Business Environment - Thomas Cook Assignment

Business Environment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................1
a) Key macro issues in business environment for the Travel and Leisure sector.......................1
b) Potential impact at micro level due to Sociological and technological factor........................2
c) Challenges while doing work and suggestions to overcome such problems..........................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Business Environment includes all internal and external factors that affects how the
company functions including employees, customers management, supply and demand and
business regulations (Andersson, Forsgren and Holm, 2015). There are many factors which
affects business environment such as legal, natural, financial, social etc. In this report, Thomas
Cook Group plc is taken into consideration to find the key issues in the business environment.
This is a British global travel company which deals in tours and travels. In this report, different
issues related to business environment are discussed.
TASK
a) Key macro issues in business environment for the Travel and Leisure sector
The external and internal factors which affects the business is known as business
environment. Although, these factors doesn't relate directly to the business but still these factors
affects the business very much (Bocken and et. al., 2013). Some of the factors are social,
political, environmental, etc. These factors are basically divided into two parts: macro and micro.
In this task, macro issues related to environment are taken into consideration.
A macro environment consists of larger societal forces that affect all the factors in
company's micro environment. Some example of macro environment include competitors,
changes in interest rates, changes in cultural tastes, disastrous weather or government
regulations. These issues include the Pestle environmental forces. Therefore, to consider these
issues Pestle has to be explained (Wetherly, 2014). Pestle analysis is a concept in marketing
principles. This concept is used by the companies to check the effect of different issues to their
organisation.
Political- The political condition in travel and leisure sector is very much important. This
sector mostly depend on political issue. Terrorism, violence and other factors have also a
negative impact on the development of travel industry. There are other factors also which
includes political unrest, strikes and travelling rules and regulations defined by each state and
government (Boons and Lüdeke-Freund, 2013).
Economic factors- Economically the travel industry is considered to be one of the best
industries. The profit travel industry is making is good enough to maintain it's position among
the competitors (Pearson, 2017 ). The growth of industry is driven by higher disposable incomes
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and changing lifestyles of consumers. The fluctuation in currency rates between countries
directly affect the international travel suppliers.
Social Factors- The quality which has been maintained by the travel industry is good
enough to make the travellers more prone to this sector. The innovative culture introduced by the
tourism sector has always attracted the clients. The company must always consider and respect
the social values and norms of the people. The tourist travelling any place have influential impact
on the community they are visiting. This impact includes drug usage, crowd behaviour, criminal
activities etc. (Cadogan, 2012).
Technological Factors- The consumers in the travel industry are very much interested in
the new technology. The best use of technology has made the travel most comfortable. From
ticketing to boarding, consumer is very friendly with use of technology. It can include the online
ticketing, hotel bookings etc. All these facilities make the customer user friendly with technology
(Sassen, 2016).
Legal Factors- The travel industry has to follow certain legal laws and regulations. It has
to follow not only the rules and regulations set by the government but also by other states in
which travel industry has been working. For safe and sound travelling it is important to
practically take initiative to deal with the hurdles that came in the way of success of the
organisation (Charter, 2017).
Environmental Factors- Some environmental polluting factors are one of the major
concerns related to environmental factors. The best use of fuel and wastage of oil are the
fundamental concerns relating to environment. The preservation of environment should always
be the key concern for the travel industry (Shenkar, Luo and Chi, 2014).
Above discussed factors shows how the key macro issues in the business
environment that are significant for the Travel and Leisure sector affects the performance of
travel industry (Yashkova and et. al., 2016).
b) Potential impact at micro level due to Sociological and technological factor
So, from the above factors which we have discussed, Sociological and technological
factor plays and important part in Travel and leisure sector. As mentioned accommodation is
taken as a hotel sub-sector for further studies (Cheng and et. al., 2014).
SWOT analysis of sociological factor in context of accommodation.
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Strength: The important factor to succeed in the hotel industry is providing best
accommodation. Every individual has different needs and expectation in context of stay. So
Thomas cook need to understand the unfulfilled needs of the customer and how they can fulfill
them. Nowadays, customer prefer to pay more for the rooms but also expects the same quality
when it comes to stay at hotel so company can use this trend to earn more profit (Clarke,
Tamaschke and Liesch, 2013).
Weakness: Hotel industry is fast as it changes very often. As demands are changing in a
rapid manner so does the structure of the hotel and their offerings. So operating income is
decreasing day by day. Thomas cook have to take care all the requirements and make the
blueprint according to that so that earning could increase (Teece, 2012.).
Opportunities: In the recent era, customer are ready to pay bucks for the extra amenities
they expects from the hotel like car rental, guide etc. Through this Thomas cook can partner with
the other industry company and can earn other than the hotel income. Its kind of extra income to
the Thomas cook that would make a difference in the balance sheet (Fearon, Starr and
McLaughlin, 2012).
Threats: The sociological threats which Thomas cook can face are drug usage, crowded
atmosphere and criminal behavior. It will affect the company's image in front of customer and
mostly degrade their goodwill that will affect in the balance sheet. So they have to check the
background of the customer before providing the bookings (Welford, 2013).
SWOT analysis of Technological factor in context of accommodation
Strength: Technology has changed the face of hotel industry. Now customer can book
any hotel in any country from their cell phone and even you can see your room and its service
also. Thomas cook have adopt this very early and start using for bookings. It has increased the
number of bookings for Thomas cook. Besides this payment system has also changed to online
where you do not have to carry hard cash at the time of check out (García-Peñalvo, 2014,). So
Thomas cook have to improved their technology with the environment and always carry a edge
over others.
Weakness: Nowadays, many hotels are conducting fraud with the help of the technology.
Whatever photos which they have shown of the rooms are false and just a way to allure the
customer for the bookings. Thomas cook have always been the best hotels in the industry and
should not conduct this type of incident in present or future. This type of frauds demolished the
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goodwill of any hotel which they have earned and cannot even retain their customer (IşıK, Jones
and Sidorova, 2013.).
Opportunities: Customer will only become loyal when all their needs and expectations
are satisfied by the hotel. With the help of technology, Thomas cook can ask customer their
preference of bed sheets, music or fragrance and make the arrangements accordingly. This will
help the company to satisfy their customer and make them a loyal one. Besides this Thomas cook
can make customer technology friendly with their platform so that customer will prefer to use
Thomas technology rather than other platform (Gough and Scott, 2014).
Threats: Customer now prefer privacy in the hotel and don't want to get disturbed by any
means. Some cases are found where hotel owner has put microphone or cameras in the room or
bathroom. The only reason behind this is to invade the privacy of the customer. This thing will
break the trust on the hotel plus legal case would be filed against the hotelier. So Thomas cook
should respect the privacy of the customers and this mischief should not be done by the
company. Besides this online payment should be well protected by the latest technology. As
online frauds are happening where customer have been charged or extra money have been taken
out by third person. So Thomas cook should improve their technology with time so that any kind
of mischief should be stop before happening (Hadjiconstantinou, 2012).
c) Challenges while doing work and suggestions to overcome such problems
The organisation is run by the people and every business face various type of challenges
before starting any work. While doing any task, person have to go through challenges which
hamper the work and quality. When I did research on business environment the issues which face
by me are as given below:
Research Problem
It is the process of finding something new which has not been done before. This is the
most biggest challenging factor for me while doing research on business environment. In this, I
faced lots of problems, I went through many websites and all provided different informations. It
was very difficult for me to find the accurate website and get solution. Even I used assignment of
different university made by the students, PDFs, ppts etc. all created confusion to me. It is the
most challenging factor while finding information related with the business environment.
Writing information
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This is the second important challenging factor for me. As I went through websites,
assignment I got enough information which was enough for doing work related with business
environment. But I was unable to write those information on my own words and cannot express
to others who could understand me. In this challenge, I could not write exactly what I want to
write though I understood all the relevant data. I faced problem of grammatical errors and
sentence formation while writing.
In order to overcome the above challenges there are some suggestion which everyone
should apply in their life. The important solution are as described below:
Appropriate Website
There are various types of information related with the topic at different website. So,
firstly I searched about the most accurate and trust worthy website mostly used. Among them I
selected renowned sites and collected data related with the business environment. This help me
as well as user to extract accurate data and correct information from the site. In this way to
overcome research related challenges I used this solution to make my work effective.
Sample Work
I used various software available offline and online to overcome writing information
challenge. Those software helps a lot to me to correct the grammatical mistakes, sentence
formation and meaning of words. It also helps me in writing effectively and efficiently. Even I
referred sample paper for writing or presenting my problem in front of the user. This is the most
easy way to solve out the problem for research.
Thus, research problem and writing information are the two challenges for any person
while doing research. These can decrease the quality and hamper the work very badly. So in
order to overcome out such issues and problems, websites and sample work or software can help
a lot. These can improve the quality of work and help the individual to perform assigned task.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from above mentioned report that business environment is very
important for any company or organisation. In order to establish any type of business in the
surrounding individual must be aware. Under this report studied about the macro issues I,e
PESTEL model which is significant for the corporation. The report also includes potential
impacts at micro level which is technological and social. Here, the challenges faced by individual
while doing research along with solution to overcome is mentioned.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Andersson, U., Forsgren, M. and Holm, U., 2015. Balancing subsidiary influence in the
federative MNC: A business network view. InKnowledge, Networks and Power (pp.
393-420). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Bocken, N. and et. al.,2013. A value mapping tool for sustainable business modelling. Corporate
Governance, 13(5), pp.482-497.
Boons, F. and Lüdeke-Freund, F., 2013. Business models for sustainable innovation: state-of-
the-art and steps towards a research agenda. Journal of Cleaner production. 45. pp.9-19.
Cadogan, J. W., 2012. International marketing, strategic orientations and business success:
Reflections on the path ahead. International Marketing Review, 29(4), pp.340-348.
Charter, M., 2017. Greener marketing: A responsible approach to business. Routledge.
Cheng, M. and et. al., 2014. The international integrated reporting framework: key issues and
future research opportunities. Journal of International Financial Management &
Accounting, 25(1), pp.90-119.
Clarke, J. E., Tamaschke, R. and Liesch, P. W., 2013. International experience in international
business research: A conceptualization and exploration of key themes. International
Journal of Management Reviews,15(3), pp.265-279.
Fearon, C., Starr, S. and McLaughlin, H., 2012. Blended learning in higher education (HE):
Conceptualising key strategic issues within a business school. Development and
Learning in Organizations: An International Journal. 26(2). pp.19-22.
García-Peñalvo, F. J., 2014, October. Virtual placements for informatics students in open source
business across Europe. In 2014 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) (pp. 1-
5). IEEE.
Gough, S. and Scott, W., 2014. Key issues in sustainable development and learning: A critical
review. Routledge.
Hadjiconstantinou, E. ed., 2012. Quick response in the supply chain. Springer Science &
Business Media.
IşıK, Ö., Jones, M. C. and Sidorova, A., 2013. Business intelligence success: The roles of BI
capabilities and decision environments. Information & Management. 50(1). pp.13-23.
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Pearson, R., 2017. Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and the
idea of dialogue. In Public relations theory (pp. 111-131). Routledge.
Sassen, S., 2016. The Global City: Strategic Site, New Frontier. In Managing Urban Futures
(pp. 89-104). Routledge.
Shenkar, O., Luo, Y. and Chi, T., 2014.International business. Routledge.
Teece, D. J., 2012. Dynamic capabilities: Routines versus entrepreneurial action. Journal of
management studies. 49(8). pp.1395-1401.
Welford, R., 2013. Hijacking environmentalism: Corporate responses to sustainable
development. Routledge.
Wetherly, P., 2014. The business environment: themes and issues in a globalizing world. Oxford
University Press.
Yashkova, E. V., and et. al., 2016. Development of Innovative Business Model of Modern
Manager's Qualities.International Journal of Environmental and Science Education.
11(11). pp.4650-4659.
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