Business Environment Analysis and Trends

This assignment delves into the complexities of the business environment. Students will analyze various aspects, including economic factors, legal regulations, technological advancements, and social trends. The analysis encompasses different business structures, comparing their advantages and disadvantages. Case studies of companies like National Westminster Bank will be used to illustrate how businesses adapt to the ever-changing environment.

Business and Business
Environment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Different types of organisation and their purpose.......................................................................1
Details about the organisations and their scope. ........................................................................3
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................4
Relationship between certain functions of the organisations and their relation with the
structure and objectives. .............................................................................................................4
SWOT Analysis of NatWest.......................................................................................................6
Interrelation with the strengths and weakness with external macro factors................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business environment can be defined as the areas where any organisation execute their
operations so that they achieve the goals and objective which they have set. It consists of certain
factors which are present in the internal and external environment and these factors directly or
indirectly impact the working of the company (Aula, 2010). The impact can be either positive
and negative depending upon the situation in which they are doing their business. Suppliers,
clients, competitors, technology, legislation framed by the government are part of these. It can be
said that it is the combination of all the factors which are somewhat related to the businesses in
any country. To ensure that these internal and external elements dopes not hamper the growth of
the organisation it is necessary that the management of the company frame a strategy through
keeping all these factors in mind. Although, organisations has little control on the external
factors and so they have no other option other than adapting their policies and strategies
according to it (Belás and et. al., 2015). These whole report will be highlighting certain aspects
of business environment through taking the scenario of NatWest Bank which is a private
organisation. Other than this there will be SWOT and PESTLE analysis of the organisation so
that deep knowledge about the affecting factors can be gained.
TASK 1
Different types of organisation and their purpose.
All the companies irrespective of their nature and size perform certain business activities
or operations with the aim of earning profit. For initiating any business it is required that they
have full deep knowledge of the market, customer needs so that they can satisfy them through
their services. Those firms which are considered as the large firms has complex operations and
also has smooth effective management (Bill Pasmore and CMC, 2010). There may be small and
large organisation which are categorized in public, private and voluntary and these are
differentiated on the basis of their nature and objectives.
Public Limited Company:- These are one of the types of organisation whose business
activities are controlled and handled by the government any particular country where they have
existence (Blanchard, Tolbert and Mencken, 2011). The basic aim of these type of companies to
make certain crucial products and deliver services which are normally used in our day to day life.
Although there aim is profit making but before this they are more concerned about the interest of
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the citizens. Normally, these kind of companies trade in oil, providing health services, security,
food items, educational institutes and etc. are some of sectors which these companies perform
their business operations. All the business activities are funded through the taxes which are paid
by the citizens of the country (Cantwell, Dunning and Lundan, 2011). Government appoint
certain directors for any specific public organisation and it is the order of the ruling regime that
the director execute. NHS which is expanded as National Health Services can be an example of
public organisation. Legal structure of these kinds of organisation are as follows:-
Central Government: The control of the public organisation can be either with the central
government, state or local government. Central government is the ultimate body and their
decisions cannot be denied and the companies which are under the central government normally
have large turnover as they have to cater the needs of all the citizens of the country. Collection of
the taxes, defence, banks and oil companies are under their control.
State Government:- Certain areas of the organisation are in hands of state and these might
be related to education, health and water and etc.
Local Government:- They are the bodies with the limited power as they don't have much
area to control and normally they undertake activities of the organisation which are involved in
infrastructure development at local level, health problems and etc.
Private Organisation:- They are the organisation which are purely formed in order to
earn profits and their ownership is with the corporate houses and normal people. The size of
these organisations might be small or large depending on their turnover, revenues, number of
employees and their production capacity (Chow and et. al., 2012). They try to bring innovative
and unique products so that they can attract more customers and gain competitive advantage over
their opponents. NatWest Bank is one of the example of private company and these kind of
organisation can be further divided into the following:- Sole Traders:- Any business which is run by a single person or their ownership is with
one individual only then it will be called as Sole trader business. For the losses and
profits the owner will be responsible and the advantage of having this kind of business is
that they can take fast decision without consulting anyone (Commander and Svejnar,
2011). Partnership:- There are some businesses which were formed by the collaboration of two
or more than two people and their ownership is with those founding members. Before
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starting any business all the owners sign a contract in the form of bond which highlights
the terms and conditions which has to be followed by both the people in different
situations (Cordes, Richerson and Schwesinger, 2010). These include name, address,
share of profits of each partner and etc. Such deed will be referred when there will be
any conflict and dispute among the partners. The advantage of opening this kind of firm
is that the two partners expert in different fields can share their knowledge and can set
them in a better position. Franchising:- These kind of business concept is adopt by the big companies who has
good hold in the market and now they wanted to expand their business. So to make sure
that they don't need to invest much they practice the concept of franchise. They are well
aware of the fact they have made their brand so famous and popular that people like to
visit it so ask certain party to invest into their new stores but it will run by their name
only (Cronan and et. al., 2011). The person who are collaborating with the organisation
gets much profits and the brand get certain amount of profit. This can be considered as a
useful activity as with this they are able to capture large market thus gaining competitive
advantage.
 Voluntary Organisation:- These are type of firms which was formed to serve the
humanity without making any profit. They focus on social develop rather than economic
development as they believe that this is directly put positive impact on the economy of
the country. For this type of sector Oxfam can be taken into the account.
Details about the organisations and their scope.
Overview of NHS:- It is the public sector firm which was started in 1948 with the
mission of delivering better health care services to almost all people of UK. They don't charge
any fees for most of the services accept cosmetics and any dental surgery. It is one of the biggest
organisation in UK as it caters almost 64 million people and only in England it gives their
services to approx. 54.3 million in England (De Jonge, 2011). It could be estimated that how
useful this organisation through the figure that in a single day they deal with more than 1 million
patients. They are also making it sure that they employee people so that all the contribute in their
business activities and today they have workforce strength of almost 1.5 million thus giving
them a position in the top five companies having maximum number of employees. Other than
this they have 111.127 hospital and the budget of £116.4 billion.
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Details of Natwest:- It is also called as Westminster Bank and is one of the biggest
commercial bank in UK. They are providing financial services to the citizens of UK and in
present time it has become the most reliable bank in the eyes of people. They have been
successful as they believe in delivery best services to the employees. With more than 850 and
3000 cash machines in Great Britain has made them one of the top banks in the country. To
ensure that they become available to their customers any time they have launched online banking
services for 24*7 hours (Erving and et. al., 2011). To handle such large operations they have
appointed almost 33000 employees which ensures that all the queries of the customers are
resolved in time. Currently, they have 7 billion clients who are happily taking their services and
each day to attract new customers they are looking forward to bring new services. To ensure that
they also take care of the cklinets from the rural areas they have opened mini banks at St Austell,
Swansea, Carlisle, Devon and North Wales.
Voluntary Organisation:- Oxfam is the non profit organisation who is focusing on
adding value to the society through their philanthropic work. They have aim of reducing the
poverty and everybody in the world has the right to live properly. It is the organisation who
raises the issues related to human rights and poverty at international forums. It helps those people
who are living in extreme poor conditions to afford at least a single day meal (Gebauer, Paiola
and Edvardsson, 2010). To make sure that they continue their work regularly they look for
donations from various corporate houses, government agencies and other than this they obtain
funds from selling the donated goods. Disaster relief, advocacy, research on certain government
policies and pro migration are the issues which are also taken by the organisation. Oxfam
voluntaries go into the rural areas and try to understand the problems of people and they also
look for the resources which can be utilised to improve their condition.
TASK 2
Relationship between certain functions of the organisations and their relation with the structure
and objectives.
NatWest has made their spot on the top place in the banking sector of UK and this has
happened all because of the smooth and effective services delivered by them. They are focusing
on the fact that whatever functions they are performed by them is done with proper planning. It is
necessary that there should be coordination between certain departments of the organisation and
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functions which they carry out. With the help of this they will easily able satisfy the needs of
consumers in more better way and can easily know the needs.
 Production and Design:- To ensure that whatever banking services they launch will
helps them in gaining the attention of the customers as they have ensured that all the
services is totally centred to the requirement of the targeted customers. If they wants to
know that what are the services which certain group of consumers desire for so in that
case they can carry out the surveys (Fernando, 2011). This is the only way which they
can use to build more customers in less period of time. Ensuring unique services, creates
desire for the product and service in the market. NatWest believes in brining efficiency at
their work place so that they can increase the speed of their services so for that they have
are designing strategies keeping certain production system in the scenario.
 Finance:- Any business operations requires funds to be executed but things cannot work
if the departments in the banks lacks funds thus facing various obstacles. When certain
activity will not be performed the bank will loose their market position and customers are
no more interested in taking the services of NatWest Bank. With the lack of funds they
are not able to give wages to their employees thus reducing the moral of staff. It is the
duty of the finance manager to analyse certain activities which will give them the idea
that how funds is required by certain departments and activities performed by them
(Guglielmetti, 2011). After estimation of the funds they will prepare a budget and will
allocate certain finance to them so that they can perform their roles in effective way.
Effectiveness is necessary in these task as they have to proper handle and control the flow
of money from the bank as any simple error can bring them in trouble.
 Human Resource Function:- This is the department which has become one of the
crucial one as their role is to manage the workforce. The NatWest bank should know that
their employees are like assets which assist them in achieving their business goals. It is
the duty of the HR department to ensure that employees are motivated and they are away
from any problem thus this will bring more productivity and profitability. They regularly
conducts organisational audit to make sure that all things are going according to the plan
and try to identify the areas which can hamper the growth of the organisation in negative
manner. Those areas will be obstructed through adopting a smooth strategies and after
knowing the areas they will also try to put hire new employees so that the bank does not
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face the shortage of the staff. They design the job description which briefs that what are
the quality a new candidate should possess. After hiring the employees they ensure that
they train the employees in a way that he or she does not find it harder to cope up with
the business environment.
 Marketing- This is the department who has the responsibility of promoting the products
and services delivered by the NatWest bank. They create a demand in the market so that
people show interest in this and with the help of advertising they appeal to the emotions
of the customers thus bringing a desire in them to take their services. There are lots of
banks exists in the market and they are offering the same product so it is the duty of the
marketing department to convinces the customers that why they should take the services
of NatWest (Robbins, Judge and Campbell, 2010). They have to adopt different platform
but should mainly focus on digital advertising as there is increase in the internet users all
around the world. Internet marketing is seen as the future of marketing so NatWest
should focus on social media trends and banner ads which will give them reach to more
number of people as compared to use of traditional media advertisement. Marketing
department helps the bank in increasing their brand value and improves their financial
position of the business.
 Research and Development:- This is the department which helps the organisations in
gaining competitive advantage as it is their efforts which brings out the new services and
products. They analyse the market through taking reviews and feedbacks from the clients
and then do certain appropriate changes (Siewiorek and et. al., 2012). R&D department at
NatWest looks at the areas where their competitors are drastically showing improvement
so through looking at their position they bring certain services so that they can also attract
the customers of rivals. They knowledges the organisation that what are the demands of
the customers and how they can fulfil it.
SWOT Analysis of NatWest.
Covered in PPT
Interrelation with the strengths and weakness with external macro factors
Covered in PPT
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been summarised that through having deep knowledge of the
certain factors existing in the business environment NatWest will able to frame certain policies
and strategies for their companies business goals. With effective implementation of the strategies
and policies the targets of the bank can be easily be attained. They have to understand the link
between the relation between the various departments and the functions which they have to
perform to attain customer satisfaction. To know what are the factors which are affecting their
growth they have conducted a PESTLE and SWOT analysis which has given them idea about
external and internal environment respectively.
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REFERENCES
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Blanchard, T. C., Tolbert, C and Mencken, C., 2011. The health and wealth of US counties: how
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De Jonge, A., 2011. Transnational corporations and international law: accountability in the
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Erving, R. H and et. al., 2011. Broadband network with enterprise wireless communication
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Fernando, A. C., 2011. Business environment. Pearson Education India.
Gebauer, H., Paiola, M and Edvardsson, B., 2010. Service business development in small and
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Guglielmetti, C., 2011. Measuring the business environment for entrepreneurship in fragile
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Robbins, S. P., Judge, T and Campbell, T. T., 2010. Organizational behaviour. Financial Times
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Siewiorek, A and et. al., 2012. Learning leadership skills in a simulated business environment.
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