Context analysis

Context analysis is a method to analyze the environment in which a business operates. Environmental scanning mainly focuses on the macro environment of a business. But context analysis considers the entire environment of a business, its internal and external environment. This is an important aspect of business planning. One kind of context analysis, called SWOT analysis, allows the business to gain an insight into their strengths and weaknesses and also the opportunities and threats posed by the market within which they operate. The main goal of a context analysis, SWOT or otherwise, is to analyze the environment in order to develop a strategic plan of action for the business. Context analysis also refers to a method of sociological analysis associated with Scheflen (1963) which believes that 'a given act, be it a glance at [another] person, a shift in posture, or a remark about the weather, has no intrinsic meaning. Such acts can only be understood when taken in relation to one another.' (Kendon, 1990: 16). This is not discussed here; only Context Analysis in the business sense is.

The first step of the method is to define a particular market (or subject) one wishes to analyze and focus all analysis techniques on what was defined. A subject, for example, can be a newly proposed product idea.

The next step of the method is to conduct a trend analysis. Trend analysis is an analysis of macro environmental factors in the external environment of a business, also called PEST analysis. It consists of analyzing political, economical, social, technological and demographic trends. This can be done by first determining which factors, on each level, are relevant for the chosen subject and to score each item as to specify its importance. This allows the business to identify those factors that can influence them. They can’t control these factors but they can try to cope with them by adapting themselves. The trends (factors) that are addressed in PEST analysis are Political, Economical, Social and Technological; but for context analysis Demographic trends are also of importance. Demographic trends are those factors that have to do with the population, like for example average age, religion, education etc. Demographic information is of importance if, for example during market research, a business wants to determine a particular market segment to target. The other trends are described in environmental scanning and PEST analysis. Trend analysis only covers part of the external environment. Another important aspect of the external environment that a business should consider is its competition. This is the next step of the method, competitor analysis.

As one can imagine, it is important for a business to know who its competition is, how they do their business and how powerful they are so that they can be on the defense and offense. In Competitor analysis a couple of techniques are introduced how to conduct such an analysis. Here I will introduce another technique which involves conducting four sub analyses, namely: determination of competition levels, competitive forces, competitor behavior and competitor strategy.

Businesses compete on several levels and it is important for them to analyze these levels so that they can understand the demand. Competition is identified on four levels:
Consumer needs: level of competition that refers to the needs and desires of consumers. A business should ask: What are the desires of the consumers? General competition: The kind of consumer demand. For example: do consumers prefer shaving with electric razor or a razor blade? Brand: This level refers to brand competition. Which brands are preferable to a consumer? Product: This level refers to the type of demand. Thus what types of products do consumers prefer? Another important aspect of a competition analysis is to increase the consumer insight. For example: [Ducati] has, by interviewing a lot of their customers, concluded that their main competitor is not another bicycle, but sport cars like [Porsche] or [GM]. This will of course influence the competition level within this business.

These are forces that determine the level of competition within a particular market. There are six forces that have to be taken into consideration, power of the competition, threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, threat of substitute products and the importance of complementary products. This analysis is described in Porter 5 forces analysis.

Competitor behaviors are the defensive and offensive actions of the competition.

These strategies refer to how an organization competes with other organizations. And these are: low price strategy and product differentiation strategy.

The next step, after the trend analysis and competitor analysis are conducted, is to determine threats and opportunities posed by the market. The trends analysis revealed a set of trends that can influence the business in either a positive or a negative manner. These can thus be classified as either opportunities or threats. Likewise, the competitor analysis revealed positive and negative competition issues that can be classified as opportunities or threats.

The last phase of the method is an analysis of the internal environment of the organization, thus the organization itself. The aim is to determine which skills, knowledge and technological fortes the business possesses. This entails conducting an internal analysis and a competence analysis.

The internal analysis, also called SWOT analysis, involves identifying the organizations strengths and weaknesses. The strengths refer to factors that can result in a market advantage and weaknesses to factors that give a disadvantage because the business is unable to comply with the market needs.

Competences are the combination of a business’ knowledge, skills and technology that can give them the edge versus the competition. Conducting such an analysis involves identifying market related competences, integrity related competences and functional related competences.

The ultimate goal of context analysis is to develop a strategic plan. The previous sections described all the steps that form the stepping stones to developing a strategic plan of action for the organization. The trend and competitor analysis gives insight to the opportunities and threats in the market and the internal analysis gives insight to the competences of the organization. And these were combined in the SWOT i matrix. The SWOT i matrix helps identify issues that need to be dealt with. These issues need to be resolved by formulating an objective and a plan to reach that objective, a strategy.

Joe Arden is in the process of writing a business plan for his business idea, Arden Systems. Arden Systems will be a software business that focuses on the development of software for small businesses. Joe realizes that this is a tough market because there are many software companies that develop business software. Therefore, he conducts context analysis to gain insight into the environment of the business in order to develop a strategic plan of action to achieve competitive advantage within the market.

First step is to define a market for analysis. Joe decides that he wants to focus on small businesses consisting of at most 20 employees.

After creating the SWOT i matrix, Joe is now able to devise a strategic plan. Focus all software development efforts to that part of the market which is ignored by market leaders, small businesses. Employ recent innovative It graduates to stimulate the innovation within Arden Systems.