PEST – PESTEL Analysis for Strategic Planning

A 360-degree analysis of all relevant aspects of the business environment is prevalent in most strategic planning processes. The classic PEST model is one of the most used models, focusing on macro trends facing the organization. The extended PESTEL (sometimes also called PESTLE) analysis is also commonly used. The letters stand for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal trends.

PEST and PESTEL Analysis (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal) is an excellent analysis model to assess major external factors influencing the business and explore long-term threats and opportunities. Gather the team for strategic planning and use the PEST template in Wide Narrow to do the PEST analysis in a joint analysis workshop.

Facts, trend manifestations, and elaborated trend descriptions are essential to the PEST Analysis workshop and report. Prepare the workshop using Wide Narrow's Search, Screening, and Refining functions.

It is best to prepare the strategic planning and workshops with ongoing screening and refining activities continuously during the year. However, most of the below actions also work without ongoing preparations.

Order Inboxes from Wide Narrow Information Services to monitor macro trends or use the DIY Inboxes and the Inbox Connections to set up the macro trend monitoring by yourself. 

Find PESTEL trends using the free text search or filter search in the Search module. Use the Contribution button to add input from other sources.

Ongoing preparations during the year:

Create Clusters to describe and follow long-term trends relevant for the strategic planning. Create one Cluster per PESTEL area and invite people from your organization to add and prepare content in the Clusters. Adds facts and posts manifesting trends within each PESTEL area. Use the Summary functionality to summarize posts to elaborated trend descriptions with clear headlines indicating the direction of the trends. Use the trend icons to illustrate if the trend is increasing, declining, or unchanged. 

Preparations within short notice:

Prepare the workshop in Clusters with separate Clusters for all the PEST or PESTEL areas (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, legal). Invite the strategic planning team to the Clusters for a collaborative working process.

Add posts from Search or Inboxes to the Clusters and use the Summary function to summarize well-formulated trends within each PESTEL area. Use the Summary function in Clusters to describe each trend. Make the Summaries ready to use in the PEST/PESTEL analysis with clear headlines, trend descriptions, and trend icons.

Prepare the PEST or PESTEL Analysis template in Report for the workshop. Use the ready Trend description Summaries as building blocks in the PEST or PESTEL analysis workshop.

Examples of questions to discuss in the PEST or PESTEL-analysis workshop:

• What political trends can affect our business in 1-3 years?
• What economic trends can affect our business in 1-3 years?
• What social trends can affect our business in 1-3 years?
• What technological trends can affect our business in 1-3 years?
• What environmental trends can affect our business in 1-3 years?
• What legal trends can affect our business in 1-3 years?
• Can we identify any blind spots that we previously overlooked?
• How are the trends connected?
• Which are the key driving forces behind these trends?
• Are there any strong counter forces to these trends?
• Are there any trends that we can take advantage of?
• Are there any trends that may be a threat to our business?

Wide Narrow feature to use:
Wide Narrow PEST Analysis Report Template.

User Access: The Report module is only available for Superusers.