PESTLE Forces Guide
PESTLE Forces Potential Impact: Implication and Importance ● High (H)
● Medium (M) ● Low (L) ● Undetermined (U)
Time Frame: ● 6–12 months ● 12–24 months ● 24+ months
Type: ● Positive ● Negative ● Unknown
Impact: ● Increasing ● Unchanged ● Decreasing ● Unknown
Relative Importance: ● Critical ● Important ● Unimportant ● Unknown
Political Political factors determine the extent to which government and government policy may impact an organization or a specific industry.
✖ Economic Economic factors consider the various aspects of the economy and how the outlook on each area could impact your business.
✖ Social What is the population's growth rate and age profile? How is this likely to change? Are generational shifts in attitude likely to affect what you are doing? What employment patterns, job market trends, and attitudes toward work can you observe? Are these different for different age groups? What social attitudes and social taboos could affect your business? Have there been recent sociocultural changes that might affect this? How do religious beliefs and lifestyle choices affect the population? Are any other sociocultural factors likely to drive change for your business?
Lifestyles
Buying habits
Education level
Emphasis on safety
Religion and beliefs
Health consciousness
Sex distribution
Average disposable income level
Social classes
Family size and structure
Minorities
Attitudes toward saving and investing
PESTLE Forces Potential Impact: Implication and Importance Attitudes toward green or ecological products
Attitudes toward renewable energy
Population growth rate
Immigration and emigration rates
Age distribution and life expectancy rates
Attitudes toward imported products and services
Attitudes toward work, career, leisure, and retirement
Attitudes toward customer service and product quality
Technology Are there any new technologies that you could be using? Are there any new technologies on the horizon that could radically affect your work or your industry? Do any of your competitors have access to new technologies that could redefine their products? How have infrastructure changes affected work patterns (for example, levels of remote working)? Are there existing technological hubs that you could work with or learn from? Are there any other technological factors that you should consider?
Competing technology development
Innovation
Research funding
Replacement technology/solutions
Maturity of technology
Manufacturing maturity and capacity
Information and communications
Consumer buying mechanisms/ technology
Technology legislation
Innovation potential
Technology access, licensing, patents
Intellectual property issues
Global communications
PESTLE Forces Potential Impact: Implication and Importance
Inventions
New discoveries
Research
Rate of obsolescence
Manufacturing advances
Information technology
Internet
Legal Legal factors pertain to any legal forces that define business operation and compliance.
✖ Environmental Environmental factors concern the ecological impacts on business.
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