Group Assignment

Group 4

#1 Question 17: Explain how to conduct an external strategic-management audit.

The first step in conducting an external strategic-management audit is “collecting competitive intelligence and information about economic, social, cultural, demographic, environmental, political, governmental, legal, and technological trends” (David, 2011, p. 62). The collection of the information must be ethically and morally correct obtained because if not the business will lose a lot more than what the information can provide. The more participation of management and employees involved in the external strategic-management audit, the more it benefits the organization. Overall it will have more benefits, due to the fact that everybody will feel that they are part of the organization.

The information can be obtain from key magazines, trade journals, and newspapers, Internet, corporate, university, public libraries, suppliers, distributors, salespersons, customers, competitors and many other sources. The second step is for management to understand and evaluate the information provided by the audit team in order to classify the information which are the best opportunities for the organization and the imminent threats that the organization will face. The third step is to write the key external factors on flip charts or a chalk-board numbering them from the most important to the least important starting with number 1 the most important to number 20 the least important for both opportunities and treats for the organization.

One thing to remember is that these factors will change over time because of the relationships with suppliers, market share, competing products, world economies, foreign affiliates, proprietary and key account advantages, price competitiveness, technological advancements, population shifts, interest rates, pollution reduction and many other things that will influence these factors. In addition the external factors “must achieved long-term and annual...