SLEPT, adding legal factors.
- STEPE, which adds ecological factors
- STEEPLE and STEEPLED, for this, you add ethics and demographic factors.
- DESTEP, would add demographic and ecological factors.
- SPELIT, adding legal and intercultural factors. This has been popularly used in the United States since the mid-2000s
Pestel Analysis of Tourism Destination
cipd.co.ukFour keys of importance of a PESTLE Analysis:
- It helps you identify personal and career or business opportunities. It also gives you early warning bells for threats
- It exposes the direction to which your business situation is changing which means you have better chances shaping what you’re doing and your decision-making is properly guided, making you work and adapt to change rather than against it. You can also like research analysis samples.
- It helps you avoid embarking on ventures that are likely to fail for reasons you can’t control.
- It can free you from unhealthy and wrong assumptions when visiting a foreign country, region or when trying to enter a new market since it helps to develop a healthy perspective of this new environment. You may also like sample customer analysis templates.
Just to reiterate, PEST analysis has often been associated with SWOT analysis as it should but not in the way most businessmen do. The two tools have different areas of focus. PEST analysis is conducted to look at the business situation from a bigger picture and the factors considered to have greater influence in decision-making processes, a market or a new project. Professional SWOT analysis, on the other hand, explores those factors at the base and product level although these tools are better used together in creating more effective strategies from an analysis built on a stronger foundation.
Factors for Consideration:
1. Political
These are factors that determine the extent to which the government, the administration, and its policies may affect an organization or a certain industry. Political factors would include foreign, trade and political stability as well as fiscal and taxation. The current situation in politics impacts markets and it would impact your business too. You can also like SWOT analysis templates.
Here are the questions you can ask when considering these factors:
- When is the country’s next local, state or national elections? How would this affect regional, state or governmental policy? You can also like financial analysis samples.
- Who are the strong contenders for office? You have to know what their views are on business and trade policies as well as other policies that could affect your company. You can also like product analysis reports.
- How strong are the property rights and rule of law, and to what extent does corruption and organized crime occur? How do these situations affect your organization? You may also see process analysis templates.
2. Economic
These are the factors affecting the economy and at the global and national stage, could, in turn, have a direct effect on the business and its profitability. Under economic factors you have to think of interest rates, unemployment, and employment rates and even inflation rates, cost of raw materials and foreign exchange rates. You can also like trend analysis templates.
- How stable is the current economy performing? Is it growing, declining or stagnant?
- How does the current employment rate look like? What are the chances of building a skilled workforce for the long-term?
- Is there a rise or a decline in the average consumer’s level of disposable income?
- What about a key foreign exchange? Is the movement stable or does it vary significantly?
- How is globalization affecting the economic environment?
PESTLE Analysis Example
assets.publishing.service.gov.ukPESTLE Analysis Example
databio.eu3. Socio-Cultural
This is where you need to set focus on the social environment and learn about emerging trends. These factors help a marketer to better understand the needs of their customers as well as wants. Under these factors, you should count changes in family demographics, educational attainment, cultural trends, changes in attitude and lifestyle changes. You can also like gap analysis templates.
Here are some of the questions you should ask:
- What is the current growth rate in population and age profile?
- Are there generation changes in attitudes?
- What are your society’s education, health, and social mobility’s level? Are these likely to change and how does this affect your business?
- What trends in the hiring market and behavior towards work can you observe? Do they differ by age group or are they common, regardless of age?
- What are the social and cultural taboos that may affect your company?
4. Technological
Under these factors, the rate at which technology changes and develops should be a very important consideration since it could highly affect a specific market or sector. You should especially take into account changes in digital technology and communication which could affect marketing efforts and as well as the latest model of distribution and logistics. You may also see situation analysis templates.
5. Environmental
These are the factors related to your surroundings and the impact of the environmental aspects of your business. With the growing concerns about climate change, preserving of resources and the focus given to Corporate Sustainability Responsibility, environmental factors are becoming more important. The business should, therefore, consider recycling policies and conservation procedures, waste disposal, and of course, sustainability. You can also like data analysis templates.
6. Legal
A business must have a good understanding of the legalities and what’s allowed in their areas of operations. You also have to be constantly updated and aware of any legislation and regulations changes that may affect your business operations one way or the other. Factors would include employment legislation, labor laws, consumer law, safety, risk management, local, state, international and trade regulations and restrictions.
To some extent, political factors can be related to legal factors but the key difference is that political factors are driven by government policy whereas legal factors are those an organization needs to comply with. You can also like functional behavioral analysis samples.
Pestle SWOT Analysis Sample
demantec.euSWOT and PESTEL Production Analysis
unicef.orgAfter identifying changes that are happening in your business environment, take a good look at each change and gather your team to brainstorm opportunities that such changes could offer for the business. For instance, do some of the changes help you with a new product idea or establish better and more efficient processes? Likewise, it’s also important to consider the changes that can negatively impact your business and undermine its goals for growth.
If you get this early on, you will be more than likely prepared to avoid them or reduce their impact on your business. The next step after identifying opportunities and threats would be building on the opportunities to exploit them on a plan of action to further help your business become more successful.
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