Customer - Top Tips - PESTLE

PESTLE

This document is designed as a quick reference guide to PEST Analysis

This will enable you to gain knowledge of a particular skill, task or process.

This means you can quickly find the key information that you need and refer to it on an ongoing basis whenever you need to refresh your knowledge.

Introduction

PEST Analysis is a simple and widely-used tool that helps you understand the big picture of the Political, Economic, Social andTechnological environment you are operating in. By using PEST Analysis, you ensure that what you are doing is aligned with the forces of change that are affecting our world. By taking advantage of change, you are much more likely to be successful than if your activities oppose it.

Customer - Top Tips - PESTLE

What you need to know

The PEST analysis is a useful tool for understanding market growth or decline, and as such the position, potential and direction your store. The PEST analysis headings are a framework for reviewing a situation, and can also, like SWOT be used to review a strategy or direction of your business.

Completing a PEST analysis is very simple, and works well in meetings. Use

PEST analysis for business and strategic planning and the business planning for your store.

When completing a PEST Analysis you should consider the following factors:

Political:

● Government type and stability

● Freedom of press, rule of law and levels of bureaucracy and corruption and de-regulation trends

● Current legislation

● Tax policy, and trade controls

● Environmental and consumer-protection legislation

Economic:

● Likely impact of technological or other change on the economy

● Likely changes in the economic environment

● Stage of business cycle

● Current and project economic growth, inflation and interest rates

● Unemployment

● Seasonality / weather issues

Social:

● Population growth rate and age profile

● Population health, education and social mobility, and attitudes to these

● Population employment patterns, job market freedom and attitudes to work

● Lifestyle choices and attitudes to these

● Consumer buying patterns

● Major events and influences

Technological:

● Impact of emerging technologies

● Impact of Internet, reduction in communications costs and increased remote working

● Access to technology

Customer - Top Tips - PESTLE

What you need to know

Completing PEST Analysis

Create a document with the headings Political, Economic, Social and

Technological. If you are working with a group a large piece of paper on the wall works well!

Using the headings discuss the individual influences on your business.

Gather as much information regarding the headings as possible; some may fall into groups and this is fine. Use the information to discuss how each of the headings may influence your business.

PEST V’s SWOT

As well as PEST analysis, you may also have come across SWOT analysis, a tool for analysing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that relate to your business. So, is one better than the other? Or should these tools be used in conjunction with one another?

Both tools have can be useful so it’s important to understand the differences between them and how they can be used together.

A PEST analysis assesses a market, including competitors, from the standpoint of a particular proposition or business and is ideal for business development assessment and decision making.

SWOT analysis is an assessment of a specific business unit, whether your own business or a competitors.

It can be useful to complete a PEST analysis before SWOT but not generally the other way around. This is because PEST helps to identify factors that may form part of your SWOT analysis.