Task: External assessment on your selected department, group, division, function, or organization (for which you will create a strategic plan) that you began in week 2, including an assessment of the external remote, industry, and operating environments. Your environmental scan should describe the situation completely and accurately. You should identify any major changes that you expect to affect your remote, industry, or operating environments in the next 5-10 years. This will include the following subcomponents:
A) Utilize a macroeconomic forecast of economic indicators from the external remote environment that will affect your chosen organization in the future and should be considered part of strategic planning.
B) Analyze the non-economic factors in the external remote environment:
1) Social and Cultural
2) Political
3) Technological
4) Demographic
C) Develop an assessment of the organization's external industry environment using Porter's "Five Forces", including an assessment of the future forces and trends in the industry.
D) Identify strengths and weaknesses in the organization's operating environment that can be leveraged to capitalize on the emerging opportunities or minimize the threats that you identified thus far. Make sure to present a competitive assessment on how specific key competitors compare to the firm on the criteria you believe are most associated with marketplace success. Also be sure to assess the firm's key customer/market segments, and the key needs/demands of each (in particular look to see how these needs/demands might be evolving based upon some of your earlier research into future trends).
E) Considering all of your external assessment findings, summarize the top three to four strategic opportunities and/or threats that are most important to consider in your later development of long-term objectives.