What is environmental scanning? Explain the methods of scanning.

Environmental scanning is the process of monitoring, evaluating, and disseminating information from both the internal and external environment. Because the changing environment creates both opportunities and threats, scanning helps managers anticipate and interpret these changes before they cause damage, and its main purpose is to identify the internal and external factors that will shape the organization's future. According to Robbins and Coulter, environmental scanning is the screening of large amounts of information to anticipate and interpret changes in the environment. The methods of scanning are explained below.

1. Executive opinion method: The environment is forecast based on the opinions and views of top executives, who draw on their own experience of the business.
2. Expert opinion method: This is similar to the executive method, but it relies on outside experts who have deeper knowledge of market conditions and customer preferences.
3. Delphi method: A series of questionnaires about the future state of the environment is circulated among experts through an intermediary, who gathers and recirculates the responses until the experts reach a conclusion.
4. Judgmental forecasting: Employees, customers, suppliers, and trade associations provide qualitative information about future trends, for example sales representatives forecasting growth based on their interaction with customers.
5. Historical analogy: Past trends such as population growth, technological change, or income shifts are used to predict variables like a firm's future sales or market share.
6. SWOT analysis: This tool examines the overall strategic position of the organization by assessing its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.