Business Research and Analysis Assignment

This assignment is a compilation of business-related topics, including research methods, management studies, operations analysis, and regulatory environments. It draws from multiple sources, such as academic journals, books, and online resources, providing a broad overview of business concepts and practices.

BUSINESS & BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Types and purpose of organisations..................................................................................1
P2 Size and scope of different types of organisations............................................................2
LO2..................................................................................................................................................3
P3 Relationship between different divisions and their link to organisational objectives.......3
LO3..................................................................................................................................................4
P4 Positive and negative impact of macro environment on business operations...................4
LO4..................................................................................................................................................5
P5 Internal and external analysis for finding the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation
................................................................................................................................................5
P6 Relation of strengths and weaknesses with external macro factors..................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business entities operate in particular areas where different external and internal factors
affect their operations in both positive and negative way. The region where they run their
activities is known as business environment (Christopher and Holweg, 2011). Aldi is a leading
firm in UK retail sector. It is a multinational company who is present in 20 countries and at
almost 10000 locations. This assignment will discuss about different kind of organisations and
they purpose of existence. Their legal structure and scope will also become part of this file.
Every organisation has various departments and there relationship is directly connected to the
objectives which company want to attain. This topic will be included in this project as it is
connected to the performance of company. SWOT and PESTLE analysis will also be done by
understanding the impact of macro factors on the company and for analysing strengths and
weakness of the firm along with opportunities and threats which are standing in-front of the
enterprise.
LO1
P1 Types and purpose of organisations
Organisation is group of people who work for same purpose and support each other so
they can more forward towards their goals. Their is a general perception that all the organisations
are involved in business activities but it is not true because there are many organisation like
public or voluntary who do not run their operation for earning money. Below is various types of
organisations and purpose of presence:
Public – Public organisation are the entities who have involve on government, whether local or
central. They are known for manufacturing and selling goods and services to the public at an
affordable price so people of every income group can afford it and improve their living standard
by fulfilling their basic need. Government have various companies who are running their
operation, some of them are run by local government while a significant number of these types
of organisations is run by central government (Hair, 2015).
Legal structure – BBC has number of board committees. BBC board is run by non-
executive chairman and majority of the people in board are non-executive directors. They work
with the executive director, BBC's Director-General and Editor-in-chief. Their is no necessity
that a public organisation would not work in partnership with other private firm. But, they also
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have 51% ownership of the company and this why enterprise is considered as private
organisation. The legal of structure of public organisation differs according to the aim and work
of company. All the public organisation has representatives of government and they hold seat in
the group of board directors. BBC is public company which is owned by ''The Crown'' i.e.
government.
Purpose – Public organisation focus on development and welfare of company. They may
charge money for the service or products which they are providing to the people but profit is not
their main aim (Zsambok, 2014).
Private – Private organisations are basically of three types. Their legal structure also differs
because of their structure and purpose of business. Sole proprietor is first kind where a single
person run whole business. He/she operates at a very low level and their main purpose is to earn
money for living. They do not have any legal structure because of their small operations.
Partnership is another type of private organisation where 2-20 people run their business and their
main aim is to earn profit so they can expand their business. Their legal structure depends that
whether they have a partnership deed of not. If they have one, then they have to follow rules
which is mentioned in it.
Private company is the last and most popular form of private organisations. They only
have one purpose for formation of organisations i.e. to earn more and more profit. Private firms
have to follow the company's act and other government regulations. They have board of directors
and they have to follow the rules related to minimum and maximum number of director which
should present in a company. Aldi is private firm who want to grab top position in retail sector
industry.
Voluntary – These organisations do not work for whole public or profit. They have work for a
particular purpose like Oxfam is a voluntary organisation who works for the purpose of
removing poverty from the complete world. Their legal structure depends that whether they are
operating at small of large level. If they seek assistance from government then they have to
follow the rules which is made by government.
P2 Size and scope of different types of organisations
As mentioned earlier, private, public and voluntary are three types of the organisation.
They size and scope is mentioned below:
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Public organisation – Size of public enterprise differ according to the industry,
responsibility and resources given to them by the government. They may operate in a small
village while at the same time some of them run their operations across the globe like BBC.
Scope of growth of operations depends upon the work which public organisation is doing. BBC
is present in many countries and they can expand their operations by entering in those countries
where currently they are not present (Yoon, 2012). Their number of stakeholders is high and
almost 21000 people are working in this company.
Private organisation – Private enterprise has unlimited scope of growth and their size
depends on the mission and vision of the company. Aldi want to provide goods at low price and
they are operating in various regions in order to enhance the scope of their business. This
company also have many stakeholders and more than 100000 employees work in this company.
Currently they are present in 20 countries and they still have huge scope of expanding their
business. Soles proprietor is a single person business so its size is considered as micro and they
do not have much scope of growth. Partnership firm also have limited scope because they do not
have deep pocket like of private companies. Their size is in between 2-20.
Voluntary – The size and scope of voluntary organisation depends that whether they are
present in more regions or not. It is also connected to the purpose of existence of the
organisation. Oxfam has thousands of volunteers and they are increasing continuously. They are
working in the areas of removing poverty and in present time, there are many countries who are
every poor. This means that they have lot of scope in upcoming time because they still have to
help many people from coming out of the poverty.
LO2
P3 Relationship between different divisions and their link to organisational objectives
Aldi is a multinational company and it has various department like finance, marketing, HR, IT
etc. These organisations have to work together so they can assure that they work in same
direction and try to obtain common goal (Zeng, Li and Duan, 2012). Below is function and
relationship between these departments:
Finance and marketing – Finance division is responsible for managing money which is present in
company and which company want to earn. They have make important decision like where
should company invest their money, what source of finance is best for company etc. Marketing
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division has ground knowledge and other significant information about all the things which is
related to company because they regularly conduct marketing research. They provide this vital
information to the finance division so they can make correct decision and company can keep
their cost of operation low. Finance department also provide tips to marketing wing about how
they can manage the allotted money to them in best way possible and earn better result by
investing less money (Trkman, 2011).
Marketing and HR – If a company do not have right people at right position then proceeding
towards organisational goals like gain more market share in UK market is not for them. HR team
do not have technical knowledge about a job so they contact different divisions like marketing
and get details about what kind of skill is required for a particular job profile. HR team also help
employees who are working in marketing team by providing team necessary training and
managing their promotions and incentives. When these two divisions work together then
company do not face much trouble at the time of moving forward toward Aldi’s organisational
objectives.
Information technology and finance division – IT department is getting more and more
important in this business environment because technology is play crucial role in providing extra
edge to the business organisations. IT department manage various financial soft-wares which are
used by finance department of Aldi. Finance division allot funds to the IT wing so they can buy
new technology which is required by company for achieving their targets.
LO3
P4 Positive and negative impact of macro environment on business operations
Pestle analyses is done for analysing the positive and negative affect which macro
environmental factor make on company’s operations. Below is Pestle analysis of Aldi:
Political – Brexit is a political incident which is made a huge negative impact on Aldi. This
company is failing to construct new policy because they do not know that how they Brexit will
impact buying capacity of customer. Stable government is positively affecting Aldi’s business
and because if this they are continuously increasing their profit (Haidar, 2012).
Economical – Buying power of people living in UK is not increasing and this is impacting
growth of Aldi. But decent growth rate of UK is providing stability to the business of Aldi. This
company is entering in new economy like Australia and other developing region because they
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understand the decent economic growth of UK help them in keeping a balance between
expansion and profitability.
Social – Aldi decided to teach students about healthy eating habits by 2020. This is improving
their image in UK. But they are facing allegation that they are paying less money to their
employees compared to rival and society is complaining about it (Marino, 2014).
Technological – Aldi is continuously increasing the number of self-service checkout points.
This technology made a positive effect on ALDI’s business. Technology is continuously
changing and this is creating issues for Aldi. They are buying new software which is getting out-
dated in short period of time.
Legal – Numerous scandals regarding food is not only affecting retail industry but all the big
players like Aldi. This company has to cope up with various legal issues because the rules
relating to quality of food and packaging is continually increasing. The negative impacts of these
scandals affect revenue of the organisation. Aldi is complying all the domestic laws and its
positive impact on the company can be seen on their increased valuation.
Environment – Aldi is promoting organic food because they understand that this food is
made without harming environment and made without using chemicals. Focusing on organic
food business affected their business in positive manner. Although this company is falling to do
any work in reducing CO2 emission and it has impacted them in unfavourable way.
LO4
P5 Internal and external analysis for finding the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation
Every company has some strengths and weaknesses which decide that whether company will
grow in upcoming time or not. They may have numerous opportunities but they also have to face
different kind of threats (Pingali and Roger, 2012). Below is SWOT analysis of Aldi:
Strengths
Affordable pricing strategy: Aldi has an affordable pricing strategy in the UK. Along
with an effective pricing strategy the company claims to serve high quality products to its
customers.
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Low operating cost – This Company do not recruit more people in their stores because
they know that customers do not need much assistance when the process of finding goods is
easy. This saves lot of money for the company and reducing their operating cost.
Weaknesses
Small company – Aldi can project themselves as a big multinational company but
actually they are present at limited location and except Germany, their presence is not strong
(Chen, Chiang and Storey, 2012).
Low quality products – This Company sell their projects at low price but they also have
to face the tag that quality of their products which they are selling at low price is poor.
Opportunities
Scope in advertising – This Company is losing market because they are not investing
much money in their promoting their brand and product. This is one area where they change their
strategy and do something which enhances their market share. If they do not want to spend much
money in T.V advertisement then they can think spending money on internet advertising.
Expansion in Asia – Aldi can enter in developing markets like India, China. Economic
growth of Asian countries is high and purchasing power of these countries is also increasing.
Aldi is investing money in developed market and getting decent return but if they will enter in
developing nations then even if they will less market share, their earning will be huge because of
huge potential scope.
Threats
Threat of private level brands – There are various brands who are selling high quality of
product at decent price (Carroll and Shabana, 2011). They have potential to decrease growth rate
of this company and become market leader in their own industry. Public do not want to buy local
products nowadays, they are loyal to brands and which Aldi do not offer them. In upcoming
time, this can create big trouble for the company because instead of growing ahead, they may go
down.
Online stores – New trend clearly states people want to buy goods from online
application because they offer more products and discount without wasting time of customers.
Companies like Amazon in entering in every country and they ca n become big threat for Aldi in
upcoming time.
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P6 Relation of strengths and weaknesses with external macro factors
External factors always make a huge impact on strengths as well as weaknesses of the
company. Aldi have many strengths and weaknesses and they are affected by the external
condition i.e. business environment. Below are the relation company’s strengths and weaknesses
with external factors:
Strengths
Aldi has a unique stratgey of running their business at low cost which allow them to sell their
products at affordable price to the company (Carlin and Schaffer, 2012). They are entering in
developed nations where economic growth is low and competition in the market is high just
because they have the competitive advantage of selling their goods at low price. They are
continuously increasing their market share in UK, a country which is facing negative implication
of political incidents like Brexit. Normally companies do not prefer to open new stores in a
country which is going to this kind of political change but Aldi is using their strength and taking
big risk by investing more money in this country.
Aldi is stilling keeping their operating cost low and they is helping them in reducing the
impact on low growth of retail industry in different countries. Global retail industry is growing
with a rate of around 3.7%. It has grown with hardly 0.2% but Aldi is stilling earning profit in
many countries and increasing market because their operating cost is low. They understand that
economy of most of the countries is in trouble and people want goods at affordable rate because
their purchasing power in not increasing. They are already selling their product at affordable rate
because of their strategy is obtaining different pricing strategy for different product and this
strength of company is assisting them in diluting the negative impact of low retail and economic
growth of company.
Aldi understand that technology is one area where they cannot lack behind and this
company is investing money in increase number of self check out points because they know that
people do not like to waste their time while waiting in lines. Technology is changing rapidly and
this company is using their monetary strength in buying latest technology. They want to improve
customer experience and technology is an external factor which has ability to impact company in
both positive and negative way (Cantwell, Dunning and Lundan, 2011).
Weaknesses
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Aldi is known for providing low customer satisfaction and the reason behind this is that
they do not appoint employees at the store when people are shopping. They employees also do
not behave properly and try to resolve problems of customers. Now Aldi has decided to remove
this weakness because when their business model then they finds that if they cannot keep their
employees happy then they cannot keep their customer happy. They are now thinking of
increasing salary of their employees so they can remove all the key issues relating to salary
motivates their workers to give their best and increase customer satisfaction level. When a
company pay more than the average pay in an industry then their image in society improves. It
also increase living standard of whole society and increase their buying capacity.
Aldi can claim that quality of their products is high but in reality it is below standards.
Many people do not like do shopping from their stores because they do feel that they are wasting
their money by running towards products whose price is low. This company is selling organic
products in their outlets, they want to show that they care about environment and they are not
using chemical, for growing vegetables, which do harm to land and its cultivation capacity. Aldi
may not have sound presence in various countries where they are operating but this does not
means that they are following all the laws (Besharov and Smith, 2014). They are failing to follow
the laws relating to quality of product and packaging in many countries.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that organisation may have different type they
always focus on single goal which differ from organisation to organisation. SWOT analysis of
company reveals the current position of the company. PESTLE analysis is done for evaluating
impact of external elements on a company. Aldi is MNC and they are affected by various
external factors.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Besharov, M.L. and Smith, W.K., 2014. Multiple institutional logics in organizations: Explaining
their varied nature and implications. Academy of Management Review. 39(3). pp.364-
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international business activity: The co-evolution of MNEs and the institutional
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Variables. 2017s. 41(4). pp.567-586.
Carlin, W. and Schaffer, M.E., 2012. Understanding the business environment in South Asia:
evidence from firm-level surveys.
Carroll, A.B. and Shabana, K.M., 2011. The business case for corporate social responsibility: A
review of concepts, research and practice. International journal of management reviews.
12(1). pp.85-105.
Cavalcante, S., Kesting, P. and Ulhøi, J., 2011. Business model dynamics and innovation:(re)
establishing the missing linkages. Management Decision, 49.(8). pp.1327-1342.
Chen, H., Chiang, R.H. and Storey, V.C., 2012. Business intelligence and analytics: From big
data to big impact. MIS quarterly, 36.(4). pp.1165-1188.
Christopher, M. and Holweg, M., 2011. “Supply Chain 2.0”: managing supply chains in the era
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Haidar, J.I., 2012. The impact of business regulatory reforms on economic growth. Journal of the
Japanese and international economies, 26.(3).pp.285-307.
Hair, J.F., 2015. Essentials of business research methods. ME Sharpe.
Marino, R., 2014. Introduction. In The Future BRICS (pp. 3-18). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Pingali, P.L. and Roger, P.A. Eds., 2012. Impact of pesticides on farmer health and the rice
environment (Vol. 7). Springer Science & Business Media.
Reed, O.L and et. Al ., 2013. The legal and regulatory environment of business (p. 328).
McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
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Management Studies. 49(8). pp.1395-1401.
Trkman, P., 2011. The critical success factors of business process management. International
journal of information management. 30(2). pp.125-134.
Turban, E., Sharda, R. and Delen, D., 2011. Decision support and business intelligence systems.
Pearson Education India.
Ullah, A. and Lai, R., 2011. Modeling business goal for business/it alignment using requirements
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Wheelen, T.L. and Hunger, J.D., 2011. Concepts in strategic management and business policy.
Pearson Education India.
Yoon, J., 2012. Detecting weak signals for long-term business opportunities using text mining of
Web news. Expert Systems with Applications. 39(16). pp.12543-12550.
Zeng, L., Li, L. and Duan, L., 2012. Business intelligence in enterprise computing environment.
Information Technology and Management. 13(4). pp.297-310.
Zsambok, C.E., 2014. Naturalistic decision making. Psychology Press.
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Online
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<http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/business_management/business_enterprise/
internal_organisation/revision/2/>.
PESTLE ANALYSES: 6 Core Variables. 2017. [Online]. Available through;
<http://www.mbahelp24.com/pestle-analysis-6-core-variables/>.
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