PEST ANALYSIS :PEST analysis stands for "Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis" and describes a

framework of macro-environmental factors used in the environmental scanning component of strategic management. Some analysts added Legal and rearranged the mnemonic to SLEPT; inserting Environmental factors expanded it to PESTEL or PESTLE, which is popular in the United Kingdom.The model has recently been further extended to STEEPLE and STEEPLED, adding Ethics and demographic factors. It is a part of the external analysis when conducting a strategic analysis or doing market research, and gives an overview of the different macroenvironmental factors that the company has to take into consideration. It is a useful strategic tool for understanding market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operations. The growing importance of environmental or ecological factors in the first decade of the 21st century have given rise to green business and encouraged widespread use of an updated version of the PEST framework. STEER analysis systematically considers Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Ecological, and Regulatory factors.The origin of this framework is difficult to establish however some data is available which refers to the ETPS environment by Francis J. Aguilar. Later it was reorganized as STEP by Arnold Brown. Later in 1980s several authors included variations from taxonomy classifications and thus formed PEST or PESTLE Analysis framework. Political Social lifestyle trends demographics consumer attitudes and opinions media views law changes affecting social factors brand, company, technology image consumer buying patterns fashion and role models major events and influences buying access and trends ethnic/religious factors advertising and publicity ethical issues ecological/environmental issues current legislation home market future legislation international legislation regulatory bodies and processes government policies government term and change trading policies funding, grants and initiatives home market lobbying/pressure groups international pressure groups wars and conflicts economic home economy situation home economy trends overseas economies and trends general taxation issues taxation specific to product/services seasonality/weather issues market and trade cycles specific industry factors market routes and distribution trends customer/end-user drivers interest and exchange rates international trade/monetary issues

technological competing technology development research funding associated/dependent technologies replacement technology/solutions maturity of technology manufacturing maturity and capacity information and communications consumer buying mechanisms/technology technology legislation innovation potential technology access, licencing, patents intellectual property issues global communications

Political environment : Tax policies Govt laws

Employment laws Trade/Tariff regulations Industry affecting environment. Regulations. Economic environment

Economic growth/decline Commerce Competition Trade deficits Wage rates, working hours Cost of living etc Sociological

Work ethics/ Career attitude Culture Gender bias Technological Suppliers, vendors, raw material, infrastructure. Information technology Industry specific technology breakthroughs, researches. Legal

Legislations Imports/exports Recycling/disposal laws Employment laws Intellectual property Environmental Global warming Climate change

Let look at an example of PESTLE Analysis for a telecommunication company.

Porter's 5 forces Analysis Model:This industry analysis model was developed by Michael E. Porter of Harvard
Business School in 1979. This model was challenged and a extended six forces model has been developed which includes Complementary such as combination products (e.g.: MS Window and MacAfee Antivirus). The five forces with reasons for existence are described below with an example of telecoms industry. Reasons that attract new entrants in any industry are: Good returns High and steady growth Low barriers to entry (capital costs, raw materials) Latest technology Reasons for high probability of Substitute products and services are: Switching costs Price performance trade off of substitutes Patents of Invention Reasons for threat from Buyers: Buyer purchase volumes relative to seller sales. Option for substitute products with lower switching costs. Brand identity

Reasons for threat from Suppliers: Switching costs between suppliers Presence of substitute products. Costs relative to total purchases in the industry. Supplier brand identity favored by buyer. Rivalry among or within firms: Like for like product performances Advertising strategies Customer service Price competition Time to Market Porter's Analysis of Telecoms Industry.

SWOT Analysis:This analysis technique was developed by Albert Humphrey who led a convention at Stanford
University in 1960s. The main objective of the technique is the study the Strength, weakness, opportunities and threats and improves the state of the Organization by: a) b) c) d) Using or capitalizing on the strengths. Recognize and improve on weakness. Exploit the Opportunities. Work around the threats either to avoid them or turn them into advantagesStrengths and Weakness can be analyzed in terms of an organizations Resources, Core Competencies, Performance and Portfolio. These factors are used in goal and objective setting, identifying areas of improvement, defining Strategies.Following is the explanation on SWOT.

Difference and relationship between PEST and SWOT PEST is useful before SWOT - not generally vice-versa - PEST definitely helps to identify SWOT factors. There is overlap between PEST and SWOT, in that similar factors would appear in each. That said, PEST and SWOT are certainly two different perspectives: PEST assesses a market, including competitors, from the standpoint of a particular proposition or a business. SWOT is an assessment of a business or a proposition, whether youre own or a competitor's. Strategic planning is not a precise science - no tool is mandatory - it's a matter of pragmatic choice as to what helps best to identify and explain the issues. PEST becomes more useful and relevant the larger and more complex the business or proposition, but even for a very small local businesses a PEST analysis can still throw up one or two very significant issues that might otherwise be missed. The four quadrants in PEST vary in significance depending on the type of business, eg., social factors are more obviously relevant to consumer businesses or a B2B business close to the consumer-end of the supply chain, whereas political factors are more obviously relevant to a global munitions supplier or aerosol propellant manufacturer. All businesses benefit from a SWOT analysis, and all businesses benefit from completing a SWOT analysis of their main competitors, which interestingly can then provide some feed back into the economic aspects of the PEST analysis.

MOST Analysis:MOST Analysis forms a part of Strategic planning. It is the set of analysis done in order to
define the strategy and direction in which the Organization is heading.
Mission: This is the reason for existence of any Organization. It is an instruction stating what business the organization is in and what it is intending to achieve. Objectives: These are short term or long term goals set to fulfill the mission set for an Organization. Strategy: It is the step by step approach taken to achieve short term and long term goals.Johnson & Scholes' definition of Strategy is that "Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfill stakeholder expectations". Tactics: These are immediate actionable items that will help set the path for strategic implementation. It is very important to select the right strategies to fulfill the set objectives. For example if an organization is in business of successfully selling a product or service that is diminishing with time and is being taken over by another product that the Organization is not offering very soon the organization will be out of business if it does not adapt a strategy of offering new products or innovating existing products. Also appropriate tactics need to be used to help set the strategic direction of the organization. For example: If one of the Organizations strategies is to use integrated IT systems to help support the business processes and B2B interactions. It first needs to analyze existing and new business processes to automate, stop creation of disparate systems and apply tactical measures to create a converged form of information gathering so that implementing new IT systems is done within estimated time and effort.If you have understood these terms in relation to an organization you will realize that Missions drive Objectives drives Strategies drives Tactics and none exists independently. Ultimately, in the ever changing business environment one key element of MOST should be change management (i.e. change to MOST) to adapt to changing business environment.

Resource Analysis:Resource analysis helps identify the strengths and weakness of an organization. Resources fall
into following main categories: Financial - Available funds and capacity to raise funds for new ventures. Human - Ability to use/scale existing staff or change by outsourcing, partnerships etc. Physical - Available infrastructure, suppliers, assets, IT systems etc and ability to raise new if required. Intangible - Brand recognition, Reputation, Goodwill are the main factors.

Applicability of the Factors

The model's factors will vary in importance to a given company based on its industry and the goods it produces. For example, consumer and B2B companies tend to be more affected by the social factors, while a global defense contractor would tend to be more affected by political factors. Additionally, factors that are more likely to change in the future or more relevant to a given company will carry greater importance. For example, a company which has borrowed heavily will need to focus more on the economic factors (especially interest rates). Furthermore, conglomerate companies who produce a wide range of products (such as Sony, Disney, or BP) may find it more useful to analyze one department of its company at a time with the PESTEL model, thus focusing on the specific factors relevant to that one department. A company may also wish to divide factors into geographical relevance, such as local, national, and global (also known as LONGPESTEL).