The external environmental analysis may reveal certain new opportunities for profit and growth. Some examples of such opportunities include:

   1. An unfulfilled customer need.

   2. Arrival of new technologies.

   3. Loosening of regulations.

   4. Removal of international trade barriers.

   Changes in the external environmental also may present threats to the firm. Some examples of such threats include:

   1. Shifts in consumer tastes away from the firm's products.

   2. Emergence of substitute products.

   3. New regulations.

   4. Increased trade barriers.