The Landscape Analysis: Five Steps to Start 2021 Right

To succeed in 2021, we recommend “the Landscape Analysis” as the best way to catalog, evaluate and improve your situation. The analysis answers:

What is the environment?
What place do we hold within this environment? Why is this so? Is it likely to continue?
What do we need to know now to improve our position?

Even if you think you know the answers, the current atmosphere indicates a need to reassess the communication environment.

The landscape of which we speak is the business environment. It is comprised of external actors: your customers, competitors, shareholders, regulators, journalists, social media influencers, politicians and local community groups in cities where you conduct business.

It also incorporates the changing business, cultural and societal norms that dictate what it takes to be an admired organization. Last, it includes internal stakeholders, such as senior executives, employees and peers, to address in-house factors such as new developments within your organization.

To begin, fully understand senior executives’ expectations, preferences and values as they relate to communication: What do they value most?