Good afternoon, everyone. We’re here today to speak with you about environmental
scanning. We’ll be talking about what it is, why it’s important, as well as sharing our experience
with it. We hope you’ll take something valuable away from this presentation apply it in your
own endeavors.
Now, broadly speaking, if we want to live well and be successful as individuals, we have
to be aware of who we are and know what’s around us. If we truly know ourselves and
understand the environment in which we live, we can find direction and meaning. We’ll have a
purpose and we’ll be confident in our future.
This philosophy also applies to business, Rotary Clubs, and even our Town library, as we
recently experienced. Knowing your organization’s place in the world and understanding the
world in which it lives are critical aspects to consider. It determines the success and
sustainability of your organization now and into the future.
Environmental scanning is a powerful way to achieve this healthy outlook for your
organization. It helps in understanding what your community needs, and allows you to
communicate your ability to provide it. We used this to great effect with our library, and we’re
here to share with you how you might also take advantage of it.
Environmental scanning is a method of analyzing your organization’s internal strengths
and identifying possible weaknesses. We combine this with assessing external opportunities and
threats that might affect your company. Taking all this together, you can acquire an excellent
picture of where you stand in relation to your world, your community.
The environmental scanning process we used for this is called a SWOT analysis. It has
four pieces of analytical criteria: internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities
and threats. Employing this model allows you to make strategic planning decisions for the
direction of your company’s future.
So, we take a look at the internal side of the organization, and first capitalize on
strengths: perhaps there’s particularly effective staff, or a unique offering, or successful
advertising in your organization. If we’re being honest, we also acknowledge internal
weaknesses like poor communication between staff, or shortcomings in a particular department.
Next, we look at what’s outside of the organization and identify opportunities: Perhaps
there’s a new tax incentive that’s relevant, or there’s a new potential market opening up. We also
consider external threats, such as potential or actual competitors and industry change.
Taking these things together, we get a picture of where we stand and how we can
respond, both for the short and long term. We’re here to explain how this process helped our
library better understand the community in which it lives. We’ll show what worked and what
didn’t, what our analysis revealed about our current situation, and what we discovered about our
future.
Our experience shows that environmental scanning is a powerful tool that organizations
can use to plan for the future. We invite you to take what we’ve learned and apply it for yourself!