All businesses and organizations operate in a changing world and are subject to forces which are more powerful than they are, and which are beyond their control. No business can survive without continued interaction with the external environment, just as a ship at sea is subject to powerful natural forces of which it needs to be aware and deal with; organizations are influenced by forces in their external business environment. Any business strategy needs to take account of all these forces so that opportunities and threats can be identified and the organisation can navigate its way to success by matching its internal strengths to external opportunities. (Suzanne, 1993)
One cannot conceive the organization as an entity isolated from the environment in which it operates. The company must continuously monitor its environment because, firstly, it fits into this environment and, secondly, it acts on that environment. The company can be influenced by its environment in a positive way (environmental opportunities) or a negative (environmental). The company should monitor the constantly changing markets, changing competition and technology. It is also about identifying the risks of "breaks" technology (occurrence of major innovations) or structural (new lobbies, new regulations, growing influence of consumer organizations, etc.). (Menon, 1999)
This monitoring (or before) is done using SIM (Marketing Information Systems) supplied data from sales force, distributors, or professional bodies. This is first identify all the variables change and then develop the framework of actions needed to take advantage of environmental opportunities or to reduce possible constraints imposed from outside. (Lumpkin, 1999)
So here we describe the components of this environment and insist on its interactions with the company.
I - Ongoing monitoring of the environment
As has been said in the introduction, the company cannot be conceived as an isolated entity. The role of the environment is therefore crucial in the company's business and this insofar as it determines the strategy development and therefore sometimes even survival.
A - Overall approach to environmental components
In general, the environment is the source of a number of constraints for the company.
These constraints can be external or result from economic and sociological phenomena.
- The external constraints are easily identifiable. Without being exhaustive, one can cite, for example taxation, cost of supplies, the emergence of new competitors into the market, the policy of the state's credit, the contemporary environment of union activity Minimum wage conventional or legal, etc. These constraints are imposed by decision centers that are in close relationship with business - it is company shareholders and consumers or suppliers, bankers, state.
- The influence of economic, sociological and natural is also very important. It may be, for example the level of unemployment, labor market, mentalities, price stability, or specific events can sometimes upset the strategic options of companies and even lead to their disappearance (attacks, wars, natural disasters). (Lumpkin, 1999)
In short, the environment has created uncertainty for the company - and this uncertainty is observed not only in markets of the company but still ...