UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA
College of Economic and Management Sciences
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
MNG3701: Strategic Management
Assignment 1 | Semester 2, 2026
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
MNG3701
Module Code:
Strategic Management
Module Name:
Vodacom Group: External and Internal Envi-
Essay Topic:
ronment Analysis
Assignment 1
Assignment Number:
August 2026
Due Date:
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Strategic Management, UNISA 2026
, UNISA | MNG3701 Strategic Management: Assignment 1
Question 1: The External Macro-Environment of Vodacom Group
Vodacom Group Limited competes across South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
Mozambique, Lesotho, Tanzania and Egypt, and its associate Safaricom extends the Group’s
footprint into Kenya and Ethiopia, so its strategic choices are constantly shaped by forces outside
its direct control (Vodacom Group Limited, 2025). This section explains why external environment
analysis matters to strategic management, applies a macro-environmental model to three factors
affecting Vodacom, and links that environmental understanding to resilience and long-term value
creation.
1.1 (a) Purpose of External Environment Analysis in Strategic Management
External environment analysis is the systematic scanning of forces beyond an organisation’s
boundaries, political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal, that shape the
opportunities and threats it must respond to (Johnson, Whittington, Angwin, Regnér and Scholes,
2020). Its purpose in strategic management is threefold. First, it allows management to anticipate
change rather than merely react to it, since forces such as regulatory shifts or new technology
often signal their arrival well before they affect performance (Wheelen and Hunger, 2018). Second,
it grounds strategic choices in evidence about the conditions the organisation actually operates in,
reducing the risk that strategy is built on internal assumptions that no longer hold true in the mar-
ket. Third, it feeds directly into the formulation of strategy: understanding the external environment
enables an organisation to align its resources and capabilities with the opportunities available
and to build defences against emerging threats, which is the essence of achieving strategic fit
(Johnson et al., 2020). For a multinational operator such as Vodacom, whose markets range from
a mature, competitive South African environment to fragile, high-growth economies such as the
DRC and Mozambique, this scanning process is not a peripheral exercise but a precondition for
coherent group strategy.
1.2 (b) Macro-Environmental Analysis: The PESTEL Model Applied to Vodacom Group
The PESTEL framework is the most widely used tool for macro-environmental analysis because
it decomposes the external environment into six discrete categories, Political, Economic, Social,
Technological, Environmental and Legal, allowing an organisation to identify specific drivers of
change rather than treating "the environment" as a single undifferentiated force (Johnson et al.,
2020). Applying PESTEL to Vodacom Group is particularly appropriate because the Group’s Inte-
Page 2 of 9
College of Economic and Management Sciences
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
MNG3701: Strategic Management
Assignment 1 | Semester 2, 2026
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
MNG3701
Module Code:
Strategic Management
Module Name:
Vodacom Group: External and Internal Envi-
Essay Topic:
ronment Analysis
Assignment 1
Assignment Number:
August 2026
Due Date:
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Strategic Management, UNISA 2026
, UNISA | MNG3701 Strategic Management: Assignment 1
Question 1: The External Macro-Environment of Vodacom Group
Vodacom Group Limited competes across South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
Mozambique, Lesotho, Tanzania and Egypt, and its associate Safaricom extends the Group’s
footprint into Kenya and Ethiopia, so its strategic choices are constantly shaped by forces outside
its direct control (Vodacom Group Limited, 2025). This section explains why external environment
analysis matters to strategic management, applies a macro-environmental model to three factors
affecting Vodacom, and links that environmental understanding to resilience and long-term value
creation.
1.1 (a) Purpose of External Environment Analysis in Strategic Management
External environment analysis is the systematic scanning of forces beyond an organisation’s
boundaries, political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal, that shape the
opportunities and threats it must respond to (Johnson, Whittington, Angwin, Regnér and Scholes,
2020). Its purpose in strategic management is threefold. First, it allows management to anticipate
change rather than merely react to it, since forces such as regulatory shifts or new technology
often signal their arrival well before they affect performance (Wheelen and Hunger, 2018). Second,
it grounds strategic choices in evidence about the conditions the organisation actually operates in,
reducing the risk that strategy is built on internal assumptions that no longer hold true in the mar-
ket. Third, it feeds directly into the formulation of strategy: understanding the external environment
enables an organisation to align its resources and capabilities with the opportunities available
and to build defences against emerging threats, which is the essence of achieving strategic fit
(Johnson et al., 2020). For a multinational operator such as Vodacom, whose markets range from
a mature, competitive South African environment to fragile, high-growth economies such as the
DRC and Mozambique, this scanning process is not a peripheral exercise but a precondition for
coherent group strategy.
1.2 (b) Macro-Environmental Analysis: The PESTEL Model Applied to Vodacom Group
The PESTEL framework is the most widely used tool for macro-environmental analysis because
it decomposes the external environment into six discrete categories, Political, Economic, Social,
Technological, Environmental and Legal, allowing an organisation to identify specific drivers of
change rather than treating "the environment" as a single undifferentiated force (Johnson et al.,
2020). Applying PESTEL to Vodacom Group is particularly appropriate because the Group’s Inte-
Page 2 of 9
