Environment Analysis: Recognizing the Future with the PESTEL Framework
The PESTEL analysis is a systematic method for analyzing the environment, which examines political, economic, social, legal, ecological and technological influencing factors. The aim is to identify potential risks and opportunities at an early stage, to understand interactions between the factors and to derive well-founded recommendations for action. It serves as a basis for trend and scenario analyses, stakeholder management or strategic planning.
What is it for and who is it suitable for?
The method is aimed at organizations, companies and political actors who want to analyze complex interrelationships and external influencing factors. It is often used in strategic planning, risk management or for developing innovation strategies.
How does it work?
The PESTEL analysis is carried out in five steps:
- Compilation of relevant factors: Collection of potential influencing factors in the six categories (politics, economy, society, law, ecology, technology).
- Specification and definition: Detailed description and limitation of the relevant factors.
- Research and data collection: Systematic collection of data from statistics, reports, legal texts or own surveys.
- Data evaluation: Analysis of the interactions and relevance of the factors.
- Recommendations for action: Derivation of concrete measures based on the analyzed influences.
The method makes dependencies between influencing factors visible and provides a structured basis for strategic decisions and action planning.
Newly developed or is there a (scientific history)?
The PESTEL framework has a long scientific tradition and has been used successfully in strategic foresight and planning
for decades. It is closely linked to related approaches such as SWOT analysis and has been continuously developed further (e.g. Steinmann et al. 2013, Simon and Gathen 2002).
Reference
The PESTEL analysis has been used, for example, to identify areas of tension in industrial policy and for the strategic planning of innovation processes in companies. We use this method to identify ternds on behalf of an investment company and to develop scenarios for the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
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