Category Archives: Futures

How to categorise influences – the PESTLE Framework

Futures, Governance, Innovation, Planning Strategy, Strategic Foresight, Strategic Planning, Strategy

Often-times when need a way to think about the complexity around us. We need a framework for breaking down our macro-environment into manageable chunks.

The PESTLE framework is just such a framework.

And its very handy in the context of strategic foresight and strategy planning.

The PESTLE framework has been around since the late sixties, and has been refined with the passing of years. Being pedantic, it’s properly called “the PESTLE macro-environment scanning framework”. It first started out as 4 categories: PEST. But now its common usage is PESTLE.

So what does PESTLE stand for, and why is it useful? Let’s go through the letters:

P. Political. What is happening with business policies? Are changes likely within government? What are the latest in taxation policies, government subsidies and trade negotiation outcomes?

E. Economic. How are interest rates & unemployment tracking? What are people buying? What is happening to the world economy, to the local exchange rate? What industries are doing well, what markets are becoming more turbulent.

S. Social. Think about education, lifestyle, age and attitudes of your customers. What is happening in the world of people? Are social policies changing? What TV shows are popular, what are people writing about in the “Letters to the editor”?

T. Technological. Is there much R&D out there? What about automation, the pace of change. Think also of genetics, biotech, fintech and robotics. What is the latest software and app being made possible because of the internet?

L. Legal. What changes to laws are likely to impact you? Are financial regulator legal battles of note. Are there any statutes, laws or administrative arrangements that are likely to influence your organisation?

E. Environmental. Are energy consumption patterns changing? What of climate concerns. Getting closer to where you work and live, what of the surrounding geography. Are there any likely influences as a result of changes to ecology.

So this PESTLE framework, or taxonomy, gives us a way to think about what is happening around us. For we operate our businesses in a context, a context where there are political factors, where there are economic, social and other factors. To a greater or lesser extent, changes in each of these six areas affect us.

For example, think about your customers and perhaps and either their changing economic situations, or their changing attitudes. And on the other side of the business, what about your employees. With the social system, if you will, that they live in what are they expecting from your work environment?

And from a competition perspective, are you able to pickup on and capitalise upon changes in any of these 6 areas quicker than other players in your market?

Are you using the PESTLE framework as part of your strategy planning processes?

 

For more of what I have to offer, visit Dellium Advisory, follow on Twitter, connect using LinkedIn, or review my IT Strategy blog.

There is change between now and the future – how do you view them both?

Futures, Futurist, Innovation, Leadership, Scenario Planninng, Strategic Foresight, Strategy

Given that we’ll experience the same amount of new inventions and technological change over the next 25 years that we have experienced over the last 75 years, how will your business be affected?

Secondly, given that the volume and value of international trade has consistently accelerated since the early 1950’s, how will our economy be affected?

And given that some of the highest value jobs on the market were not around 10 years ago, how will your career be affected?

Given these things, can we really say that the future is a far off time? Firstly, can we approach our business, including our customers, suppliers and the competition the same as we always have? Secondly, what about the economy? How will the global changes that we are seeing affect us? For example, look to at the trends in China’s economic growth or even reflect upon how the current events across Europe will play out. The question is how will these global changes impact the local markets in which we trade and the social environment in which we live? And finally, what about our jobs, the career we are planning on having?

Yes there are risks. But there are also opportunities. We can look at the glass half empty, or we can see it as half full (as an aside, some wags suggest that the glass is twice as big as it needs to be!).

So, we should be planning for these possibilities. We should be considering the social and economic trends that will be affecting us. We should be weighing up the risks and opportunities afforded by new technologies, by new ways of doing things.

We should be considering the future through more than “business as usual” lens.

Would you consider viewing the future through a dystopian lens or a utopian lens. What about using a lens of greater regulation and discipline?

For the question is: through what lens do you see the future?

For more of what I have to offer, visit Dellium Advisory, follow on Twitter, connect using LinkedIn, or review my IT Strategy blog.

Steps to Improve Strategic Planning

Futures, Strategic Foresight, Strategic Planning, Strategy

With the dawning of a New Year comes the planning for what lies ahead.

Often times its operational-level planning. The need to do X, then Y, and all going well we’ll do Z. Its tactical, its getting done what needs to be done.

And at other times we may well dive into the strategic plan and update that. We refresh the vision, make sure the mission is right, and then go about updating our strategic objectives and the related KPI’s.

But there is a whole lot more to the strategy process. For if strategic planning answers the “what will we do” and “how will we do it” questions, where do the following questions come into the picture?

  • what seems to be happening?
  • what’s really happening?
  • what might happen?
  • what might we need to do?

It seems as though these questions should be answered before we start to consider “what will we do” and “how will we do it”.

For ….

“What seems to be happening”? Do you look at trends, or ask subject matter experts for their views on what is happening, or even analyse what your competitors are doing?

“What’s really happening”? Then armed with this trend, market & competitor analysis do you then go one step further and think through all of these moving parts? Answering questions about relationships between all of these variables and causes of change.

“What might happen”? On the basis of this knowledge, do you then open the conversation back up to consider alternate futures? What scenarios could occur based on what is happening?

“What might we need to do”? And as a final step before deciding what to do, there are the reports, presentations and workshops to bring all those involved with the strategic planning together onto the same page

Answering these questions is the domain of strategic foresight. Its called strategic thinking, or futures work.

Its taking the time and effort to look beyond the normal course of events. Its about laying aside “business as usual thinking” and discovering what else might happen. Its about being open to possibilities that you either may not have considered or be comfortable with.

Its about improving your strategic planning to ensure long term success.

Are you open to considering a range of alternate futures?

For more of what I have to offer, visit Dellium Advisory, follow on Twitter, connect using LinkedIn, or review my IT-centric blog.