From Francis J. Aguilar's ETPS scan (Scanning the Business Environment, 1967), which later planners reordered and extended into PEST, PESTEL, and STEEP.
Scans the outside environment across political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal forces, and ranks the ones most likely to affect the question at hand.
When to reach for it
When starting a strategic plan, weighing a market entry, or preparing scenarios, and the team needs to see the outside forces in one sweep.
How it runs
- Brainstorm factors under each of the six headings.
- Rate each factor for impact and likelihood.
- Treat the high-impact factors as the drivers to plan around.
- Feed the drivers into scenarios or a risk review.
- Rescan on a schedule as conditions shift.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- Scanning the Business Environment, Macmillan, 1967