Business and the Business Environment Primark

Business and the business environment
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Introduction
Business environment is the sum total of the external as well as internal factors
that affect the overall functioning of company that further includes employees,
consumers, management as well as business regulations (Baron, 2012). The present
study has thus made an attempt to study the business environment of Primark as well
as Department of Health (DH) UK. Primark is a Dublin based Irish Clothing and
accessory company that has a presence of 320 stores in 11 nations that are spread
over Europe and America (About us, 2016). Department of Health (DH) is a ministerial
department that has been rendering health care services so as to ensure that people
live longer, get the necessary care/support as well the treatment needed by them
(Department of Health, 2017). The present study has thus made an attempt to
understand the wider environment in which the operations of Primark and DH, UK are
carried out. Focus will be given on purpose, structure and size, Internal, external
factors, SWOT analysis of both the firms so as to understand there operations in a
better manner.
P1 Background of each organization and there purpose
Background and Purpose of Primark
Primark is a private limited company whose shareholders have a presence of
limited liability and in incorporated under laws of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
The shares of a private limited company may not be given to general public as they are
not in the stock exchange market. The firm opened its first store in Dublin (Ireland) in
the year 1969 with the name Pennys and now it has around 38 stores in Ireland under
the brand of Penneys (About us, 2016). Its first store in UK was opened in the year
1973 at Derby and now it has 174 stores within United Kingdom in total. It offers
products and services such as accessories, kids and new born clothing, women and
men’s wear, footwear, underwear as well as hosiery for females. It also provides
products such as beauty goods and confectionary items (Company Overview of Primark
Stores Limited, 2017).
Primark is known for providing amazing as well as trendy clothes at reasonably
low prices that are in fast fashion trend. In terms of purpose the company is a private
sector one and hence its major purpose is of maximizing its overall profits and sales
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figure for shareholders followed by maintain an overall transperancy in the financial
reporting (Prajogo, 2016).
Background and Purpose of department of health UK
Department of health is a public sector firm in UK and a ministerial organization
that is supported by 15 arm length bodies as well as a number of other agencies of
which is the largest is NHS England. The department is further led by secretary of state
for health, state ministry as well as 4 Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State. It was
formed in the year 1988 through the transfer of functions (Health and Social Security)
Order (About us, 2017). The firm majorly does the work of funding the healthcare and is
accountable to the parliament of United Kingdom.
Department of health UK being a public sector firm has the main purpose is to
increase shareholder value by generating maximum amount of profit. However, this firm
has also started to balance the primary objective with other social and environmental
goal that aids to pacify shareholders and also ensure that profits are attained (Belas and
et.al. 2015). The department of health is there to aid in people to live longer through the
provision of various services such as supporting the integration of health care system by
providing funding so that quality services can be delivered (Department of Health,
2017). It further supports research and technology so that highest quality of care can be
given to masses through the principles of innovation and improvement. Its major role is
to encourage all the staff members of health care firm to understand and learn from
experience of patients and apply it in their daily working for provision of better services
(Worthington and Britton, 2014).
P2 The size and scope of their operations
Primark opened its very first store in Dublin and today it has a presence of
around 320 stores that are spread in 11 nations of Europe and United States of
America. The largest store of Primark is in Manchester that occupies a retail space of
155000 square feet that are spread over three floors. It further runs concessions in
Manchester, Birmingham as well as Selfridges (About us, 2017). The company has a
presence of more than 70000 employees that are working in above mentioned nations.
The annual report of Primark for the year 2016 shows that it was able to generate an
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overall revenue of 5.9 billion dollars and has been a observing a substantial growth
since the year 2007. The firm has the presence of highest penetration in United
Kingdom with 171 stores in 2016 and 41 in Spain. But it is still required to make its
presence feel in western European nations like France and Germany where it has a
presence of just 8 and 20 stores respectively. Butler, 2017 in her report has revealed
that the sales figure for the year 2017 till November has been £7.05bn and its
underlying operating profit also climbed by 7% to £735m for 2017 which is £150m more
as compared to Marks and Spencer (Butler, 2017).
In terms of staff number, the department of health of UK has employed 2160
employees that are spread over large number of locations that are spread in entire
United Kingdom. The total current expenditure of healthcare in UK for the year 2017 is
9.9 percent of GDP which is quite higher than median for member states of
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The organization further
pooled 5.8 billion pound of budget in health and social care fund. A booking of 1.1
million patients took place in the year 2016-2017 (Department of Health, 2017). The
department has further set a goal for NHS England to ensure that 95 percent of patients
that attend Emergency department must be treated, discharged or admitted within four
hours. The firm has been able to attend the ratio of 87.6% between the time span of
January and March 2017 (About us, 2017).
P3 Relationship between the various functions and there link to structure and
objectives
There is a presence of varied functional activities in Primark as well as
department of health, UK. All of them have played a key role in attainment of
organizational objectives and are further linked to the structure. The human resource
team has done the work of selecting dedicated operational, sales and finance staff in
Primark while experienced nurses, care workers and doctors in Department of health
(Palmer and Hartley, 2011). The quality staff members have thus ensured that
consumers feel welcomed, comfortable and safe in stores of Primark which is its major
objective. Same applies to DH which has aided in provision of quality care to patients.
Operations manager of Primark has trained the employees so that they are able
to render there best services for organization. They have also kept the staff motivated
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