Business Environment and Corporate Strategies

The provided document is a comprehensive analysis of the business environment and corporate strategies in the retail and foodservice industry. It includes a detailed report on the co-evolution of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the institutional environment, as well as an analysis of key players in the industry. The document also provides information on various research papers and publications related to the topic, including online resources and annual reports from companies like Tesco PLC.

Business and Business
Environment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Purpose of private, public and voluntary organisation and their legal structure..............1
P2. Size and Scope of private, public and voluntary organisation.........................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3. Relationship between certain functions of the firm and their relation with their goals and
structure..................................................................................................................................4
P4. Positive and negative influence of the macro environment on the business activities of
M&S.......................................................................................................................................6
P5. SWOT analysis of Marks and Spencer............................................................................7
P6. Interrelate with strength and weaknesses with external macro factors............................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business is the commercial activity which involves exchange of products and services in
return they generate some profits. Enterprises carry out certain activities in the from of input and
in these operations there is involvement of various people who are also called as employees. It is
the manager who ensure that all the individuals are giving their full effort so that maximum
output can be obtained. Business includes buyers, sellers, goods, sales, manufacturing,
marketing, management and etc. In the business environment there exists various kinds of
organisation who has different purposes and scope and they are normally private, public and
voluntary organisation (Blanchard, Tolbert and Mencken, 2011). They all differ in their working
style and the targets they want to achieve. Each of them holds a key significance in the business
as for the development of financial and social economy each needs to contribute from their side.
In this report there will be analysis of various aspects of business environment through taking the
case scenario of Marks & Spencer, NHS and Oxfam. All these are the private, public and
voluntary organisation respectively.
TASK 1
P1. Purpose of private, public and voluntary organisation and their legal structure.
Private sector- Private sector includes those companies which plays a vital role in any
country's economy but its share holders are individuals or companies, and the profit it gains is for
that individual company. But they have to follow the rules of government. The growth and
importance of the private sector is tremendous for the economy of any country. Private sector
emerged for generating employment opportunities and increase industrialization. According to
1956 resolution “industries producing intermediate goods and machine can be set up in the
private sector. Private sectors works like the veins for the economy (Aula, 2010). All the private
sector companies work for their own profit. MAN is a private sector company of united
kingdom, and introduced from 'MAN SE' corporation. Its a U.K. Based company and make
heavy vehicles bus, trucks. It also deals in field of used vehicle. Beside dealing in vehicles
company works for financing, providing lease,and insurance solution for vehicles.
Public sector- Public sectors companies are the essence of the economy which is owned
by government. Companies whose majority share's are on the behalf of the government and
controlled by whether state, central government. Public sector companies works for the basic
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needs of the citizens. Public sector units are also known as PSU public sector undertaking.
Public sector funding is done through tax, fees and other sources. Every country have a different
method for raising fund for the public services. NHS is an example of public sector enterprise of
united kingdom. It is the biggest chain of grocery store in Europe and a general merchandiser
company. In UNITED KINGDOM all public sector services are fulfilled by their government
(Commander and Svejnar, 2011) . It also works with its co company in retail banking sector
and insurance services. For its development company uses new formats and modern ideas and
changes their policy for experiments. Its a biggest and longest chain of retail store and a public
sector company of U.K.
Voluntary sector:- Voluntary sector is a group of people who have same aim ,purpose
and same object they formed altogether and makes a company and work for the health issues
and other social issues. They works for the society and to make them rich by health not by
wealth. These sectors are also known as third sector and non profit sector. These companies
work for society with no profit formula and for public benefit. NGO ,general charities, social
groups and community group and other non profit organisation belongs to the voluntary sector.
OXFAM is an example of voluntary sector (Gebauer, Paiola and Edvardsson, 2010). It is an
international charity organisation which was started in united kingdom and works for the
poverty worldwide. Its mission is to remove poverty and to provide justice globally. It works for
the right of humans their needs of livelihood, identity and safety. According to this organisation's
motto poverty or other basic need can be cured by giving attention to this side. It is an long term
programme and works in 90 countries to complete their purpose to remove poverty, fight for the
rights and to provide justice.
P2. Size and Scope of private, public and voluntary organisation.
Details of Marks & Spencer: It is one of the major retail company in UK and their
product ranges from clothing, home products and luxury food products. In UK they have 959
stores all across UK and out of all 615 stores sell food products only. It was the year 1998 when
Marks & Spencer become the first retailer to earn a pre tax profit of over £1 billion. When their
international market is analysed they have groomed themself in a way that they experience
continuous growth (De Jonge, 2011). Other than UK they have almost 223 stores in countries
like India, Turkey, Russia, Greece, Ireland, France, Poland, Hungary and Spain. In year 1999
they launched their first online service through which customers can do online shopping. This
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way they have are catering to a large number of people as they have reach to more number of
population. They are willing to expand their business and has targeted to increase the sales
between £800m to £ 1bn. Currently they have the operating income of almost £690 million and
has the strength of approx. 82,904 employees. They have the revenue of £10, 622 million
Details of NHS: This is an organisation expanded as National Health Service and was
founded in 1948. It was formed with the aim that every citizen of the country should get good
medical facilities. It provides free medical services to the residents of England. Taking the
average, NHS deals with over 1 million people in every 36 hours. In year 2014 it had the
maximum funds as compared to the other commonwealth countries medical service organisation.
Taking more about its achievements it was rated best system in terms of efficiency, effective
care, safe care, coordination care; patient centred care and cost related problems. It has been
successful in employing more than 1.5 million people which makes it as the 5th largest workforce
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Illustration 1: Key retail and foodservice players, 2013

company. It has qualified doctors around 150273, 40584 general practitioners, 314966 nurses
and health visitors. Its funding directly comes from the taxation and when this was formed its
budget was 437 million pound and today it has 116 billion pound.
Details of Oxfam: They are the world's their largest organisation who is working for the
social cause. They started their operation in year 1942 and the basic mission of this organisation
is to work on the poverty hit areas. Other than this they are also making sure that people are
aware of the human rights and whenever there is any violation it is addressed at the international
forum (Guglielmetti, 2011) . To ensure that the poor people gets various privileges they ask
government bodies who frame policies by keeping those in mind and also try to ensure that
whatever schemes are made by governing authority reach to their real beneficiaries. To get funds
they organise charity events and the other way they get funds is through selling the donated
goods. Whatever money is collected are used in the various social activities collected by them.
TASK 2
P3. Relationship between certain functions of the firm and their relation with their goals and
structure.
Organisational structure can be refereed to a system in which certain rules and policies
are designed to brief how certain work roles and responsibilities are assigned, controlled and
coordinated. It also explains that how information related to different things pass from one level
to another in a company. For example; in a centralized structure, decision flow from the top
down, while in decentralized structure decisions are taken at different stages. It is the hierarchy
in an organisation which the company uses to run their businesses (Robbins, Judge and
Campbell, 2010). Any effective organisational structure details each and every employees job
and how they will fut in the overall system. With the help of the organisational structure the
company can achieve their goals and targets in much easier way as everyone is well versed with
their roles and responsibility. For deciding the functions which the company has to perform they
analyse their gaols and objectives which they have to attain. To get more out of the employees
and to increase the market share through productivity and efficiencies each staff of Marks &
Spencer are assigned with certain duties which they have to do. With proper relation between
operations performed by the company and the goals they can experience fruitful results
(Welford, 2013). Marks & Spencer focuses on the functions so that they can attain sustainable
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development model. The reason behind this is that industries have a negative image in the mind
of people that through their business activities they harm the environment. But Marks & Spencer
ensures that with the infrastructural development the environment development should also be
given priority. Management at Marks & Spencer carry out planning, hiring, selecting, handling,
evaluating and monitoring operations (Trkman, 2010). They ensure that all the set gaols are
accomplished but at the same time environment is also taken care of. To improve the
performance it is necessary that they should set a coordination with the functions which they
have to do with the organisational structure.
Through analysing Marks & Spencer company it has been observed that they follow
matrix structure with the hybrid strategy. With such organisational structure the company wants
to bring efficiency and flexibility in the various departments so that whatever task is assigned is
done in time with better results (Cantwell, Dunning and Lundan, 2010). For better management
it is also ensured that they have sufficient amount of funds so that no feels the lack of money
while carrying out any business activity. All the functions are interlinked to each other and it is
ensured that almost every area of the company gets equal attention.
Following are some of the departments which are part of the Marks & Spencer and their
functions are also described in it.
Marketing and Sales: It is one of the most important department of the company as
through this only Marks & Spencer advertise themselves and sell their products. They are the
people who convince the customers towards products of the firm. They also play a vital role in
knowing the consumer demands and then they send those information to the other department so
that they can be aware about the needs which consumer desire for (Teece, 2010). With these
Marks & Spencer campaign competitive advantage as they are well aware about the marketing
trends. They market their product in a way that consumers relate themselves to to the product as
it is associated with their day to day life.
Finance: They are the personnel who takes care that the departments has sufficient
money so that they can easily carry out their functions. They carry out organisational audit so
that they can get an idea that which operation of the business needs what amount and at the same
time they can also know the expenses accrued according to it prepare a annual report (Belás and
et. al., 2015). With the financial report the mangers at will get a help in making any decision as
the report highlights the conditions of the company that how is the sales and productivity.
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Customer Service: Marks & Spencer have to rely on the interest of the people who is
the potential customers and so when business totally focussed on the customer so they need to
ensure the satisfaction of the customers (Chow and et. al., 2012). They have set the complaint
platform where the customer facing any issue or any kind of minor problem is resolved by the
people who are taking with them. The customers give reviews and feedbacks about the product
and then according to there is modification in the product.
P4. Positive and negative influence of the macro environment on the business activities of M&S.
There are various factors which impacts the business of the companies they can be
internal as well as external. But there are external factors which impact the organisational in
great way because Marks & Spencer has very less control over it. The external factors include
political, economic, social, technology, legal and environment elements. Depending upon the
situation there can be negative as well as positive impact on them (Cordes, Richerson and
Schwesinger, 2010). To adapt according to the they can take step which Marks & Spencer have
to take is to identify those factors through PESTLE analysis. If they gain success in knowing
them they can adapt according to it through doing certain changes in the plan.
Political: As the company operates their business in many countries so there might be
chances that any nation may be facing any political instability. Recently, UK voted in favour of
Brexit which is the sign that they will be exiting from the European Union and the unpredicted
results of the nation election will impact the businesses. Thus the sales of Marks & Spencer can
go down.
Economical: Business are the things which frames the economy of the country so it is
necessary that situations and condition should be favouring the businesses. For Marks & Spencer
it is necessary that the purchasing power of the customers should be strong. When the income
level of the consumers will be high then they will purchase more from Marks & Spencer stores.
Socio–cultural factors- External factors affect the company growth by the changes in
the value and the change in the population. There is a difference of generation because of that
consumer behaviour and their needs keep changing (Bill Pasmor and CMC, 2010). Mark &
Spencer gives their attention to social trend, because growth depends on the trends which is valid
according to time. In an annual report company tells their view that their planned strategy for
sustaining the company is strong bond with consumers ,transporters, and communities which are
part of their growth is important for the company.
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Technological Factors- Mark & Spencer is in good or stable position to make itself.
Social networks are rising a mobile wave for the product of company. As we see the fashion
business of this company trends are keep going so transportation speed is increased. Because of
online shopping experience on mobile or tablet physical experience has been changed. This
company has invented data projects such as predictive analytics system and allocation
replenishment. For making company technologically ahead they made a digital lab of software
engineers for making technological developments.
Legal Factors- Safety, environment, other legal factors affects the company. Mark and
Spencer have to acknowledge that they should follow the law and rules and regulation not only
in their initial market but also in global market. The company has its own legal department
which solve the legal issue during its business expansion (Fernando, 2011). As United kingdom
decided to be out from the European union so that the business and the market needs to face the
legal issues. Because of this decision they need to change their VAT rules and import export or
other tariffs.
Environmental Factors– In European countries there are strict regulation regarding the
business and customer pressure. An international brands need to check their products form root
to top and need a transparent strategy and a environment for practising . They have made a plan
for this they would serve as the spinal to the business with all its subsidiaries company.
and reducing the waste and help shareholder communities.
Through analysing this they can know what the things which can trouble them or what
are the factors which are in favour of them and can help them in achieving competitive
advantage. If there is any controversy or any defect in the product will give them disadvantages
and this will reduce their customer base directly impacting their brand value. The positive point
they have is that they treat their employees in far better ways which directly helps them in
achieving customer satisfaction as the employees put their full efforts to customer in making
their shopping experience better.
P5. SWOT analysis of Marks and Spencer.
SWOT analysis is a keen study of any company's initials or specify the facts which
effects the company internally and externally in the growth of company. SWOT each letter of
this word contains their specifying meaning strengths, weakness, opportunity, threats. To analyse
company on the basis of these pillars is swot analysis. This analysis is done with a strategy
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planning.
Strengths– Mark & Spencer is providing franchises for the global market and developing
themselves internationally in comparison to other companies of united kingdom. They are
operating in many continents their retail business (Erving and et. al., 2011) . Demographical
situation and internal strategy of the company making stability in business for them and
decreasing the risks factor. As it is an international brand it is listed under top 10 brand of united
kingdom. Its new ideas of promoting and advertising make it to growth at the time of recession.
The company works on consumer oriented policy and providing a good experience to their
consumer which gives a great benefit to the company.
Weakness– Mark & Spencer working on various projects at a time, at start it was
beneficial or profitable for the company but after this outcome there was a decrease in the sale of
product. According to some analyst a downfall was expected in the sales of the product. Main
employees of the company are cutting off from the company by other companies from
production to promotion and other designing team mates, because of that company have to do
recruitment, hiring and training. This company enters into the digital marketing too late whether
its the time of digital technique.
Opportunities- The main opportunity for this company is when it was losing sales in
cloth market on the other hand it was having a strong hold on its food business. The company
has six million customers and there are more to be (Cronan and et. al., 2011). They launch a
members club which is known as sparks. Mark & Spencer bank which promoted a new scheme
to open a current account with no fee and with a gift card. This was the subject of praise and
makes a strong performance for other banks in United kingdom.
Threats- Mark & Spencer's sales was badly affected during the time of recession in
2009. There was a huge decrease in the sales of cloth . Mark & Spencer was a leading company
in cloth retailing but after recession it loses its position and from the top it come on number third
after PRIMARK and ASDA and this thing diverted them to food business which was growing.
As it works for international market political and economical condition is not stable. Terrorist
activities are taking places in Europe and the location which attracts its consumer are target for
the terrorist and this thing is affecting its safety measures. Economical instability is imposing
threat to the growth of company. When BREXIT referendum give threat to the company as its
result there was a decrease in sales of company.
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P6. Interrelate with strength and weaknesses with external macro factors.
Strengths and weaknesses of the organisation has interrelation with the external factors.
Political: If the political condition of the country will not be good then there will be less
productivity and their ability and capability will also be reduced. So before entering into the
market they should contact the government to know and identify the political situation in the
country or they can take help of the foreign or international agencies who keep tract of the
political instability in the countries.
Economical: There will be increase in the inflation rates and deflation index Marks and
Spencer can face downward trend of their business. To regularly hold the market they need to
reduce the prices of their product.
Social:- It has been observed that the moral of the employees of Marks and Spencer is
not up as they are not satisfied with the distribution of the wages by the employers. So to over
this problem they have to regular conduct the counselling sessions which will helps them in
knowing what are the things which trouble them and according to the situation they can analyse
the scope of the problem. After that they can resolve it.
Technological:- After analysing the market it has been analysed that the buyers who
comes to Marks and Spencer has to wait for the billing so they can introduce new cash counters
which will help them in handling more number of consumers. Through adopting technology they
will be able to cater and deliver more customers. This can increase their profits as now customer
does not have to wait and their valuable time is saved.
Legal:- To know more about the legal framework which the company has to take care off
they will appoint some individuals who holds certain knowledge about the laws in the country.
Environment:- To make sure that the environment does not face any negative outcome
they will use renewable sources of energy. Like for electricity in the store they can use solar
energy.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be briefed that any company can attain the targets which
they have set through implementing the business strategy efficiently. To sustain in the business
for a longer period of time all the factors has to be considered which prevails in the business
environment. Marks and Spencer also need to ensure that they include all the internal and
external factors which can impact their business. To know the micro and macro factors they can
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conduct SWOT and PESTLE analysis. For any economy all the types of companies are
necessary whether it is public, private or voluntary. These firms or organisations ensures that
there is financial, economy and social development it the country. With the help of the strengths
Marks and Spencer can crab the opportunities which can make them market leader easily.
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