Conduct an environmental scan and write an assessment in which you focus on both the internal and external factors that could affect your success within your chosen industry.

Introduction

An environmental scan allows you to identify the trends (technical, social, political, economic, and so on), issues, and other factors that are most likely to affect a given industry, thereby helping you determine a strategy for dealing with potential changes.

After an organization has completed a SWOT analysis, it will carefully monitor both the internal and external environments to detect signs of opportunities and threats that could affect current and future plans. This environmental scanning can help an organization identify trends that are most likely to affect the industry, thereby allowing the development of a strategy for change. The right information, at the right time, can determine the future of an organization.

Note: Developing a strategic plan requires specific steps that need to be executed in a sequence. The assessments in this course are presented in order and should be completed in sequence.

Conduct an environmental scan in which you focus on both the internal and external factors that could affect your success within your chosen industry. Include in your scan responses to the following. Be sure to use the information from your SWOT analysis to explain how you will address both the internal and external issues.

• Internal Factors: What specific things do you need to do in order to achieve the position you would like to have? In other words, what do you need to do to climb the corporate ladder in your industry?
• External Factors: Examine the state of the current market or industry. What issues currently exist? How might these issues influence the future state of the industry? How will these issues affect your long-term and short-term goals?

To successfully complete this assessment, you may need to do some research on conducting an environmental scan. Format this assessment as a research paper following current APA guidelines for both style and citing sources, making sure that you also use correct grammar and mechanics. There is no required minimum or maximum page length; however, you should strive to be as detailed as possible in addressing each bullet point, while also being as clear and concise as possible.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies:

• Competency 3: Communicate effectively.
  • Write coherently to support a central idea in appropriate format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics.
• Competency 4: Plan strategically.
  • Describe strategies to use SWOT analysis to improve competitive advantage.
• Competency 5: Employ high-performance business management techniques.
  • Analyze strengths to determine competitive advantages.
  • Analyze opportunities that may be leveraged for competitive advantage.
  • Analyze threats to competitive advantage.
• Competency 6: Solve problems within professional standards.
  • Analyze weaknesses to determine areas for improvement.