Specific Environment

Changes in any sector of the general environment (economic, technological, sociocultural, and political/legal) eventually affect most organizations. Each organization also has a specific environment that is unique to that firm’s industry and directly affects the way it conducts day-to-day business.

Reactive customer monitoring involves identifying and addressing customer trends and problems after they occur. Companies that respond quickly to customer letters of complaint (that is, reactive customer monitoring) are viewed much more favorably than companies that are slow to respond or never respond.

Proactive monitoring of customers means identifying and addressing customer needs, trends, and issues before they occur. Competitors are companies in the same industry that sell similar products or services to customers.

Managers perform a competitive analysis, which involves deciding who your competitors are, anticipating competitors’ moves, and determining competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.

Advocacy groups are groups of concerned citizens who band together to try to influence the business practices of specific industries, businesses, and professions. The members of a group generally share the same point of view on a particular issue. A product boycott is a tactic in which an advocacy group actively tries to persuade consumers not to purchase a company’s product or service. This not only draws attention to concerns a group has with a company’s practices or products, it also decreases the company’s revenues and profits.