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industrial_darwinism-300x202-6555956the environment of an organization It is made up of several more or less known areas or subenvironments.

The market environment or sub-environment is probably the best known of all. Very popular thanks to 5-force model that, in the early 1980s, Porter unveiled and focused on analyzing the forces that came into play and shaped a market.

The truth is that this model, despite its simplicity, is still a great advantage.

Before continuing with the end of this article, which is none other than presenting the most common areas in which we can subdivide the environment of an organization, I would like to explain that I find it extremely useful for any business, to do a little brainstorming. exercise on which subenvironment is the most important.

Whatever the case, I suggest that you first introduce these areas of an organization's environment and then do the exercise yourself. Go.

The classic areas that make up the environment of an organization:

Most authors agree that the environment of an organization can be divided into several sub-environments or zones that constitute the general environment of a company.

I will name the 6 that seem most relevant to me:

  • Technological scope
  • Regulatory scope
  • Economic and financial sphere
  • Social ambition
  • Market scope
  • Political relevance

You will likely leave a few to mention, but these are simply the most common and I am sure you will find them.

Technological scope:

This domain is generally made up of factors related to the speed of innovations, the degree of development of technologies, the structure of industrial property (patents), scientific publications and the opportunity for the appearance of lateral disturbances.

It is truly relevant for companies that develop capital goods or whose products incorporate a large number of state-of-the-art developments or technologies.

Regulatory scope:

Characterized by the entire legislative and legal body of each country or region. The factors that dominate it are:

  • Degree of regulatory compliance: It has to do with the application of the legislation by the authorities
  • Degree of legal certainty: refers to changes in the legislation and the rules of the game

Both factors can be decisive for industries operating under regimes of state oligopolies or markets largely operated by the government, such as energy, health, education, banking, etc.

(* 6 *) Economic and financial scope:

Constituted essentially by the economic development of countries or regions, its most determining factors are:

  • GDP growth of the economy
  • The evolution of inflation
  • Balance of payments
  • The evolution of unemployment
  • The indebtedness of the economy
  • The ease of doing business

We can include many more factors, but the list would be almost endless.

Social ambition:

Absolutely connected with people and their values. The determining factors of this environment are:

  • Demography: the demographic composition of a market or a country or a region matters
  • The beliefs or values of the people and the community.: environmentalism, religion, family concept

This environment is one of the most important for companies that produce consumer goods such as telephony, household appliances, cars, etc.

Market scope:

It is by far the best known, most used and best understood area of an organization's environment. Its most determining factors are the 5 strengths of the Porter model:

  • Clientele
  • Competitors
  • New starters
  • Alternate products
  • Providers

The strength of each of these groups is what determines the level of competition and barriers to entry into a sector.

Political scope:

To finish the political sub-environment. Perhaps one of the most relevant and easy to consider, given that the political situation in a country is not usually a secret and is generally classified as stable or unstable. Between these two situations, there is a varied gray scale. But that is simply the only factor to consider.

The most important thing about this post about the environment of an organization is ...

For each company has a dominant sub-environment what determines its link with the industry and the development of its operations. Your obligation is to know which one is yours. And act accordingly

Accepting that the environment of an organization in turn is divided into several areas and that one of these areas dominates our industry, helps us to better understand the enigma of information and how the environment affects us.

It is at this point that real opportunities for environmental monitoring must be evaluated.

Having said that, it helps to know that not all sub-environments are easily monitored. There are factors that condition or may condition our information.

The most common are:

  • Unpublished information
  • Very fragmented information
  • Information sources not accessible
  • Much news noise due to high news frequency

These items also configure and condition the understanding of environment of an organization. But understanding it and knowing it in advance will surely help us to anticipate where we can find problems when extracting information.

I hope you share this entry on your social networks if you found it interesting. Thanks a lot!

R Marketing Digital