Chapter I This connotes that the narrative of the past is

always written in bias of the powerful and the more

INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY
1.1 Nature of History
1.2 Relevance of History
1.3 History as Reconstruction and Discipline
1.4 Historical Methods and Resources
1.5 Historical Criticism
1.6 Historical Thinking
1.1 Nature of History
 History as narrative
 History as discipline
 History is known as the study of the past
 History is derived from the Greek word
historia which means “knowledge acquired
through inquiry or investigation”
 History as discipline existed for around
2,400 years and is as old as mathematics
and philosophy.
“KASAYSAYAN” - “SALAYSAY” na may “SAYSAY”
sa “SINASALAYSAYANG” “SALINGLAHI.” (Zeus
Salazar) “Chronological study of the past”
dominant player.
For instance, history of the Second World War II in
the Philippines always depicts the United States as
the hero and the Imperial Japanese Army as the
oppresors.
TRY TO ANALYZE:
“Ang kasaysayan ay para sa lahat ngunit hindi lahat
ay historyador.” (Xiao Chua)
1.2 Relevance of History
History played various role in the past
a. States use history to unit a nation
b. Lessons from the past can be used to make
sense of the present
c. Learning of the past mistakes can help people to
not repeat them
d. Being reminded of a great past can inspire
people to keep their good practices to move
forward.
1.3 History as Reconstruction

Historia became known as the second account of

the past of a person or of a group of people through
written documents and historical evidences.
THE FOCUS OF HISTORY:
1. Heroes
2. Saints
3. Writings about wars and revolutions
TRY TO EXPLAIN:
WHAT COUNTS AS HISTORY?
“Facts cannot speak for themselves”
1.Traditional Historians “no document, no history”
“Historian is not a blank paper who mechanically
2. Valid Historical Sources oral traditions in form
interprets and analyzes present historical fact.”
1.3 History as Discipline
Is History considered “Social Science?”

Issues in History
Accusation that history is always written by victors.
1.4 Historical Methods and Resources provenance, memory, remembering, and historical
understanding of both present and the future.
Historical researches require rigor
The Divisions of History
Historian follow the Historical methodology – the
one comprised of techniques and rules. a. Pre-History
The Annales School of History – born in France b. History
that challenged the canons of history.
Pre-History period
In doing this, Annales thinkers married history with
other discipline such as geography, anthropology,  where no written records exist or when the
archeology, and linguistics writings of people were not preserved
 analyzed through fossils and artifacts by
Historical Methods and Resources Archaeologists and Anthropologists
History
 period when man started to write and record
events using a system of writing
 analyzed through wood carves, engraved
metals, written papyrus, written papers
History in Writings
BAYBAYIN
 Not the same with ALIBATA
How to determine the effectivity of a given source?
 Known as “National Writing System of the
1.5 Historical Criticism Country” Proposed by Pangasinan
Representative Bataoil
 3 VOWELS 14 CONSONANTS

TRY TO ANSWER:
Why is validation of historical sources important?
BAYBAYIN
Without thorough criticisms of historical evidences,
historical deceptions and lies will be highly probable 1. Pronunciation = spelling
1.6 Historical Thinking 2. Separate words in syllables
What are the tasks of Historians? 3. Foreign letters have equivalent local letters
a. To look at the available historical sources
b. Select the most relevant and meaningful for
history and for the subject matter that he is
studying.
c. Organize the past that is being created so that it
can offer lessons for nations, societies, and
civilization.
d. To seek for the meaning of recovering the past to
let the people see the continuing relevance of
STRATEGIC BUSINESS ANALYSIS
Types of Business Analysis
1. SWOT Analysis
S.W.O.T. stands
for Strength, Weakness, Opportunities,
and Threats. This is the most important technique
used in business analysis. It is conducted by a
group of people with different mindsets and
perspectives in the company in order to access a
changing environment and react accordingly.
It is kind of the business framework in which
strengths and weaknesses are internal data factors
whereas opportunities and threats are the external
data factors.  It gives a better understanding of the organization’s
Strength of the company can be classified as the
actions that work well for different problems and
confers the key advantages to the company. Some
examples of strengths are the company name,
company location, trusted employees, great
reputation, customer support, brand name, product,
etc.  process. Each department of the organization
Weakness of the company is the different activities
or disadvantages which create problems for the
growth or policies of the company. Examples of
weaknesses are bad reputation, incomplete
product, lazy employees, department rivalry,
persistent negativity, office politics, etc.
 
Opportunities are external facts and figures which
have the potential to provide an advantage or an
edge above competitors. Any kind of advantage
due to external facts is an opportunity.  organization. They are formed in a simple manner
Some examples of opportunities are investing in
the startup at an early edge to gain more profit
later. One of the classic examples of opportunity in
Indian startup is that after demonetization many
digital payment startups (an example of digital
transformation) got millions of funding.
Threats are also an external fact or information that
can create a disadvantage to the company. Some
of the examples of threats are changes in market
research and trends, new regulations, new
technology such as AI and IoT implementation in
touch screen mobile phones that were perhaps a
threat to keypad phones, an example
of cyberthreats.
2.  MOST Analysis
M.O.S.T. stands for Mission, Objective, Strategy,
and Tactics. MOST analysis is also a powerful
technique to do business analysis. MOST analysis
always works from the top. Business Analyst
should ensure that it retains the focus towards
goals which are most important for the
organization.
capabilities and vision (purpose) and to provide
answers to the interrogation such as what does the
organization wants to achieve in terms of mission
and objectives, how these actions can be
implemented in strategies and tactics. 
Mission should be an organization’s enduring
equally contributes to the mission statement. It
clears an overall reason for being in business and
what will be the outcomes to accomplish. The more
clear the business is about its mission, the more
likely it will succeed.
Objectives are the one step down after mission.
These are defined as specific aims for each
department to achieve its mission. Objectives
should be smart and specific for decision making.
They should also be measurable and realistic.
Strategies are the actions that should be taken in
order to accomplish organizational objectives.
These are the long-term approach to achieve
objectives. There are many groups of sorts of
actions to achieve at least one goal of objectives of
the mission. Strategies are also considered as the
safest way to move forward in the organization.
Tactics are designed to carry out strategies in the
so that they can be understood by every person in
the organization who does not have an overview of
MOST analysis. These are short term approach to
complete strategies.
3. PESTLE Analysis
In any organization, there are many external
macro-environmental factors that can affect its
performance. PESTLE analysis is sometimes also
referred to as the PEST analysis and has used in
various business applications.  method for collecting and interpreting facts, looking
 
PESTLE stands for Political, Economical, Social,
Technological, Legal and Environmental. These
forces or factors can create opportunities or threats
to any organization so it is a very powerful tool or
technique of business analysis.  creating a process together to make an efficient
Political factors determine how a government’s
policies and regulation act influence an
organization.  It is also related to the government’s
intervention in the economy. All the factors that
influence business by the government can be
classified here such as tax policies, tariffs, law,
trade control, import restrictions, etc.
Economical factors have a significant impact on
how do organizations run their business and how
profitable business is. Economic factors include
economic growth, exchange rate, inflation rate and
interest rate.
Social factors include health consciousness,
population growth rate, age distribution, cultural
trends etc. These factors help marketers to
understand their customer’s requirements. 
 
Technological factors include the rate of
technology advancements, innovation, automation,
research and development which might impact
business growth.  activity having a completely different purpose of
Legal factors include the discrimination laws,
copyright/patent laws, data privacy laws, health and
insurance laws, etc. The organization must run
within its legal boundaries.
Environmental factors include weather, climate
change, air and water pollution, etc. These factors
especially impact many industries such as tourism,
farming, insurance, etc.  ideas, thoughts, etc. A Business Analyst’s role is to
4.  System Analysis
System analysis is a systematic problem-solving
system’s weaknesses, identify business problems,
or decomposition of the system into smaller parts. It
is an approach to minimize the error of different
issues. 
System analysis is the process of studying the
company’s perspective, identifying its goals,
system. For instance, a problem can be solved in a
few hours without analyzing a system completely
but sometimes it creates many other irrelevant
issues. So, the better you understand the system,
chances are less for any problem to arise
5.  Business Model Analysis
The business model analysis helps us to
understand the business of the company and clears
the policies, market approaches, and techniques. It
gives a better understanding of many things like
revenue model, value offering to which customer’s
segment, cost involved in value offering, effects on
the company if the business model changes.
6.  Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a useful technique to generate
diverse ideas, to resolve or find a solution for the
complex problems and to analyze business
properly.
It is defined as “a group problem-solving technique
that involves the spontaneous contribution of ideas
from all members of the group.”
In brainstorming, each idea of an individual person
whether it is out of the box idea is
encouraged. Brainstorming targets creative thinking
about a problem in order to come up with a new set
of ideas, approaches, and options. It is a group
generating solutions for the problems. 
7.  Mind Mapping
Mind Mapping is a very useful and effective
business analysis technique that gives us a clear
and visual understanding of different problems,
investigate and evaluate problems obtained by
clients or stakeholders that can be solved by using
mind maps to get structured details of any ideas,
thoughts, and information.
The mind mapping technique ensures that all the
factors which are needed to analyze have been
considered or not. There are several tools available
to make mind maps online such as Freemind,
Xmind, Mindmap, Lucidchart, Canva, etc.

8.  Process Design
This is a crucial part of the business analysis where
a Business Analyst identifies the organization’s
process designs and their useful and harmful
attributes.
Process designs are essential to solve the
problems and exploiting opportunities in order to
monitor and measure the effectiveness of business
to ensure consistent value delivery to
consumers. Process designs can also be described
as a future state of any business operations.
A Business process analyst analyzes the existing
process design and does changes if required. The
business analyst is responsible for understanding
the wide business process improvement and
maintain them.

Conclusion
There are many techniques available for business
analysis. In this blog, the importance of business
analysis along with different techniques discussed.
The role of the Business Analyst not only limited to
analyze the data available but also to enhance the
business up to the next level. He chooses the
appropriate technique according to business
problems and takes necessary actions for
improvement.
Business analysis is a great way to understand
any business as it can give you a clear
understanding of the business process, targeted
customer segment, market, value system, future
state, policies, capabilities, and competitors. Thank
You! For more blogs in Analytics and new
technologies do read Analytics Steps.

 
SUSTAINABILITY AND STRATEGIC AUDIT
On External Assessment
The Nature of an External Audit
The purpose of an external audit is to develop a
finite list of opportunities that could benefit a firm
and threats that should be avoided. As the term
finite suggests, the external audit us not aimed at
developing an exhaustive list of every possible
factor that could influence the business, rather, it is
aimed at identifying key variables that offer
actionable responses.
The Industrial Organization (I/O) View
The Industrial Organization (I/O) approach to
competitive advantage advocates that external
(industry) factors are more important that internal
factors in a firm achieving competitive advantage.
Proponents of the I/O view, such as Michael Porter
contend that organizational performance will be
primarily determined by industry forces. Managing
strategically from the I/O perspective entails firms
striving to compete in attractive industries to avoid
weak or faltering industries and gain a full
understanding of key external factor relationships
within that attractive industry.
External Opportunities and Threats
External Opportunities and External Threats
refer to economic, social, cultural, demographic,
environmental, political, legal, technological, and
competitive trends and events that could
significantly benefit or harm an organization in the
future.
Opportunities and threats are largely beyond the
control of a single organization – thus the word
external. Opportunities and Threats may include
the passage of a law, the introduction of a new
product by a competitor, the wireless revolution,
biotechnology, population shifts, very high gas
prices, a national catastrophe, or the changes in
the value of the dollar
Economic Forces
Increasing numbers of two-income households is
an economic trend not just in the United Stated but
all over the world, including the Philippines.
Individuals place a premium on time. Improved
customer service, immediate availability, trouble-
free operation of products and dependable
maintenance and repair services are becoming
more important. People today are more willing than
ever to pay for good service if it limits
inconvenience.
1. Availability of credit
2. Central banking system and monetary policy
3. Interest, taxes and inflation rates
4. Level of disposable income
5. Income differences
Social, Cultural, Demographic and
Environmental Forces
The abovementioned changes have a major impact
upon virtually all products, service, markets and
customers. Small, large, for-profit and nonprofit
organizations in all industries are being staggered
and challenged by the opportunities and threats
arising from changes in social, cultural,
demographic and environmental variables. In every
way, the country is much different today than it was
yesterday, and tomorrow promises even greater
changes.
1. Birth and death rates
2. Pollution
3. Number of churches and church members
4. Social responsibility
5. Recycling and wastes management
Political, Government and Legal Forces
Federal, state, local and foreign governments are
major regulators, deregulators, subsidizers,
employers and customers of organizations.
Political, government and legal factors therefore
can represent key opportunities or threats for both
small and large organizations.
1. Patent laws
2. World oil, currency and labor markets
3. Government regulations or deregulations
4. Number, severity and location of government
protests
5. Level of government subsidies.
Technological Forces
Revolutionary technological changes and
discoveries are having a dramatic impact on
organizations. Superconductivity advancements
alone, which increase the power of electrical
products by lowering resistance to current are
revolutionizing business operations, especially in
the transportation, utility, healthcare, electrical and
computer industries.
Educational Forces
The literacy level and the percentage of population
that belong to the different educational strata for
one, bear upon the marketing approach for the
products which the firm is to produce.
The types – even qualities- of goods that will be in
demand vary according to individual tastes, which
in turn are shaped by the educational backgrounds
of the prospective consumers. Even the media and
techniques used in advertising these products are
largely dictated upon by these very same factors.
1. Literacy level
2. Specialized vocational and technical education
3. Higher education
4. Special management programs
5. Attitude towards education
Competitive Forces
An important part of an external audit is identifying
rival firms and determining the strengths,
weaknesses, capabilities, opportunities, threats,
objectives, and strategies. Collecting and
evaluating information on competitors is essential
for successful strategy formulation. Identifying
major competitors is not always easy because
many firms have divisions that compete in different
industries. Most multidivisional firms generally do
not provide sales and profit information on a
divisional basis for competitive reasons. Also,
privately held firms do not publish any financial or
marketing information.
Competitive Analysis: Porter’s Five-Forces
Model
Rivalry among Competing Firms
Rivalry among competing firms is usually the most
powerful of the five competitive forces. The
strategies pursued by one firm can be successful
only to the extent that they provide competitive
advantage over the strategies pursued by rival
firms. Changes in strategy by one firm may be met
with retaliatory countermoves such as lowering
prices, enhancing quality, adding features,
providing services, extending warranties, and
increasing advertising.
Potential Entry of New Competitors
Whenever new firms can easily enter a particular
industry, the intensity of competitiveness among
firms increase. Barriers to entry, however, can
include the need to gain economies of scale
quickly, the need to gain technology and
specialized know-how, the lack of experience,
strong customer loyalty, strong brand preference,
large capital requirements, lack of adequate
distribution channels, government regulatory
policies, tariffs, lack of access to raw materials,
possession of patents, undesirable locations,
counterattack by entrenched firms, and potential
saturation of the market.
Potential Development of Substitute Products
Competitive pressures arising from substitute
products increase as the relative price of substitute
product declines and as consumers’ switching
costs decrease. The competitive strength of
substitute products is best measured by the inroads
into the market share those products obtain, as well
as those firms’ plans for increased capacity and
market penetration. The presence of substitute
products puts a ceiling on the price that can be
charged before consumers will switch to the
substitute product. Price ceilings equate to profit
ceilings and more intense competition among
rivals.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

A supplier group is powerful if: it is dominated by a

few companies and is more concentrated than the
industry it sells to; its product is unique or least
differentiated; it is not obliged to contend with other
products for sale to the industry; it poses a credible
threat of integrating forward into the industry’s
business; and the industry is not an important
customer of the supplier group.

Bargaining Power of Consumers

A buyer group is powerful if: it is concentrated or

purchases in large volumes; the products it
purchases are standard or undifferentiated; it earns
low profits which create great incentive to lower its
cost; the product is unimportant to the quality of the
buyers’ product or service; the industry’s product
does not save the buyer money; and the buyer
poses a credible threat of integrating backward to
make the industry’s product.

Sources of External Information

A wealth of strategic information is available to

organization from both published and unpublished
sources. Unpublished sources include customer
surveys, market research, speeches at professional
and shareholders’ meetings, television programs,
interviews and, and conversations with
stakeholders. Published sources of strategic
information include periodicals, journals, reports,
government documents, abstracts, books,
directories, newspapers, and manuals. The internet
has made it easier for firms to gather, assimilate
and evaluate information.