HOW TO USE STEEP TREND ANALYSIS IN BUSINESS STRATEGY

HOW TO USE STEEP TREND ANALYSIS IN BUSINESS STRATEGY


One of the most popular tools in foresight is the STEEP trend analysis framework. “Future trends” can be a large, unwieldy subject because nearly everything that’s changing creates the future in some regard. One way to better understand what’s changing is to break down the various trends by category. One such group of categories is referred to as STEEP, or Social, Technological, Economic, Ecological, and Political trends.



Here are the type of trends that go into STEEP analysis.

SOCIAL TRENDS

Since the future is really about how people will be living differently around the world, we start with the capture and analysis of trends in society. This involves any assessment of who people are, how they live, their health, and other trends about daily life. Some prominent indicators include:

Demographics





Marriage rates





Morbidity and mortality





Housing choices





Household size





Leisure time





Religious affiliations



TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS

Looking at trends in technology is one of the most popular ways to forecast the future. After all, industrial advances and the gadgets of modern life have been a key driver of change around the world. In the STEEP trend analysis framework, futurists try to look at a wide variety of technologies, not just the sexy ones that make the hip magazines. These include:

Materials science





Information technologies





Energy generation, storage, and transmission





Genetics and genomics





Medical devices





Pharmaceuticals





Transportation





Construction techniques





Product design



ECONOMIC TRENDS

Changes in the economy receive regular updates from major news media, including bright and flashy television channels. The money in people’s pockets are important personally and on the national level as well. As such, futurists track trends such as:

Interest rates





Employment rates





New business formation rates





Tax rates





Stock markets





Patent and trademark registrations





New housing starts





Consumer confidence indicators



ECOLOGICAL TRENDS

Our world of seven billion rapidly-industrializing human beings has a definite impact on the planet that we call home. When on a local or planetary level, ecological trends are critical to foresight. These include:

Water table levels





Air pollution





Topsoil levels





Atmospheric carbon dioxide





Climate change





Extractive resource availability (petroleum, natural gas, minerals)



POLITICAL TRENDS

Often one of the most neglected areas of STEEP analysis is political trends. The changes in ideology and political participation can radically shift the future. For these reasons it is useful to track:

Voting participation rates





Spending on political campaigns





Type and number of political parties





Qualitative assessment of political rhetoric





Regulations under proposal





New laws passed





Treaties and alliances





Trade deals



WHAT TO DO WITH STEEP TREND ANALYSIS?

If you’re conducting a research project on the future of your industry and you include STEEP trend analysis, you will emerge from this process with consider amounts of data. The challenge then will be to apply tools to distill implications from the data and see what it means for your present and future strategies.

 https://www.competitivefutures.com/steep-trend-analysis/ 


Location: Chicago, United States

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