PESTEL Analysis

PESTEL is an analytical tool which considers external factors and helps to analyse the impact on the organisation or project. This analysis was originally created by Harvard professor Francis Aguilar as a scanning tool with the acronym “ETPS” which stood for Economic, Technical, Political, and Social. This was further developed in the 1980s by several other authors later to create the PESTEL acronym which stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal. There are many benefits of PESTEL:

It helps organisations to understand the big picture of the environment in which they are operating and be able to minimize the threats and take advantage of the opportunities.
Encourages firms to think about the wider environment from a short- and long-term perspective.
It helps to identify business opportunities and gives insight into significant threats.

PESTEL forms part of a strategic plan and should be repeated at regular stages—minimum 6 months’ period—as the macro environment is constantly changing. By conducting regular reviews organisations will be able to create a competitive advantage.

Using PESTEL Analysis on Planium Pro

To complete section, on the left-hand side menu bar, click the + to expand the ‘Marketing’ menu and select ‘PESTEL’.

To input the information, click ‘New’ in each table use the table in the software and explanations below to guide you.

1. Political:

Enter the governmental factors that will or could influence the business or project over the next 3 years. Examples include: tax structures, tariffs, changes to government and policies, trade considerations, and “red tape”.

2. Economic:

Enter the economic factors that will or could influence the business or project over the next 3 years. This includes interest and exchange rates, credit policies, government subsidies, economic growth or stall, target customers’ capacity to spend, and effects of globalisation.

3. Social:

Enter the social factors that will or could influence the business or project over the next 3 years, such as population growth, demographics, cultural differences, wealth distribution, patterns of education, employment and social mobility, and consumer attitudes.

4. Technological:

Enter the influence of technology on the business or project, including the growth of automation and AI, new innovations, pace of technological advancements adoption of new technologies, R&D activities and incentives/ grants for new technology.

5. Environmental:

Enter the environmental factors that will or could influence the business or project over the next 3 years. Consider environmental protection laws, consumer attitudes, the effects of climate and climate change, energy and resource consumption regulations.

6. Legal:

Enter the legal factors influencing the business or project over the next 3 years. This could include health and safety standards, industrial relations laws, consumer rights, employment regulations, and IP protection.

Any other information applicable to this section:

Include any information relevant to this section that was not included in the previous steps.

Click ‘Save’ to save.

Click ‘Chart Preview’ to view the analysis results.

Analysing PESTEL Results on Planium Pro