What Is PESTEL and How It Works?

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The term PESTEL applies to the process of identifying key environmental parameters that indicate the location, severity, and presence of environmental issues. These issues are then translated into a scorecard for businesses to assess on their operations. This framework of environmental factors is used in strategic management to identify the areas that need improvement in order to better optimize organizational performance and improve company productivity.

Pestel analysis  refers to a well-defined framework of external factors used as part of the operational monitoring component of strategic control. This process also considers four factors: physical, legal, economic, and social factors. This framework divides the four factors into four categories: physical factors, such as radon gas or pesticides; legal factors, including rules and regulations pertaining to hazardous materials and worker compensation; economic factors, such as taxes and external costs for health care and safety at work; and social factors, such as relationships among people within an organization and their environments. All these components are analyzed in order to identify how these factors can affect and adjust internal operating systems and strategies.

In PESTEL analysis, these four factors are separated and assigned to seven categories. These are then converted into metrics by using specific procedures. For example, the physical indicator may be determined from the presence of radon gas, pesticides, or other chemicals present in the air or water, and the legal factors include rules and regulations governing these substances. In the economic aspect, the production cost and price of key raw materials and energy sources are considered. In the social aspect, the nature of people within the organization and their relationships with their environments are considered.

The complete approach of  Pestel  involves five main steps that start with a study of the current pestilence and threats within the industry, followed by development of specific business strategies and measures, and monitoring of these strategies and measures. One of the first steps of the process is the determination of the current state of the pestilence and threats to the industry. The second step takes into account the legal factors that affect the industry as well as the changes that may occur due to these factors. The third step analyzes the changes in the general environment and trends in the overall environment. The fourth step considers the economic aspects of the organizations and the changes that may result from these factors.

PESTEL is an ideal method for identifying the factors that may have a direct impact on the performance of the organizations. The evaluation is made on the basis of several different factors. First, the process involves the comparison of the historical data about the performance of the companies with the current situation. The other factors that affect the evaluation are the quality of the resources and the organizational structure. Some of the important factors considered in the PESTEL analysis are the technological developments, the policies, and the procedures related to the management of the general environment, the technological change that are associated with the introduction of new technologies, the expansion of the supply chain, and the legal factors that affect the use of pesticides.

The evaluation of the PESTEL provides valuable inputs that can help managers in improving the performance of the companies. The seven factors covered in the PESTEL analysis include the total resource requirement, the level of input capacity, the operating costs, the profitability of the business, the environmental impact that are caused by the activities of the companies, and the overall management of the pest problem. The results of the PESTEL assessment are used to identify what can be done to improve the problem. Thus, this tool can be used for identifying what needs to be improved in the processes of the companies and for evaluating the performance of the companies to identify what needs to be changed to improve the system and ensure better results.Check out this post that has expounded on the topic:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEST_analysis.