PESTEL Analysis

July 30, 2011 1 Comment

PESTEL model is useful for leaders and managers to analyze the microeconomics of business environment they are working in or attempting to enter in the future. Strategist use PESTEL model to find the macro-environmental factors that can or will affect their strategy implementations and the organizational performance. PESTEL model include six environmental influencers, which are Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal. These influencers may look independent but they are related to each other in different ways. Change in the political situation may change the economical and the environmental regulations. The environmental standards may be relaxed which make the organizational investments unjustified, on the contrast, the environmental regulations may become more stringent which may need more investment in an approved project.

Political factors: governmental instability make the intended market undesirable because new government may revoke contracts or change social policies (Evans & Richardson, 2007). The unexpected changes may consume the intended profit margin. Tax policies and trade regulations, like NAFTA, are equally important political factors.

Economic factors include unemployment rate, buyers disposable income, and credit accessibility (Carpenter & Sanders, 2009). These three factors affect the individuals buying power. Strategist need to look at these factors along with interest rate and inflation before offering their products and services in the intended market.

Social Factors are lifestyles, educational levels, wealth distribution, and population demographics (Evans & Richardson, 2007). A product or service may be successful in a country or part of the country because of the lifestyle of that area but could be unsuccessful in another. Trendy cafes may be successful with the young population but gourmet coffee shops are more desirable for the older population.

Technological factors like innovations and discoveries can affect the pace of technological obsolescence (Carpenter & Sanders, 2009). The introduction of iPod in the market signaled the obsolescence of the Sony Walkman. The same situation can be noticed with the DVD use over VHS tapes and now the online rent services made the DVD lose market share fast. Digital and audio books affected the printed books heavily. Boarders, the bookshop chain, just announce its troubled operations and its intention to close more stores.

Environmental factors are increasing and becoming more stringent every year. Waste disposal, energy conservation, and protections laws are the most important factors but not all. Environmental laws keep on increasing the limits after the noticed global environmental changes. Managers and business leaders need to plan for more changes in the protection laws because of the constant demand from the environmental groups and the international environmental organizations.

Legal factors are changing constantly depending on the market needs, or government political views (Carpenter & Sanders, 2009; Evans & Richardson, 2007). Change in the employment regulations like minimum wage, discrimination laws, and health and safety regulations can affect the operational cost.

Managers and business leaders should expect the risk of the changes in the above factors. Well planned and risk managed strategy can decrease the cost and maybe signal good opportunities in the future.

References:

Carpenter, M. A., & Sanders, W. G. (2009). Strategic management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Evans, C., & Richardson, M. (2007). Assessing the environment. Manager: British Journal of Administrative Management(60), i-iii.

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Technical Position Training

July 21, 2011 Leave a Comment

Technical employees need intensive technical training but also need managerial and leadership training to advance in their jobs. Some organizations start the administrative and managerial training too late which make the technical employees struggle in approving and implementing their ideas.


Technical Position Training Model

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What Is Right For The Business?

February 14, 2011 Leave a Comment

Many employees work very hard to perform their  daily tasks, but they make mistakes and got blamed for it. The first reaction from their superiors is to look for the obvious mistakes and shortfalls in following the plans, procedure or regulations. Catching the obvious mistake is easy but will only solve the problem momentarily. Eliminating the cause of the problem is very difficult. Sometimes, the organization needs to change the procedures, review their assumptions or even ask themselves if they need the workers to perform that task at all. The following discussion and examples will show how mistakes and errors can take place and how we can we eliminate these mistakes immediately and permanently. Long term solutions needs time, effort and big budget, but eliminating a reoccurring problem will worth the cost, effort and time spent. Read More …

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Survey or Questionnaire?

January 23, 2011 3 Comments

Birthday cake
Image by Sami Malallah via Flickr

I was asked by one of the blog readers about the difference between surveys and questionnaire. We can easily get confused because they are doing almost the same thing. Surveys are more popular because most of the researchers use them to collect information from large population. But surveys need statistical calculations to analyse and interpret. Surveys are mostly used for quantitative researches. The surveys are usual printed on few pages and distributed in classrooms, shopping centers or social gatherings. Recently, most of the surveys are conducted online thought free survey services like Zoomerang or SurveyMonky who can collect and analyse the data for competitive prices.  Questionnaires are used for qualitative researches and usually conducted in a face-to-face setting.

Survey is a set of questions prepared with answers to choose from. For example the question can be “what is your favorite sweet after a good meal?” the answer can be: 1) cheese cake 2) chocolate cake 3) fruit salad 4) fresh apple. The survey participant will choose one answer. Questionnaires are set of questions to ask open-ended questions to get the participants perception or experience on the studied subject. Question can be “What do you like to eat after you main meal when you dine in a restaurant?”

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Take A Note

December 14, 2010 6 Comments

Listen to this postWe have many wonderful ideas that cross our minds but we forget them after a while. Som experts estimated that every person would have thought of four new ideas that can make him or her a millionaire every year. But we do not record the ideas or elaborate on them. One simple tool can help work on these ides. The tool is a simple a notebook and a pen or pencil. You can use your phone or PDA as a notebook if you are a tech savvy. Record the idea in the note taking device and let it there for some time. Check you notebook from time to time and think about what you have written it, and start wondering “is this is a good idea?” should I develop it any further? Do not delete the note if you do not think it has any value now. Just keep it there in the notebook it guarantee that it will not harm you. You brain will be working on the idea subconsciously without you knowing about it. After some time the idea will be more detailed and organized to form a concept that fits in a useful context. So, keep a noting device near you always and write your thought whenever possible, who knows you might be a millionaire very soon!

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Does Your Goals Match Your Organization’s Goals?

August 8, 2010 3 Comments

Listen to this postMany employees work very hard to achieve their personal goals thinking that these goals would help them to excel in the their careers. Sometimes, personal and career goals are a perfect match because the individual had planned it that way. We all have needs and wants that appeal to us. We would like to achieve them but they do not help us to climb that steep professional ladder to reach the desired promotion or salary increase. Reading the following pages would help identifying your personal strength and weakness and guiding in converting the weakness to a strength to reach your challenging goals. The last page would help the reader to compare his or her personal goals with their organizational goals. The reader is asked to match his or her goals with the career goals and try to aim for a common goal that develop him or her and to achieve the organization’s objectives.

Many employees work very hard to meet their personal goals thinking that these goals would help them to excel in the their careers. Sometimes,personal and career goals are a perfect match because the person had planned it that way. We all have needs and wants that appeal to us. We would like to achieve them but they do not help us to climb that steep professional ladder to reach the desired promotion or salary increase. Reading the attached pages (by clicking here) would help identifying your personal strength and weakness and guiding converting the weakness to a strength to reach your challenging goals.


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How to set your personal goals?

July 25, 2010 7 Comments

Listen to this postPersonal GoalsMany of us had assembled a toy or a piece of furniture before. You probably did the assembly with the help of the instruction sheet or a drawing which was folded inside the box. Researchers found that many people spend long time to plan their vacation and take care of the little details to enjoy every hour of their vacation time. The same people
would not spend half of that time to plan their lives. Planning our life and careers would start by identifying our short-term and long-term goals. We should articulate the goal and then set a plan to achieve them. We need to select the achievable and realistic goals to improve our life. You will be able to set your personal goals and write a plan to achieve by simply reading the following text and follow the simple guidelines.

Many of us had assembled a toy or a piece of furniture before. You probably did the assembly with the help of the instruction sheet or a drawing which was folded inside the box. Researchers found that many people spend long time to plan their vacation and take care of the little details to enjoy every hour of their vacation time. The same people would not spend half of that time to plan their lives. Planning our life and careers would start by identifying our short-term and long-term goals. We should articulate the goal and then set a plan to achieve them. We need to select the achievable and realistic goals to improve our life. You will be able to set your personal goals and write a plan to achieve by simply clicking on and reading the following PDF file the simple guidelines. Please click on “How to set your personal goals” to download the file.


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Forming And Growing A Team

July 10, 2010 4 Comments

I was asked to give a one hour presentation for non-profit society, but the suggested time for the presentation was conflicting with my schedule. So I went for the next best thing which was video recording the lecture and then presenting it for the audience at their convenience. The lecture language was Arabic as requested by the audience. The video give brief history of team formation as introduction then describe the “forming, storming, norming and performing” steps of the team life cycle. The video is 22 minutes long and I assure you that it will not be boring.  Enjoy!

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Is Marketing Ethical?

May 4, 2010 2 Comments

Listen to this postI think the biggest ethical challenge for marketers would be the fact of capturing the customer’s attention while being ethical. This is a big marketing challenge that most marketers avoid taking. Marketing a product required presenting the benefits and the advantages of the product but sometimes exaggerating these benefits. The customer would equate the products benefits and advantages with the amount of money paid for buying it. Another ethical challenge in marketing and advertisement would be transparency in telling the customers the side effect of the products. The marketers either neglect or fine print the side effect of their products. Sometimes the harmful effect of the products are displayed on the product, such as the cigarettes,  but the marketing campaign is so strong that the customer would go ahead and use the product anyway. Sundaram & Mitra (2007) found that cigarette manufacturers are advertizing in magazines and internet sites with considerable number of young reader. The advertisement in these locations use young models and display smoking as fun activity to attract large segment of the population.

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References:

Sundaram, D. S., & Mitra, K. (2007). Ethical evaluation of marketing practices in tobacco industry. [Article].International Journal of Business Research, 7(2), 194-204.

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At What Age We Can Work?

May 2, 2010 3 Comments

Listen to this postChildren under the age of 16 should not work, rather, they should be at school learning to be a better and effective community members. The sad fact is that children cannot afford schooling or at least have enough to feed themselves in the underdeveloped countries. Families in the underdeveloped countries teach their children  to read and write by sending them to the community educators, but they will be learning their parents crafts when they are strong enough to work (at the age of 8-12). The children would help their parents at the farm (or workshop) and then learn how to perfect the required skill to start supporting themselves and their families. Our parents went through the same 60 years ago, but when the oil was discover in Kuwait they went to night-school to educate themselves and work in better jobs. There is nothing wrong with children working instead of learning because working is educational activity also. The problem would be if the children work in harsh condition or got underpaid. Otherwise, working children are better off in a secured factory than attracted to do other illegitimate or criminal jobs. I would suggest that children should work for 8 hours then go through few hours of education provided by their multinational employer.

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