Techniques of business Environmental
Scanning

Techniques of business Environmental
Scanning

Scanning aims at analysing the opportunities and
threats in the environment and includes collection and analysis of information Glueck has suggested following three techniques for environmental scanning.

A. Information Gathering: By collecting relevant
information a strategic manager can how about business The various written sources of information can be :

i.Business magazines like Business India,

ii. Business Today, Advertising and Marketing,
The Journal of Entrepreneurship etc.

(iii)Newspapers like Economic Times, Financial Express,Business Line etc.Publications of Trade Directories, Reports, Guides
etc.

(iv) Annual Reports of various companies.
It is normally seen that official statistics or publications of companies lay more stress n window dressing i.e..these highlight more rosy picture and conceal gloomy situations. Various verbal sources of information can be medias like television, radio, interview with customers, employees, traders, competitors & consultants.

B. Spying: Spying is another technique employed
for collecting and analysing the information required for business scanning. Expert persons are engaged for getting trade secrets or clues about strengths of suppliers, customers or competitors. These clues are further processed for scanning business environment. An attempt is made to find out emerging opportunities and challenges.

C. Forecasting: Peter Drucker is of the opinion that future managers will be more anticipators and proactive than problem solvers or reactive. Joel Arthur Barker in his book Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the future has rightly remarked “Good anticipation is the result of good strategic exploration.”