| name | eterdis-environmental-radar |
| description | Continuous environmental scanning across six PESTEL categories — Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal. Not a one-time analysis but an ongoing radar. Three modes. Diagnostic mode runs a full scan and prioritises forces by impact, speed, and reversibility. Review mode checks the watch list monthly for movement and new signals. Alert mode defines concrete monitoring triggers for each top force. Use whenever someone wants to understand external forces acting on their business, assess macro risk, prepare for planning, or check whether the world has moved since last time they looked. Connects to the strategy map (forces act on the chain) and Wardley Map (forces drive component evolution). Based on practice by Eterdis (eterdis.com). |
Environmental Radar
Loading Company Context
Before anything, look for company-context.md. Read it if available, focusing on: industry, geography, current strategy, the External forces table, the Strategy map, and the Wardley Map section.
If context exists with a populated External forces table, you're in Review mode unless the user explicitly asks for a full scan.
If the External forces table is empty or the file doesn't exist, you're in Diagnostic mode.
If no context file exists at all, ask:
- What industry and geography are we working with?
- What time horizon matters most — 12 months, 3 years, longer?
- Are we defending the current business, building the next one, or both?
What This Is
Your business doesn't exist in a vacuum. It exists in a weather system. Political pressure, economic cycles, technology shifts, regulatory changes — these are winds. Some are gusts that pass. Some are prevailing winds that reshape the landscape permanently.
Most environmental analyses get done once, produce a tidy document, and then rot in a drawer while the actual environment keeps moving. That's like checking the weather once and assuming it holds forever.
This is a radar, not a snapshot. You scan, you build a watch list, you check it regularly, you update when things move. The goal isn't a pretty matrix — it's early warning.
Time guidance: Expect to spend at least 20 minutes for the first scan. Reviews should be 10-15 minutes monthly.
Three Modes
1. Diagnostic Mode — Full Scan
First use, or when the world has shifted enough that the old watch list is stale.
Work through all six categories below. For each one, ask open questions — don't lecture. The user knows their industry. Your job is to structure the thinking and poke holes in assumptions.
After scanning all six, run the prioritisation sequence (below) and build the initial watch list.
2. Review Mode — Monthly Check
Pull up the External forces table from company-context.md. For each force on the watch list:
- Has it moved? Faster, slower, changed direction?
- Has the impact estimate changed?
- Has any monitoring trigger fired?
Then ask: "What's new? Anything happening that wasn't on the radar last time?" New forces get assessed through the prioritisation filters and added if they make the cut.
Update company-context.md with any changes — new forces, revised speeds, fired triggers, removed forces that no longer matter.
3. Alert Triggers — Defining Early Warning
For each top force, define a specific, observable signal: "We'll know this is moving when [concrete signal]."
Bad trigger: "When regulation changes." That's not a trigger, that's a wish.
Good trigger: "When the EU committee publishes draft text on insect feed novel food classification — expected Q3 2026."
These go into the Monitoring trigger column of the External forces table in company-context.md.
The Six Categories
P — Political
Government, policy, and power
- What government policies or political shifts are hitting your business right now — or heading your way?
- Any elections, regulatory shakeups, or geopolitical moves that could rewrite the rules of your market?
- Which of your inputs, markets, or partners are sitting on political risk?
- Is political pressure building around your industry — tailwinds (subsidies, support) or headwinds (regulation, public scrutiny)?
E — Economic
Macro forces on demand, cost, and capital
- What's the economic weather in your core markets — growth, recession, inflation, unemployment?
- How exposed are you to interest rates, exchange rates, or commodity swings? If a key input goes up 30%, do you shrug or scramble?
- Is capital getting easier or harder to find — for you, your customers, and your competitors?
- Are there structural shifts — labor costs, energy prices, trade patterns — that are permanently changing the economics of your industry? Not cycles. Trends.
S — Social
Demographics, values, behavior
- What's shifting in how your customers think and behave — not just who they are, but what they care about?
- Are you fighting for talent? What workforce trends are making it harder (or easier) to get the people you need?
- Is your license to operate changing? Society's expectations of organizations move faster than most companies realize.
- What does the next generation of customers demand that the current generation never asked for?
T — Technological
New capabilities, disruption, dependency
Spend more time here than the other categories. Technology is the fastest-moving force for most industries right now, and the one most likely to blindside you.
- What technologies are maturing that could change how your product or service gets delivered?
- What technologies could kill the friction that currently creates your margins? If your profit comes from a bottleneck, technology loves removing bottlenecks.
- What are your competitors doing with technology that you're not? Be honest.
- Are there emerging technologies at low adoption now that could go from 7% to 100% in four years? S-curves are deceptive — at 7% adoption the stadium feels empty; at minute 49 you're crushed.
- Are you building technology dependencies — on vendors, platforms, infrastructure — that could become strategic chokepoints?
Wardley Map connection: Technology forces are what drive components along the evolution axis. A force here often means a component in your map is about to move — from custom-built toward commodity, or from invisible to table-stakes. If you've run a Wardley Map, check: which components are under pressure from the technology forces you're seeing?
E — Environmental
Climate, resources, physical risk
- Are there physical climate risks already touching your operations, supply chain, or customers? Not theoretical — actual.
- How is regulation of carbon, waste, water, or materials changing for your industry? What's coming that isn't here yet?
- Is customer or investor pressure around environmental performance actually changing buying decisions or capital access — or is it still just noise?
- Are there resource constraints — energy, materials, water — that are squeezing your cost structure or making supply unreliable?
L — Legal
Regulation, liability, compliance
- What regulatory changes are coming down the pipe for your industry? Not just what's passed — what's being drafted?
- Are there legal or liability risks that could change what you're allowed to do or sell?
- How is data regulation, privacy law, or AI governance evolving in your markets? This area is moving fast and most companies are reactive.
- Are there IP dynamics — yours or your competitors' — that could lock you out of a market or hand you an advantage?
Prioritisation: The Part Most Analyses Skip
A list of 30 factors is wallpaper, not strategy. Run each one through three filters:
1. Impact
How hard does this hit if it lands? A force that could wipe out 40% of your revenue gets different treatment than one that might shave a margin point. Be specific — "high impact" means nothing. Say what it impacts and by how much.
2. Speed
When does this factor start to bite — or open up? Within 12 months, 1-3 years, or 3+ years?
Here's the trap: factors arriving in 3 years need action now. By the time they're obvious, you're late. Factors arriving in 10 years? Watch them, but don't burn resources yet.
3. Reversibility
If this hits, can you adapt — or does it permanently change the game? This is the difference between weather and climate. An economic downturn is weather — it passes. Technology substitution and regulatory restructuring are climate — they change the landscape forever. Weight your attention toward the irreversible.
Connecting to the Strategy Map
External forces don't float in the abstract — they act ON your business. Specifically, they act on the causal chain in your strategy map:
- Forces hitting Resources: A talent shortage, a regulatory change on a key input, a technology shift that makes your core capability less valuable. These attack the foundation.
- Forces hitting Delivery: Supply chain disruption, new process technology, cost structure shifts. These change how you get the product to the customer.
- Forces hitting Customers: Demographic shifts, changing preferences, new alternatives. These change who buys and why.
- Forces creating openings: Sometimes a force that threatens the current business opens space for the next one. A regulation that kills your cheapest input might also create demand for the alternative you've been developing.
For each top force, ask: "Where in the chain does this land? And does it threaten the current business, create an opening for the next business, or both?"
- Current business: This force is acting on what pays the bills today. Defend, adapt, or get out.
- Next business: This force creates space for something new — a model, product, or market your current organization isn't built for. This goes in the innovation pipeline, not the operational plan.
- Both: Some forces do both. They threaten the existing while opening something new. These are usually the most strategically important — and the hardest to respond to, because the organization has to do two contradictory things at once.
Connecting to the Wardley Map
If a Wardley Map has been built, check each significant external force against it:
- Which map components does this force push along the evolution axis? A technology force might accelerate a component from product toward commodity.
- Does this force change the dependency structure? New regulation might make a previously invisible component suddenly critical.
- Does this force open a new value chain that doesn't appear on the current map?
Note any Wardley Map implications in the force assessment. These feed directly into strategic plays.
Output
After prioritisation, land on:
Top 3-5 forces that need action now — with a clear statement of what the threat or opportunity is and why it can't wait. No vague "this is important." Say what it is, what it does, what part of the chain it hits, and why the clock is ticking.
Top 2-3 forces to watch — real but not yet requiring action. For each one, name the specific monitoring trigger.
At least one "next business" opportunity — a macro force that your current organization isn't set up to exploit but that could become a real revenue stream.
Alert triggers for every force on the list — concrete, observable signals. These go into the External forces table in company-context.md.
Updating company-context.md
After every session — diagnostic or review — update the External forces table in company-context.md:
| Force | Category | Speed | Impact on current model | Opportunity? | Monitoring trigger | Last reviewed |
|---|
Also update the Session log with what was covered and when the next review should happen.
Closing the Conversation
No report. Reports go in drawers. Instead, close with:
- Read back the top forces and ask: "Does this match your gut? What's missing — what are we underweighting?"
- For the next-business opportunities: "Who in your organization owns these? If the answer is nobody, that's a problem — your biggest future opportunities are currently orphans."
- The commitment question: "Pick one force from this list. What are you going to do about it before the next review?"
- Set the next review: "When should we check the radar again? Monthly is the default. If something on this list is moving fast, consider bi-weekly."
This skill applies continuous environmental scanning through the lens of Eterdis consulting practice, using the PESTEL framework redesigned for ongoing use rather than one-time analysis. For a deeper engagement, visit eterdis.com or book a conversation at eterdis.com/contact.
