LoNGPESTLE Analysis: A Tool to Help You Make Better Decisions

We’ve previously produced an introduction to PESTLE analysis, the excellent framework for looking at factors that impact your business – Political, Economic, Social, Technical, Legal and Environmental.

You can also check out our ultimate to PESTLE Analysis.

Think of this article as an extension so the other guides. We’re going to introduce a new concept to PESTLE called LoNGPESTLE.

What is a LoNGPESTLE Analysis?

As mentioned, PESTLE is a framework for identifying the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors impacting your business. There are some common challenges around completing a PESTLE:

• It can be difficult to focus your thinking on these subjects because they’re nebulous and large
• You may be a company that has impacts on a global level and local level
• It’s hard to categorise aspects of the PESTLE analysis output.

LoNGPESTLE introduces three new dimensions to your thinking:

• Local
• National
• Global

The structure of a LoNGPESTLE allows you to categorise your Political, Economic, Social, Technical, Legal and Environment entries into geographic locations. This lets you easily view and disgest all the information at once.

What are the advantages of LoNGPESTLE?

As you’d expect, it has all the benefits of the PESTLE framework which include…

• It’s easy to use
• It produces a simple framework to share
• PESTLE can be done in a group or solo
• A lot of detail and thought can be captured in a single analysis
• It ensures people are thinking outside the business

In addition, it has the following:

• An easy way to categorise the data geographically
• Provides a structure to the way you complete PESTLE
• Steers thinking within the group on strategy

What are some of the limitations of LoNGPESTLE?

The same as with PESTLE really…

• It remains easy to be broad, as these are large topics with potentially huge impacts (e.g. political factors like Brexit!)
• There’s no weighting to the different points raised in the framework

How do you make the most out of LoNGPESTLE?

Firstly decide if you need to do a LoNGPESTLE or if a standard PESTLE would work as well for you. Even without the LoNG, a PESTLE can produce some of the biggest discussions in a strategy workshop, and provide a really useful tool for people entering the business to see what is being considered and what may impact you later down the line.

Make sure you prepare for the LoNGPESTLE session to get the most out of it and bring together a cross section of employees to help produce the best output.

What prework should be done before a LoNGPESTLE?

As with PESTLE, you can produce a LoNGPESTLE without any prework… but you’ll be much better off if you have some initial thinking or data collection done. Consider the following…

• Current client trends – what is impacting your customers?
• Geographic performance of your company – what is working, what isn’t?
• Location of customers and their industries
• News on your industry from a source like Google News and Crunchbase
• Examples of sales wins and losses within the business
• Allocate each part of the PESTLE to different managers to research in advance of the brainstorming session

How do we work through a LoNGPESTLE session?

They work in exactly the same way as PESTLE – the only difference being you need to agree in each pillar over the geography your discussion is covering. Here’s the PESTLE guide.

What’s the best medium for LoNGPESTLE?

As you’d expect, the same as PESTLE – it works much better when you’re all together as a cross-disciplined team physically or virtually. This different skills mix means you’ll have the best market knowledge coverage to produce the right LoNGPESTLE for you.

How often is LoNGPESTLE updated?

LoNGPESTLE should be reviewed at least on an annual basis. It means you’re always on top of your ever-changing landscape as you look at your overall strategy and keeps employees looking outwards.
The review shouldn’t be limited to your legal or technological factors. Every factor should be carefully addressed as they are equally important.