Contemporary Developments in Business

CONTEMPORARY
DEVELOPMENTS
IN BUSINESS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Brief overview of the primary external influences to which the organization is subject and
importance of these elements ......................................................................................................3
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................5
2.i Relevance of technological changes for Cargill organization ...............................................6
2.ii Critical evaluation of organizations response ......................................................................8
2.iii Areas of improvement .......................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
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INTRODUCTION
Agriculture and animal production industry works for providing better nutritional values
to people. Present report is based on Cargill which is operating its business in UK and offers
healthy nutritional products. The report describes about primary external influences that gives
impact on the operational activities that are performed in business. In addition to that relevance
of technological changes for the organization and recommendations for making improvements in
the existing processes have been mentioned in the report.
TASK 1
Brief overview of the primary external influences to which the organization is subject and
importance of these elements
Cargill is a leading animal nutritional supplier company that offers superior quality goods
and services. Diverse variety of products that are offered by the organization includes
Agriculture, animal nutrition, energy transportation and metals, grains and oil seeds, cotton and
industrial products. Company was established in the year 1955 and more than 150000 employees
are giving positive efforts for accomplishing the goals of the enterprise. Recently, company has
acquired EWOS enterprise which is a salmon nutrition organization and global leader in this
sector (Cargill. 2016). Operational activities and functions of the entity are performed by making
proper strategies and action plan. Company uses superior quality processing, marketing,
distribution capabilities and logistics functions for achieving the set targets. Diverse variety of
agriculture and nutritional products are offered by the enterprise including compound feed and
premix feed and distinct values are offered to the consumers (Products and services. 2016).
Primary external influence affects the functional activities of the enterprise.
It is vital that proper action plans should be formulated in the enterprise for mitigating the
negative impact of these factors. Global economy is one prominent element that impact on the
overall performance of the business. Cargill operates its functions in more than 70 nations and
market fluctuation, inflation and deflation, recession, currency devaluation and terrorism
influences the global economy. While executing business functions in diverse nations of the
world it is vital that economic situation and various trade related policies should be considered so
that more profitability and financial revenues can be earned. Unemployment, inflation and
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deflation are some important economic factors that give impact business. Demand and supply of
goods gets influenced due to it and overall sales for agriculture and animal nutrition products get
affected. In addition to that, weather and environment factors are also in the category of
significant primary external influence which affects the business functions of Cargill.
Agriculture and nutritional products that are supplied by the organization gets affected
due to bad weather condition. It is necessary that controlled temperature and other environmental
conditions should be present so that all the products can be manufactured and delivered properly
(About Cargill in UK. 2016). Some extreme weather conditions which can be faced by the
enterprise include storms, heavy rain fall, hurricane, and incidents of wildfires, tornado and other
natural disasters. All these elements are beyond the control of organization and overall
performance of the entity gets affected due to it. Direct impact is observed on the operational
functions which are performed in the entity. Trends running in the market and preferences and
needs of consumers also come in the category of prime influence factors (Bowler, 2014.)
marketing activities of the entity focuses on taste and requirement of purchasers so that products
can be sold to large number of consumers. It is critical that trends running in the industry should
be assessed so that products can be developed according to that (Holt-Giménez and Altieri,
2013).
Legal and regulatory factors also are significant primary influence elements which affect
the functioning of corporation. If there will be federal changes in laws than due to that direct
affect is observed on the business activities of the firm. Policies and guidelines given by
government are mandatory to follow for carrying out the business activities. It is required that
Cargill organization should comply with policies and rules that are formulated by the
government. All the operational functions of the enterprise get influenced due to it and
regulations imposed by the state affect functioning of the entity. Government norms are beyond
the control of management and it becomes vital to comply with the policies and rules which are
being formed by the state. Requirement and preferences shown by consumers also affects the
execution of business operations and due to that overall profitability and financial revenuers get
influenced (Tomlinson, 2013). It is assertive that consumer oriented products should be
developed so that large market area can be covered by the entity.
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