Potential opportunities and threats may impact your business. In the strategic planning process, you discover some of the larger trends likely to impact all businesses over the next ten years. You need to identify the forces, issues, trends, and events that can positively or negatively impact your business. What possibilities do you see on the horizon, and where are the minefields?
Assume several storms are brewing. Three to be exact. Each storm is a little farther away from the next. The closer the storm, the more potential impact it has on your trip. The ones farthest out may or may not impact you, but you keep an eye on them nevertheless.
The landscape in which your company operates is exactly the same. Your business has three influences. Starting with the outer ring of the following figure, these influences include
Your operating environment
Your industry, which includes your competitors
Your market
Some external influences or factors have more direct impact on your business. Others just take a little longer to get there. By looking at your landscape in three influences, you won’t miss anything that may be hiding on the horizon.
