3 Discussion questions External Environmental Scanning

This weeks opening case illustrates how both Coca-Cola and Pepsico can use information from the general environment to develop plans for the future. Rivalry between these two companies is intense and it plays out on a global stage. However, these companies have not followed identical paths. Pepsico is more diversified than Coca-Cola due to its presence in the snack food industry (Frito Lay). Coca-Cola has focused more on beverages, including juice and juice products, where it is the largest producer in the world. Changing environmental conditions are driving both companies’ evolution in terms of businesses they are competing in, products/services they are developing, and how they structure their value chains to achieve competitive advantage. Taken together, one can see that assessing the influence of factors in the general environment is important for planning for future success.

 The opening case lays out how Coca-Cola and Pepsico use information from the general environment to make strategic decisions.

Hitt, M.A., Ireland, R.D., & Hoskisson, R.E. (2015). Strategic management: Competitiveness & globalization (11th ed). Stamford, CT: Cengage.

1. How does the environment impact both corporate-level strategy and business-level strategy?

Good afternoon Angie,

Excellent post and great information. Businesses are continually faced with all different types of environment challenges, from internal and external, to that of global, and domestic and each of these make it that much more difficult for businesses to stay on track when it comes to strategic planning. Working as a project manager, one of the elements that has helped me with both my projects themselves and the departments that I work with/for is to try to predict these changes as much as possible; while challenging, it does pay off in the end. Even if the prediction and counter is not 100% correct or does not completely sole the issues right away, having some up front knowledge or plan in place of the changes tends to help. This is were I feel that environmental scans should take place, within the business, as frequently as possible. I understand that this can be costly to businesses, but once and area is determined as a continual shifting area or something that is a targeted weak-spot, it should be scanned as frequently as possible.

2.Thoughts?

Good afternoon Class,

For the company that I currently work for, we see several external environmental factors that play major roles and effect the way that the strategic planning process tasks place. External factors on businesses often include six main types: political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal. Because the company that I work for is a major communications DoD company, we are generally faced with one, or more, of these issues on a daily bases. For the most part, technology, political changes, and economics have the most influence on our internal strategic planning in that the business needs to be able to quickly adapt and overcome these significant changes in the shortest amount of time. Each of these elements can directly change our manufacturing, shipping, and overall product development in a matter of minutes. While it is often recommend that businesses complete environmental scans semi-annual or annual, our business tends to focus on completing environmental scans quarterly if not more frequently based off of more currently events and other external factors that are taking place on the global market.

Jessee, T. (2019, February 05). How To Identify External Factors That May Affect Your Strategic Plan. Retrieved June 25, 2019, from https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/external-factors-that-affect-a-business/

3. Thoughts