Environmental Analysis - Monitoring All of the External Variables That Have an Impact on a Particular Industry

Environmental analysis- monitoring all of the external variables that have an impact on a particular industry.

• Political Forces- laws, regulations, & regulatory agencies

• Social Forces- changing demographics, shifting cultural trends, population characteristics

• Economic Forces- growth, employment/unemployment & inflation

• Technological Forces- products created by technology, product improvements

• Semi-controllable Forces- local community, suppliers, share holders

Components of distribution

• Intensive- selling the product in every available location

• Selective- placing products in outlets that are believed to be profitable/project a certain image

• Exclusive- restricts the availability of the product to a highly select group of outlets

o Transportation, Warehousing, inventory control, Billing & payment

Product analysis

Durable Goods- products lasting more than 1 year

• Renewable- created from sources that can regenerate

• Nonrenewable- taken from Earth & cannot be replaced (mining)

• Finished goods- (copy machines for businesses & appliances for consumers)

Nondurable-shorter use

• Convenience items

• Shopping goods

• Specialty products

Management functions

Planning- outlines a course of action for the future. Planning is complete when goals and standards are established

Organizing- combines people & resources to make goods and services

• Job design, departmentation, drawing lines of authority

Staffing- attaining & preparing quality employees

Directing (actuating)- seeking to achieve the highest level of performance

Control- comparing performance to standards, making corrections when needed, and rewarding success.

Competitive analysis (pg 31)

• Begins with identifying