THE acronym PEST aims to make us look at political, economic, social and technological pressures for change when assessing the business environment. Here, Harvey Carruthers discusses some of the factors that might need to be considered when applying the PEST model to veterinary practice. In Ray Bradbury's short story 'A Sound of Thunder', a time traveller accidentally kills a prehistoric butterfly and changes mankind's future. In a similar vein, mathematical and economic chaos theories have been developed that demonstrate the 'butterfly effect' - the idea that a minor change in one corner of the environment can produce profound changes elsewhere. The PEST - political, economic, social and technological - model is one of the early manifestations of this economic theory, and a powerful method for improving business performance.
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