History of PEST & PESTLE
mike morrison, Manager, United Kingdom, Member
Hi, some years ago I started personally investigating this, as much of what is on the web is not true.
I bought every book referenced about the subject (yes they are still on my book shelf).
From this research, the earliest know reference to tools and techniques for ‘Scanning the Business Environment’ appears to be by
Francis J. Aguilar (1967) who discusses ‘ETPS’ – a mnemonic for the four sectors of his taxonomy of the environment: Economic, Technical, Political, and Social. Some time after its publication, Arnold Brown for the Institute of Life Insurance (in the US) reorganized it as ‘STEP’ (Strategic Trend Evaluation Process) as a way to organise the results of his environmental scanning.
