6.8.1 Analyzing the Environment

If you're not constantly searching for problems (which, as defined here, include opportunities), how will you know if they exist? And how can you solve problems or take ad­vantage of opportunities if you don't know they exist? Most strategists believe that firms must be prepared to respond quickly to problems and opportunities in order to be successful in the future. Thus, being able to recognize problems and opportunities as soon as they occur, or even before they occur, is vital to success. Both internal and external organizational environments must be constantly and carefully monitored for signs of problems or opportunities. In this stage of the process, you are gathering information. Informa

tion gained during the control stage of CPS is vital to this stage of the process. Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company spends millions of dollars annually tracking its competition and the economy, and learning about its customers, for just one type of information system the strategic information system. It also trains all levels of management to look for weak signals of environmental change. It spends thousands of man‑hours creating forecasts /scenarios of possible futures, all to enable it to solve strategic and operational problems better. The individual problem solver must also spend time and money searching the environment looking for signals of problems or opportunities. For example, spend a few minutes to look at your internal and external organization environments. What is happening that might lead to problems or opportunities?