Since opportunity comes from demand and the entire business development activity is based on our ability to address the demand, the potential of addressing the underlying problem/need, its impact and duration, there is a need for in-depth analyses. These are usually sorted under the overall term Industry Analysis, which includes Environmental Analysis, Market Analysis, Customer Analysis and Competitive Analysis.

Environmental analysis
Environmental analysis, or also environmental monitoring, is a continuous organizational activity to acquire intelligence about the outside world (for example, competitors and markets) with the aim of positioning the organization, its products and services, or as the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, SCIP, an international organization for professional environmental analysts , defines it: “A systematic and ethical program to collect and analyze information about our competitors.”
In practice, the term often also includes strategic analysis of other external external factors, which may affect the organization in the future, for example political stability and regional economic development, etc.
Here the PESTLE analysis plas a key part. PESTLE is a mnemonic which in its expanded form denotes P for Political, E for Economic, S for Social, T for Technological, L for Legal, and E for Environmental. It gives a bird’s eye view of the whole environment from many different angles that one wants to check and keep a track of while contemplating a certain plan

Market analysis
Described as the activity of gathering information about conditions affecting a marketplace. In short, market analysis is a complete assessment of the size and nature of a particular market or industry. It takes into account both quantitative factors, such as market volume and value, and qualitative factors such as competition and regulation of the market.

Customer analysis
Provides an opportunity to optimize your resource allocation to various activities. Strategic activities that can be optimized are customer recruitment, customer development and countering customer churn.

Competition analysis
The analysis is used to find possible competitive advantages in that the company offers a higher value in the business relationships than the competitors do. Here we highlight the strengths that stand up in comparison to the competitors, and see how we can fill roles where they themselves are lacking. In the same way, it is important to understand one’s own weaknesses/shortcomings.
The competitive analysis is also about understanding and being able to predict what one’s competitors intend to do for future strategic choices. This, in turn, makes it possible to predict how different competitors will act when conditions in industries and markets change.