Critical Thinking Current Event - General Environment; Industry Environment

What is going on in the world? Find a current event (within last six months) that is relevant to one of the concepts covered in lecture. Please include a link to the article and thorough explanation of why it is relevant, what business concepts it is demonstrates, and the significance of the news. This is NOT a summary of the news; this is where you practice and demonstrate critical thinking (a key learning objective of the class). The topics covered this week were:

The General Environment

• Trends in the general environment
  1. Political
  2. Economic
  3. Socio-cultural
  4. Technological
  5. Legal
  6. Environmental

The Industry Environment

• Five forces of an industry analysis.
  1. Threat of new entrants
  2. Threat of substitutes
  3. Power of suppliers
  4. Power of buyers
  5. Intensity of Rivalry
• Understand strategic groups