Environmental scanning is the process of continually acquiring information about external events and trends to identify changes in the environment. It provides strategic intelligence by evaluating potential trends and alerts planners to converging, diverging, interacting, accelerating, or decelerating trends. The ideal goal is to allow for adaptive planning before trends occur or fully develop. An environmental scan examines factors in the external environment like social changes, demographics, economic conditions, technology, politics, and competition that are outside an organization's control. The information gathered from an environmental scan can be used in strategic planning.

1. What is environmental scanning?Environmental scanning is the process of continually acquiring information on events occurring outside the organization to identify and interpret potential trends.To provide strategic intelligence by evaluating potentially significant environmental changes Conveys both current environmental status and how it is changing  trendsAlerts planners to trends that are converging, diverging, interacting, accelerating, or deceleratingIdeal end-goal: allows for adaptive planning before these trends occur or fully develop

2. An environmental scan of today’s marketplace

3. External Environment is not controllableSocialChangeDemographicsEver-ChangingMarketplaceEconomicConditionsProductDistributionPromotionPriceCompetitionTarget MarketPolitical & Legal FactorsTechnologyEnvironmentalScanningExternal Marketing Environment

4. COMPETITIVE FORCES-Competition

5. One cycle in the strategic planning processWhat is environmental scanning?How it fits in the planning cycle:

7. Depends…Type of scan (Ad hoc, Periodic, Continuous)Your institution’s relationship to its service areaHow the scan information will be usedThings to consider including:Customer analysesCurrent and potential studentsCurrent and potential students’ parentsCurrent and potential employersOther institutions of higher education (for transfer students)What to include in your scan

8. Community relations