Scanning the internal environment: Impossible precept or neglected art?

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A wave of recent empirical studies draws our attention to the view that successful firms display a heightened alertness and responsiveness to environmental changes (e.g. Hooley and Lynch 1985). Also to be found is a plethora of normative expositions of the organisational systems, techniques and procedures that can be used to generate the data and analyses that provide the basis for knowledge of the firm's market environment (Brownlie 1987). Students of marketing may be forgiven for congratulating themselves that the merit of one of the basic maxims of the subject is at last achieving widespread recognition. The author would just counsel a moment of caution. In this paper he argues that the popular thrust towards environmental awareness may bring about an overriding concern with the environmental appraisal, to the detriment of its indispensable obverse, the internal appraisal. The writer reminds us that survival and prosperity are also determined by the match the firm achieves between its distinctive competences and market opportunities. In doing so he calls for a reawakening of interest in what is in danger of becoming the Cinderella function of strategic marketing, i.e. the internal appraisal. The paper discusses the execution of the internal appraisal and its role in the overall strategic management of the firm. It introduces a conceptual framework which integrates the tasks of defining, identifying and evaluating the firm's strengths and weaknesses. It also looks at functional areas of the firm and gives examples of the strengths and weaknesses to be found in each.

This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit: