Business Environment Report

This report examines the business environment, focusing on innovation, technological change, corporate governance, and social responsibility. It analyzes the impact of these factors on a company's operations and sales, using Just Eat as a case study. The report also discusses the responsibilities of the board of directors to stakeholders and examines Archie Carroll's model of corporate social responsibility. The report concludes that it is essential for organizations to analyze the business environment to manage operations effectively, leverage innovation for growth, and fulfill their corporate social responsibilities.

Business Environment
1

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1 . Understanding of innovation and the role of technological change in economic progress........1
2. Overview of company, and practically illustrate that how innovation has impacted the
operations and sales.........................................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
1. Discuss corporate governance including the responsibilities of Board of directors to the
stakeholders.....................................................................................................................................3
2. Corporate social responsibility identified by Archie Carroll and also gives the examples of it. 4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
2

INTRODUCTION
Business environment is that in which organisations perform its business activities. It is a
combination of internal and external factors that can affect the operations of corporation. The
aim of company is to analyse the impact of business environment upon the performance of it.
This report covers the following topics such as: understanding of innovation and its impact on
the operations of organisation & role of technological change in economic progress, corporate
governance and responsibilities of board of directors to the stakeholders. Apart from this it also
discuss about corporate social responsibility as identified by Archie Carroll.
TASK 1
1 . Understanding of innovation and the role of technological change in economic progress
Innovation is process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates
value and for which consumers are ready to pay. It is essential to be unique. To survive and rule
in the market it is necessary for the organisation to bring something new as a result company can
get competitive advantage. Just Eat can make innovation in its business so that efficiency and
productivity can be enhanced and its helps to maximize the profits for it (Petit, 2012).
Technology is important for the growth of company because it maximize the efficiency.
Today's dynamic environment is changing very rapidly so it is important for the organisation to
bring latest technology in its business. Just Eat is a fast food company and if technology has
changed than it can influence the operations of it. For example, if corporation deliver the foods
when consumers visit their restaurant and make order but due to technological change now
persons can give order through the mobile application. It makes the work easy and delivery
system makes more convenient as a result it can satisfy the demands of more customers. As a
result corporation can generate more revenue which help it to survive in the market for a long
time. Just eat has around 29000 restaurants across the nation and it has operates the business in
12 counties around the globe. If it improve the delivery of service than company can satisfy more
number of customer which help it to earn more profits (Mytton and Gale, 2012).
An organisation is survive in the country, if it generate more revenues than it is beneficial
for the growth and progress of economic. Just eat can get more revenues from other nations
across the globe so it good for United Kingdom and its economic progress. Economic growth can
be maximize when production of good and service increase and which help the country to creates
3

more profits form business. So it is analysed that technological change leads to the economic
progress and through it capital investment can be enhanced in the nation.
2. Overview of company, and practically illustrate that how innovation has impacted the
operations and sales
Just Eat is a fast food company and its headquarter is situated in Landon. It operates its
business in twelve markets around the globe (Meimaris and Vafopoulos, 2013). It is world leader
in online and mobile food ordering and have 22.8 million consumers and 87000 restaurants
partners internationally. The vision of organisation is to create world's greatest food community.
Innovation is the need of company if it want to survive in the market for a long time. It is
essential for the growth of corporation if it want to capture more share in market. Just eat provide
services online to its consumers and they can use mobile application and make order and
company deliver the food at home of customers. It can make innovation and add an additional
feature in the mobile application. Application can give features that people can see the
ingredients which is used in preparation of food and as per the wants and needs of persons they
can place the order which ingredients they require in the food. This innovation is going to be
very beneficial for the organisation because consumers get food as per their choice and Just Eat
will able to satisfy more number of customers in the country. As a result its sales can be increase
which leads to generate more profits. Operations is going to be more effective because
corporation will produce products as per the needs of persons which help to balance the demand
and supply. Innovation influence the major functions of business such as: marketing, operations,
logistic and research and development (Kowalewski and Phillips, 2012).
Marketing:
Marketing is an activity which is performed by the persons of organisation and it is
associated with the selling and buying a product or service. It involves selling, advertising and
delivering the products to the consumers. This function is performed by the marketing
department of Just Eat. If it make innovation in its mobile application than it the responsibility of
marketing manager to communicate the information to the customers. So that they can know the
additional feature of mobile application and know how to use it. It is the responsibility of
marketing manager to aware the persons about the innovative thing of organisation. If company
does not able to communicate the information to their customer than sales will not increase as
per the expectation of corporation and it can influence the marketing function of organisation
4

because department able to do its work effectively. As a result it does not achieve its target
which is to aware more number of person (Kasemsap, 2015).
Operations: It is a job function of organisation which is responsible to key business processes
which involves procurement, supply chain and manufacturing. Through the innovation persons
can place order as per the ingredients they want to add in their food. So employees have to
prepare food as per the different- different desires of consumers and on the basis of it workers
have to make food. It can hamper the operations of Just eat because delivery time of service can
be increase.
Logistic/ supply chain management: It is that department of organisation who help the
company to deliver its products or services to the consumers. Through the innovation in mobile
application, workers of Just Eat can make food as per the demands of different- different
consumers and it takes more time to prepare food. If food prepare late than logistic department
does not able to deliver the services fast to the consumers.
Research and development: It is that department of organisation who make research for the
new product development. It makes the research that new product or service development is
going to be successful or not and it will beneficial for the company or not. When Just Eat was
thinking about the innovation than its research and development team makes the proper research
about the innovation (Hardie, 2015).
TASK 2
1. Discuss corporate governance including the responsibilities of Board of directors to the
stakeholders
Corporate governance is the set of policies, rules and practices through which an
organisation can be control and manage. It make sure the regulations and rules through which
board of directors ensures transparency and accountability in a corporation’s relationship with its
all stakeholders (Corporate governance. 2018). There are various types of stakeholders which
includes employees, consumers, government, suppliers etc. It protects the interest of stakeholders
so that their interest does not get affected. It is essential for an organisation to follow the rules of
corporate governance and it helps to make effective internal control in the business. If a company
perform its roles and duties as per it than goodwill of company can be enhanced in the market.
5

Rolls- Royce Plc can follow the regulations of corporate governance so that it is able to work as
per the required compliances. (Alonso-Almeida and Llach, 2013).
The board of director is the primary and direct stakeholder which makes impact on the
corporate governance. Directors are those which are elected by shareholders of company or
appointed by other board members and represent shareholders of company. There are various
stake holders for company like shareholders, suppliers, customers, employees, financial
institution which provides loan to companies etc. These are the major stakeholder for company.
As board of director has certain roles and responsibilities which needs to be performed by them.
These are as follows:
For supplier:
Supplier is a major stake holder for Rolls Roy as it is important for manager of Rolls
Royce to ensure the quality measurement of raw material which is supplied by them. Supplier
those which delivers raw material to the Rolls Royce in order manufacture the finished products.
As it is responsibility of board of director to check whether complete an on time payment to
supplier has been made or not
For share holders:
Shareholders are those which have some percentage of shares of Rolls Royce. The
percentage can be less or maximum. As the main role of board of director is to protect their
interest and provide them dividend when it needs to be give.
Financial institution:
The financial inttiiom are those which provides loan to the big organisation like Rolls
Royce. So the role of board of director of Rolls Royce is to ensure that they get timely repayment
of their loan and its interest in order to maintain smooth relation with parties.
Government
Government is a big stakeholder for Rolls Royce as it has some policies which directly
make impact on the operations of company. The responsibility of board of director is to check
regularly that policies are being followed in organisation or not. As non following of government
can impose heavy penalties on company like Rolls Royce (Stein and Lancioni, 2013).
2. Corporate social responsibility identified by Archie Carroll and also gives the examples of it
Corporate social responsibility is a management concept whereby companies integrate the
social and environmental concerns in their business operations and interactions with
6

stakeholders. The concept of Corporate social responsibility refers to the contribution of
corporate towards the society. As it is important for companies to give certain contribution of
their profits to the social welfare. This is a compulsory rule which is made by government and
liable companies have to follow this. As non following of this can charge heavy penalty on Rolls
Royce. A properly managed and implemented CSR concept can bring various kind of
competitive advantage for Rolls Royce like improved access to capital and markets, efficient
human resource base, customer loyalty and better decision making etc. There are different
models for CSR but most common is given by Archie Caroll which is discussed below:
According to Caroll there is four components for CSR which are economic, legal, ethical
and discretionary. Every model has its own importance which is discussed below:
Economic Social Responsibility:
This starts with being profitable. As according to this theory before any business think
about giving first it must be profitable and sustainable. The sustaibility refers to making profit for
shareholders, paying its employees enough wages and paying taxes etc. As Rolls Royce can
show economic responsibility by being transparent with all stakeholders regarding the financial
status of their business (Roberts and Grover, 2012).
Legal social responsibility
The consumers are more likely to purchase goods and services from those companies
which they trust. A part of building trust is abiding by laws which regulates the businesses. As
there are some example of legal social responsibility that is paying the required taxes , following
labour laws and allowing inspection are the example for legal social responsibility. This looks
like very common but it is very important for Rolls Royce to being aware about the legal
obligations which are related to CSR otherwise it could lead to heavy penalty on company.
Ethical social responsibility:
Ethical social responsibility refers to the doing right things at right time at all level of
business. This includes the payment of employees wages to ensuring that companies work with
and buy material from are abiding by all labour laws. As Rolls Royce should consider the ethical
aspect and use recycled products in order to save environment also. Minimum environmental
needs and exceeds those which gives better consumer satisfaction .
Discretionary Social responsibility:
7

This refers to using of company’s resources in adequate way in order to make
contribution at large in whatever way is meaningful for company and brand. This includes
giving employee with opportunities to volunteer, money donation, service or product to
charitable organisation (Simic and Dimitrijevic, 2012).
The CSR shows that company is about more than just numbers. As this shows how
company care about their impression on world and how world perceive their brand.
CONCLUSION
As from the above report, it has been concluded that it is essential for an organisation to
analyse the business environment so that it can manage its operations effectively. Through
innovation sales, operations add profits can be enhanced. Technological change can help to
maximize the economic progress of country. It is the responsibility of company to follow the
corporate governance and protect the interest of stakeholders. Archie Carroll model provide help
to an organisation to fulfil the corporate social responsibility.
8

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alonso-Almeida, M. D. M. and Llach, J., 2013. Adoption and use of technology in small
business environments. The service industries journal. 33(15-16). pp.1456-1472.
Hardie, G. J., 2015. 8. ACC0SSible EnVirOnments TOWard Universal Design. Design
Intervention (Routledge Revivals): Toward a More Humane Architecture, p.155.
Kasemsap, K., 2015. The role of electronic commerce in the global business environments.
In Handbook of research on interactive information quality in expanding social
network communications (pp. 304-324). IGI Global.
Kowalewski, S. J. and Phillips, S. L., 2012. Preferences for performance based employee
rewards: Evidence from small business environments.
Meimaris, M. and Vafopoulos, M., 2013. Knowledge-based semantification of business
communications in erp environments. In Web Information Systems Engineering–WISE
2011 and 2012 Workshops (pp. 159-172). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Mytton, E. and Gale, C., 2012. Prevailing issues in legal education within management and
business environments. International Journal of Law and Management. 54(4). pp.311-
321.
Petit, Y., 2012. Project portfolios in dynamic environments: Organizing for
uncertainty. International Journal of Project Management. 30(5). pp.539-553.
Rebuge, Á. and Ferreira, D. R., 2012. Business process analysis in healthcare environments: A
methodology based on process mining. Information systems. 37(2),. pp.99-116.
Roberts, N. and Grover, V., 2012. Investigating firm's customer agility and firm performance:
The importance of aligning sense and respond capabilities. Journal of Business
Research. 65(5). pp.579-585.
Simic, V. and Dimitrijevic, B., 2012. Production planning for vehicle recycling factories in the
EU legislative and global business environments. Resources, Conservation and
Recycling. 60. pp.78-88.
Stein, A. D., Smith, M. F. and Lancioni, R .A., 2013. The development and diffusion of customer
relationship management (CRM) intelligence in business-to-business
environments. Industrial Marketing Management. 42(6). pp.855-861.
Online
Corporate governance. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
< https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/corporategovernance.asp>
9