Sports Organization Agility through IT Capability: A SWOT Analysis

This assignment requires an in-depth analysis of the relationship between information technology capability and organizational agility in the context of intercollegiate sports organizations. Using case studies such as Marks & Spencer and empirical evidence from various academic sources, students are tasked with conducting a SWOT analysis to evaluate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The assignment aims to explore strategic management strategies within the tourism industry and the application of business process management in organizational contexts.

Business Environment

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1.................................................................................................................................................1
P2.................................................................................................................................................1
P3. Relation between business functions and organisational objectives and structure...............1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P4 positive as well as negative impact of macro environmental factors.....................................3
P5. Internal and external analysis and their impact on decision making.....................................4
P6. strengths and weaknesses interrelate with external macro factors........................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Every organisation is surrounded by its business environment. Generally, it consists of
internal as well as external factors which have a great influence on productivity and profitability
of every company. Internal factors involve employees, customers, suppliers, investors and
shareholders. Whereas, external factors includes economic, political, economic, government and
other environmental elements. These are also known as micro and macro components of business
environment (Welford, 2013). There is a huge difference between them. Micro environmental
components can be controlled by the organisation but macro elements cannot. In this project
report, Marks & Spencer has been selected which is a multinational retailer company specialised
in clothing and food products. This organisation has its root in the United Kingdom. In this
report, various types and purposes of company have been evaluated along with their size and
scope. There is also a huge interrelation between organisational functions and its structure
objectives which has been determined in this report. Also, positive and negative impacts of
external factors has been shown on the business operations. At last, relationship between internal
strengths/weaknesses as well as external macro factors have been evaluated.
TASK 1
P1
Covered in PPT
P2
Covered in PPTP3. Relation between business functions and organisational objectives and
structure
The main function of every organisation is to accomplish its goals and objectives. It is
very much important for business enterprise to operate their activities and practices in an
effective manner so that they can easily attain their desired goals. As Marks & Spencer is one of
the leading retailer companies which manufactures the designer clothes and also provide food
items. This corporation is established to accomplish its various objectives which are:
 Profitability: This is known as the most important objective of any company. It is
because; without this, no organisation can operate its business activities (Lu and
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Ramamurthy, 20117). So, it is essential for Marks & Spencer to enhance its financial
profit so that it can run its organisational practices in an effective and systematic way.
 Productivity: To increase production, it is necessary to attract more customers because
without attracting clients, no company can enhance its productivity. Marks & Spencer
can use various promotional activities so that it can enhance the number of its customers.
 Customer satisfaction: In the modern world, needs and demands of clients are
continuously changing and so, all organisations are becoming customer-oriented. It is the
main objective of M&S to provide high quality products and services to their consumers
so that their needs can be satisfied (Moutinho, 2011).
 Employee retention: Success of every business enterprise lies upon its human resources.
Company can improve its position in the market place if it has highly qualified
workforce. So, it is necessary for small and large corporation to retain their talented staff
members as without them, it cannot accomplish the goals and objectives (Jing and Avery,
2011).
Hence, these are some most important objectives of Marks and Spencer. It is the main
task of this company to achieve mentioned goals so that it can enhance its growth.
Accomplishment of objectives can be done if functioning of enterprise is very much effective. So
it can be said that, there is strong interrelation between organisational functions and objectives
which is explained as below:
 Human resource: It plays a significant role in every business organisation. The main
function of this department is to supply highly qualified candidates for the vacant
position. So, they can make great efforts to accomplish the organisational goals and
objectives. Effective HR system can also help in retaining employees at the workplace as
it provides various rules and regulations regarding workers so that their interests can be
protected and promoted.
 Marketing department: The main function of this department is to promote and
advertise products and services of organisation so that more people can get attracted
towards company. It helps in enhancing the number of customers because clients select
that product which is more attractive in looks.
 Research and development: This department helps in identifying various needs, wants
and trends of market so that company can make their strategies, rules, regulations,
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products and services accordingly. This will help organisation in enhancing its
profitability (Ahuja, Soda and Zaheer, 2012).
 Production department: It is known as the most important section of a business
enterprise as it produces all products which help in increasing the financial growth.
Marks & Spencer can take support of advanced technology by which it can manufacture
its products and services in an effective and systematic manner.
 Finance department: No organisation can perform its business activities and practices
without enough capital. So, it is the responsibility of finance department to manage
money so that company can operate its functions in a better and effective way.
Organisational structure of Marks and Spencer:
Organisational structure can be defined as a system which outlines that how roles and
responsibilities of workplace are delegated, monitored and coordinated. Structure of M&S is
following as under:
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TASK 2
P4 Positive as well as negative impact of macro environmental factors
Marks and Spencer can evaluate its macro environmental factors through using
framework of PESTLE analysis. As M&S is a multinational company and it have its branches in
all over the world. It is retailer brand of food items and designer cloth. To serve in national and
international market this company have to determine different components of its macro
environment. Various external factors are following as under:
Political factors: There are various rules and regulation which are made by government to avoid
the health care issues of people and to those elements which can harm environment. If any
organisation would not follow these rules and regulations than they have to pay certain amount
of money as punishment, in some worst cases government can also unregistered the company.
 Positive- It is the most positive action of government, it shows that legal authorities cares
about environment.
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Illustration
1: Organisational structure Of Marks and Spencer

 Negative- Company which do not follow rules and norms of government can go through
from various great losses.
Economical factors: There is no stability in economic conditions. Most of people belongs to
middle class family and they do not have enough capital to spend on various high priced goods
and services. Due to economical changes Marks and Spencer have to close many of its food
stores.
 Positive- Due to economical changes, M&S have started producing high quality products
and services.
 Negative- Instability in economic conditions have forced this company to close many of
its stores.
Sociological factors: Every company have to manufacture its goods and services to consider
social welfare. Changes in customer needs have forced Marks and Spencer to provide more
varieties in food items.
 Positive- By increasing variety of good and services, M&S can attract more customers.
 Negative- High focus on food products can decrease production of designer clothes.
Technical factors: By using high advance technology company can improve its position in
competitive market place. This company can promote its products and services over internet
sites, which can achieve attention of web users.
 Positive- Technical support can help organisation in attracting more customers.
 Negative- Most of people are not aware about different aspects of online shopping.
Legal factors: It is very much important for business organisation to follow all law and
legislations related to employment. Marks and Spencer update its policies according to different
legal aspects.
 Positive- This can build strong goodwill of company in marketplace.
 Negative- Continuous changes in legal considerations can create problem for this
company because changes in tax policies also affect pricing polices of organisation.
Environmental factors: Business enterprises also affected by climatic conditions, as this can
decrease availability of raw materials. Good packaging of products can make them strong from
inner side.
 Positive- Company can protect its goods by packing them in appropriate manner.
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 Negative- Spending on good packaging can increase organisational expenses. P5.
Internal and external analysis and their impact on decision making
Before making important business decisions, it is necessary for managers to evaluate
different aspects of their internal and external factors. Organisation can use SWOT matrix to
evaluate its various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. These are those aspects
which decide failure and success of any business enterprise. Marks & Spencer can also take the
help of SWOT analysis to evaluate its internal and external factors.
Illustration 2: SWOT Analysis
Strengths (Internal environment): These are those characteristics which help organisation in
generating high financial profit, and these are:
 As Marks & Spencer is a multinational organisation and it has a great market share due to
its high quality goods and services (Lee and Walsh, 2011).
 This company has well talented staff members which contribute their efforts in
organisational growth and success.
 This company is using advanced technology which helps it in accomplishing the
organisational goals and objectives.
Weaknesses (Internal environment): It is known as disadvantages which M&S have in the
current market place and these are:
 This company has a lot of bad debts which are continuously decreasing its performance
in the market place. This financial condition can make this organisation poor as compared
to its other competitors.
 This company has most of the branches in outside United Kingdom which is influencing
negative impact on its image as it has less presence within UK.
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Opportunities (External environment): It involves those areas in which organisation can
expand its business and improve its position in the market place. These are:
 This company can become more popular by using various promotional activities.
Appropriate promotion and advertisement of its products can help in attracting more
customers.
 This organisation can segment its market in each and every area of the United Kingdom.
Threats (External environment): These are the elements which can decrease efficiency and
effectiveness of company. Threats of M&S are as follows:
 Due to economic recessions, this company is facing various credit crunches (Pache and
Santos, 2013).
 Also, continuous fluctuation in currency is affecting its financial performance.
 Increment in business ethics also increases its problems.
 Shortage of skilled labour in the market place is also a threat for Marks and Spencer.
Hence, these are some most important components of SWOT analysis through which
company can identify its internal and external environment. Through determining these micro
environmental factors, Marks & Spencer can make well planned strategies and policies which
can help it in accomplishing its goals and objectives. By evaluating above mentioned points,
M&S can discover strong and weak areas which can influence the business success or failure.
P6. Interrelation between SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis
There is a chart which helps in determining link between micro and macro factors. This is
following as under:
Micro factors(SWOT) Macro factors(PESTLE)
Strengths:
 Marks and Spencer provides qualitative
goods and services, which is its major
strength.
 This company have huge number of
human resources which represents its
large size.
 This organisation provides good
Political: There are various rules and
regulations which are enacted by UK
government. Marketing strategies of Mark and
Spencer are highly influenced by these actions
of government.
Economical: Ups and downs in national
currency also affects growth and development
of company.
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working environment to its employers
and employees, which facilitates
smooth functioning of company.
Weaknesses:
 Workplace of Marks and Spencer is not
that that much effective, because there
is lack of communication.
 The biggest weak point of this
company is that it have lots of debt.
 This company have most of its
branches outside the country which
shows its poor presence in home
country.
 Failure of its market strategies also
affecting its financial position in
corporate world.
Social: Groups of individual comes under
society. These peoples are very much essential
because production of a organisation depends
upon them.
Technological: With the help of technical
support enterprise can accomplish its desired
goals in minimum time. M&S can also make
its business effective by using new equipments
of technology.
Legal: The main task of government is to
make various rules and regulation so that
buyers can be protected from unfair practices
of organisation.
Environmental: It is very much important for
business enterprise to acquire natural resources
from their environment. Without this no
company can produce high quality products.
Hence, these are some elements of macro environment which shows that there is huge
interrelation between SWOT and PESTLE analysis. Any changes in legal considerations can
affect business activities and practices of Marks and Spencer. There are various aspects which
shows the affect of above mentioned points and these are following as under:
 Fluctuation in tax rates influence income level of country and business organisations
operating under it.
 Natural resources are very much required to produce different products and services of
organisation.
 Modifications in market trends also affects current strategies and polices of business
enterprise.
 Changes in currency and commodities also affects import and export business.
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 Various legal policies of other country also affects international business of a company.
Hence, micro and macro factors are highly interrelated with each other. These elements
involves customers, suppliers, investors and employees which are interrelated with each other.
CONCLUSION
Through concluding this project report, it can be determined that business environment
plays an important role in all kinds of firms. It consists of two major factors which are micro and
macro environmental forces. For better growth of company, managers must consider different
elements of micro and macro environment. So, it is very much important for the businessmen to
make different strategies and policies to consider their environmental factors. It has been
assessed that business environment is the core concept as it can put positive as well as negative
impact on the organisation’s operations. So, it is the biggest responsibility of entrepreneurs to
keep in mind different forces of environment while making essential decisions. This project
report is focused on Marks & Spencer which is a multinational brand of clothing. It also deals in
food items but its core business is in designer clothes. In this report, it is determined that
organisations have different types, purposes as well as size and scope. It is also demonstrated
that there is a huge relationship in between organisational functions and structure. Every
enterprise is influenced by its macro environmental factors as they can influence positive as well
as negative impact on the business operations. At last, it has been assessed that there is
interrelation between internal strengths/weaknesses and external macro factors.
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