When we are looking for information to carry out the external analysis of a company or organization, we run the risk of getting lost in that search, for several reasons, and one of them is for not having the necessary skill.
In the story there are many characters that from different approaches have left a legacy of knowledge for their experiences and advice. It is good to look back to minimize those risks.
I meet a character who, in his immersed philosophy and theology of life of his time, uses a very particular way of examining and contributing his points of view to various topics, and I refer to Immanuel Kant, who makes use of criticism. And I take ownership of the fact when he says in his anthropology writing, that there are three kinds of doctrines that contribute to our perfection and I consider those doctrines to be particularly applicable to managers who undertake the task of carrying out a business diagnosis in seeks to identify threaten to minimize or neutralize them.
Introduction
Immanuel Kant's life entirely devoted to study and teaching in an environment characterized by austerity of customs and methodical rigidity at work, educated in the most rigorous Pietistic tradition. (one)
Two periods are distinguished in Kant's work. The pre-critic and the critic, to the second, correspond to his well-known Critics of Pure Reason (1781); Critique of practical reason (1788), Critique of judgment (1790) among others.
Some ancestor thinkers of the idea of critisism known as precritical are: David Hume, Cristian Wolff, Leibniz, Rousseau; of which for Kant some were his inspiring bases for his doctrine. (two)
Philosophy obeys a double interest, theoretical and practical. Kant prefers the latter, since only the practical philosopher is the true philosopher… science sought with criticism and directed with method.
Following the English enlightened, Kant said that concepts must have support in experience.
Personally, I like to know and I try that the theoretical is applied in practice with some methodical basis, which provides us with experience.
The philosophy and criticism that Kant uses is quite complete and extensive to summarize it here in a few lines, so we will limit ourselves to taking two excerpts of his criticisms and finding some application for administrators in the analysis of business threats.
Main concept
Criticism (from the Greek κρινω, kríno, "distinguish", "separate" or "divide") is the epistemological doctrine developed by the philosopher Immanuel Kant, which aims to establish the limits of true knowledge through a systematic investigation of the conditions of possibility of thought. (3)
Criticism: Research method according to which all scientific work must precede the examination of the possibility of knowledge in question; Kant's system and theories of knowledge inspired by Kantism. (4)
Criticism: Name that Kant gave to his idealistic philosophy for understanding that the main object of it was based on the criticism of the cognitive faculty of man. (5)
Kant's intention with this stream of criticism was to subject reason to careful analysis to see its structures and then determine how they know. He wants to base human knowledge by determining the contributions that the subject makes and the contributions that come from experience. The subject receives the data, organizes it, shapes it, through a priori structures, both of sensitivity and of understanding and reason. The "a priori" form, which is provided by the subject, always has a necessary and universal character. (6)
For Kant knowledge was the formal organization of a given objective subject or discipline. (7)
In his anthropology writing, Kant points out the following: There are three kinds of doctrines that contribute to our perfection. One makes us skilled; the other, prudent; the third, sages, to draw distinctions where ability is directed at things; prudence, to human beings. (Leyva, 2008) (8)
One of the first tasks in strategic management is to carry out an analysis of the external environment of the company, in which we consider two factors, that of identifying opportunities and recognizing threats. For this essay we will focus on threats.
Secondary concept
Threaten: To imply that you want to do someone else wrong. Give indications that something bad or unpleasant is imminent. (9)
Synonym of Threat: Bravado, warning, Feint, injunction. (10)
Argumentation
In the business or managerial field to carry out the analysis of the external environment we can resort to some strategic analysis tools, among which we can find: The PESTE Analysis: (Political - Legal, Economic, Social, Technological and Ecological Aspects), also known like the variables of the environment macro. The competition model of the five forces of Michael Porter, and I risk also mentioning that as analysis tools we can go to the Competitive Profile Matrix, and to the External Factors Evaluation Matrix (MEFI), just to mention a few, that there are undoubtedly others that can help us carry out the external analysis.
Recall that Porter's five competitive forces include: Rivalry between competitors, Bargaining power of suppliers, Bargaining power of customers, threat of new entrants, and threat of substitute products, these are the ones normally faced by members of industry and that each one of them has a certain degree of intensity.
To follow up on this essay I will focus on the administrator's necessary skills in identifying threats.
In criticism, some words and even phrases are used, from which I take the liberty of appropriating and focusing them.
Normally, senior management with their team has been entrusted with the doing and doing of strategic management, in which, from my perspective and for this essay, strategic planning has the main role.
And it is right here where I carry out my first analysis and dare to take from Immanuel Kant's critique of "the theoretical and practical":
That skill lies in identifying the main factors as well as the intensity of the pressures.
Here I make my second analysis and take over another excerpt from one of Immanuel Kant's criticisms.
It takes skill, prudence and wisdom to know what are the strengths of substitute products a) If the sales of substitutes grow faster than those of the industry being analyzed, b) if the producers of substitutes acquire more capacity and c) if the profits of substitute producers are on the rise.
In his criticism Kant said that the concepts must be supported by experience, so I can confirm that the information obtained from the competition of the substitutes, as one of the threats; they must be supported and be from reliable sources in order to be certain when the pressures are lower, by identifying that good substitutes are not readily available or at the same time do not exist, that substitutes are more expensive with respect to the performance they are currently offering and current end users have to incur high costs when switching to substitute products.
Conclusion:
I want to share with you a thought that I found that says: “ Even if you don't see threats, there are threats everywhere. ”(SAW III). So skill, prudence, and wisdom are necessary to identify them and do something to minimize or neutralize them.
Much remains to be done in this regard, but I hope that you, dear reader, in your reflections can find other philosophical applications that allow you to compare the propositional criticism of various philosophers in any of the points of the task of external business analysis.
Reference source:
1.- Introduction to the Edit philosophy. Synthesis in Madrid Spain by: Ropero, Alfonso 1999.
2.- History of the Philosophical Doctrines of: Raúl Gutiérrez Saenz, edit. Sphinx.
3.-
4.- Oceano Uno color, encyclopedic dictionary, 2001 Millennium edition.
5.- Soviet dictionary of philosophy -Editions Pueblos Unidos, Montevideo 1965
6.-
7.- Encyclopedia of Social Sciences Preceptor OCEANO
8.- Philosophy of action Edit. Synthesis, in: Madrid Spain, by: Leyva, Gustavo 2008.
9.- One Color Encyclopedic Dictionary.
10.- LAROUSSE Synonym / Antonyms Dictionary.
11.- Strategic administration theory and cases, by: Arthur A. Thompson, Jr. Edit. McGrawHill
12.- mundifrases.com/tema/saw/3181
