Welcome to the Performing Key Analyses course! This is course 2 of the Business Planning Series.

Organizations have always had to plan for the future. Currently, however, the ability to develop and implement strategic plans is more important than ever. Managers need to look at the big picture to better understand what will and won't work for their companies. They must determine where potential obstacles might exist, and how a proposed initiative – no matter how big or small – would support a company's vision and objectives.

Say you want to plan your department's future activities to support your organization's strategic objectives. What would a good business plan look like? It should include a thorough review of the internal and external environment to determine how your idea fits in the business and market contexts.

An internal analysis examines your organization's strengths and weaknesses. An external analysis tries to anticipate opportunities and threats in the political, economic, societal, and technological environment – for instance, a PEST analysis. You need to conduct internal and external analyses regularly. This will help promote creativity, uncover opportunities and challenges, and ensure a more effective review process.

This course looks at how to use internal and external analyses of your company to guide you in developing business plans. An internal analysis involves assessing your company's market strategy and resources, evaluating organization and management strategy, and evaluating your organization's financial position. You'll then learn about the factors to consider when analyzing your external environment. This includes a PEST analysis and scenario planning. You'll then learn how to conduct a SWOT analysis of your organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

That’s it! Now go ahead and hit that “Take this course!” button and see you on the inside!