SWOT Analysis and Business Environment

The provided document contains a comprehensive analysis of the business environment, including macro environmental forces, such as globalization, technological advancements, and demographic changes. The assignment also includes a SWOT analysis of a business, identifying its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the given context.

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
P1 & P2 are covered in PPT...................................................................................................1
P3 Relationship between various functions of the enterprise and their connection to the goals 1
P4 Pros and cons that impacts on the business functions.......................................................4
P5 Unilever's SWOT and Value Chain Analysis...................................................................6
P6 Relationship between PEST and SWOT Analysis............................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
.......................................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Business Environment refers to the mix of internal and external elements that affects the
functions of the enterprise and it's scope is ever-changing. It involves customers, market,
governments, rivals, stakeholders, society and innovation (Aterido and Pagés, 2011). Some of
the factors that can be either controllable or uncontrollable that is tax rates, or price rise.
Unilever is world's oldest and the largest multinational British consumer product firm. It's
headquarter is situated in Rotterdam, Netherlands and London. The company cover food items
and personal care as well as cleaning agents. It covers approximately 190 countries. It is the
largest manufacturer of food spreads. It covers many brands such as Sunsilk, Rexona, Dove,
Lux, Surf and so on. Unilever's mission is to provide and assist people to feel and look good and
also acquire more out of life. Its vision statement is to gain respect as well as love by the
customers. The company's objective is to add passion and energy to the lives of the people. Its
strategies is to evaluate the business situation more particularly.
P1 & P2 are covered in PPT
P3 Relationship between various functions of the enterprise and their connection to the goals
Unilever is a British transnational company by providing products and services to the
customers around the globe. They lead hierarchical structure in their undertakings. This
development is been indicated the positions as well as commitments are divided feasibly yo
representatives of the venture (Czinkota, 2010). Top management has extra duties comparing
with reduced level.
Some of the objectives and purposes of Unilever that are as follows :
 They require to expand their business that will help and support them to provide
development and also improvement.
 The company's main aim is to provide their customers with better quality of goods and
services at an affordable rates.
 They also need to reduce the waste, as per to the targets which they can help to make
sure the situation of United Kingdom successfully.
 Another purpose of Unilever is to give items as well as services of each and every kinds,
under a single roof to the customers.
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 To increase the sales and income, it is very crucial to provide production to the
stakeholders of the organisation.
Some of the functions of the organisation are as follows :
Every firms and ventures expected to provide products along with services to the
customers so that they can met the requirements and demands (De Jonge, 2011). In Unilever,
there are some functions and has unique relation with one another :
They are as follows:
 Finance
 Human Resource
 Sales & Marketing
 Production
 Administration
 Research and development
ORGANISATIONAL CHART
 Finance: This department, is responsible for maintaining the records of the firm properly
and efficiently. With the help of shares and advances , they can raise capital. This
supports the business enterprise to prepare a budgetary plan for Unilever. It is associated
with the other departments as well as by this plan is made. They require to keep up the
records and data, about how much cash is been paid by integration and how much is used.
The fundamental responsibility of this department is that, they need to issue the strategies
related to budget for each department. They make pay roll and other salary related pay for
the employees.
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 Human Resource: In this division, primary thing is to administer the human resource
that covers employees and employers in an organisation. They give trainings to the
workers that will help them to enhance the performance of the company. It is important
for them to give better operating environment that will not only aid them to enhance the
productivity but also assist them in their retention. Manager of this, Human Resource
department requires to encourage their staff members, by giving them rewards, incentives
or any other additional facilities to them. This is why, it is significant to give them certain
amount of monetary resource with an objective so that they can organise training sessions
as well as inspirational projects or assignments for their employees.
 Production: For each and every organisation, it is important to acquire resources feasible
so that it can be utilised appropriately. They can use various strategies for these such as,
job, flow, batch and so on (Gecevska, 2010). This organisation, Unilever required to
wipe out wasted expenditure as well as they can render training to their staff workers.
Due to this outcome will be, they can operate their functions more effectively as well as
efficiently. They even have to reduce their cost so that they can complete their activity
within the given budget plan.
 Sales & Marketing: The organisation need to have inquiry related to the objectives and
targets which can fulfil the requirements and demand of the buyers or customers. They
usually creates methods such as promotional, sales, pricing and etc. for this reason. To
enhance the sales and revenue of the company, it is essential for them to increase the
present things. For adequate promotions of the products and services, venture is required
to have appropriate amount of funds.
 Administration: It is mainly for the purpose, to render help to operate big business
venture. To administer the organisation in a persuasive manner, this is the major
responsibility of this department. They activities of both senior level executive and
workers of Unilever, performs together (Halbert and Ingulli, 2011). Along with this, they
offer proper training session as well as encouraging its employees to accomplish their
short and long term goals in an appropriate manner. It is very important to provide
relevant data related to research and also to coordinate and manage meetings in a proper
way, this is one of the major duty.
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 Research and Development: It is to decide the needs and wants of the buyer, this is led
by each and every enterprise. This will help to boost their goods and services. Many
ventures depend on this department and behind the success of Unilever, it is Research
and Development. In here, finance division plays a vital role. This is because, if there is a
requirement of funds, and are accessible then this will result in more effective and
efficient work.
P4 Pros and cons that impacts on the business functions
Unilever has the capability to see external elements that highly contribute in the market.
PESTLE analysis is a tool to evaluate the external components that affects business of
organisation. However, this company must concentrate on increasing the efficiency of business.
Unilever can attain higher performance through PESTLE analysis, by knowing prevailing
opportunities in market along with the threats. Political Factor: In most of the nations, political stability shows opportunities for
company to develop in the economy. For instance, in US, political stability supports to
reduce the challenges in an organization's key executions in the nation. In the European
Union, political issues is the possible risk against firm's operations in the local market. As
the Unilever is working in the retail sector and they are expanding their business in each
and every country so they have to maintain political relations with the nations
government. Economical Factor: This element is crucial for Unilever, as it worries the most for the
company. Its activity cost is a standout amongst each and every thought process that
influence advantages to the venture. Fiscal policy, credit accessibility these are some of
the various fixings. On the long shot, unemployment is there in the country, United
Kingdom. It reduces the pay of a single individual, then the expenditure is less on
pointless things like apparels, accessories, etc. for expanding the business, the company
need to create plans for the same. Purchasing power of the customers is having a huge
impact on the company's sales so they have to conduct regular analysis of the economy
by which they can make variances in the products supply. Social Factor: Requirements and wants of the buyers are ever-changing. It depends on
the trends or taste and preferences of the consumers. They are required to purchase the
items and products from the single store. Therefore, it is necessary for the association to
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increase their non-food items that are accessible to buy. By presence of mind, demands of
the buyers are influenced. Technological Factor: Increasing in the utilisation of new technology, enhances the
growth of company as it improves the business performance. Reduction in the cost of the
distribution, transportation and installation leads to lower functional cost. Technological
changes are having a huge impact on the company, many of the companies are using
drone deliveries in which can be used by the company to enhance their home delivery. Environmental Factor: It is also known as ecological element. The firm requires to
decide their natural components that affects their business either directly or indirectly.
They grab the best method for the exchange with objectives which they can provide
beneficial to the society. They also need to reduce the waste in the shops. Legal Factor: Enactments as well as administrative bodies can certainly influence the
implementation of Unilever. The cited company similarly require to complete their
corporate social duties. It is necessary for each and every country that has their personal
standards as well as controls with targets to lead them appropriately.
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PESTLE Analysis
P5 Unilever's SWOT and Value Chain Analysis
Unilever is a major and largest transnational consumer products business in the economy.
By conducting SWOT analysis, the company gets to know the internal factor that is strengths and
weakness, as well as external factor that is opportunities and threats. For gaining through
expansion of business of Unilever, SWOT analysis depicts important opportunities that id
discussed below:
SWOT ANALYSIS
S- Strengths1. Economies of scale2. Powerful brands3. Solid worldwide market existence4. Wide goods mix
W- Weaknesses
1. Duplicate goods
2. Constrained expansion of the company
3. Dependency on retailers
O- Opportunities1. Improvement in the market
T- Threats
1. Improving prominence of retailers'
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2. Variety in business3. Enhancement in the business for
natural preservation
home brands
2. Impersonation of items
3. Intense rivalry among the competitors
 S- Strengths: The qualities of the business of a firm are determined in this element of
SWOT evaluation. Strengths are the basic internal component in respect of the
company's circumstances. These can be Human resources, hierarchical structure or
organisational charts or generation forms. Unilever has the largest share in the consumer
food consumption. This quality is the strength that appoints the firm's business to sink in
economy along with the appropriate contending with that of other companies. SWOT
analysis of the entity shows the skills that can be utilise to aid development along with
the achievement in the market. W- Weaknesses: Regardless of its solid market presence, Unilever has some
shortcomings which restrict the development of firm. This segment of SWOT
examination shows the internal primal elements that restricts to influential and the
business development. Unilever's one of the weakness is the duplicate concept of its
product. For instance, in spite the idea that the company strongly puts resources into the
development processes in its product, many firms might copy Lux as well as Lipton items
(Laumer, Eckhardt and Weitzel, 2010). Likewise, the need of enterprise to manage strong
impact on buyers, screening which few retailers generally has consequence on shoppers.
Along with these, in view of interior components of SWOT evaluation of cited firm, the
above discussed weaknesses concentrates on the significance of enlargement,
improvement, along with the developed marketing effort. O- Opportunities: Unilever uses the development in the opportunities in buyer items
displays around the world. Under this division of SWOT assessment, identify such
opportunities as well as external fundamental components that basically motivates the
betterment in business concern. Unilever has chances/opportunities to broaden through
entering the firms business apart from the consumer products (Hamilton and Webster,
2015).On the other hand, promotion of item must change the firm's goods also by
preferring good quality products as per the wants of progressively rationale buyers.
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 T- Threats: Diversity of external elements can confine company's business activities.
SWOT Analysis considers these outside components as dangers that the organization
should deliberately handle. Unilever confronts intense rivalry that is a risk in light of the
strengths of different firms in the same business (Iskanius and Anbuudayasankar, 2010).
Contenders undermine to diminish the market share of organization as well as relating
budgetary efficiency. Item impersonation is additionally a noteworthy risk against the
firm.
Value Chain Analysis:
For the internal evaluation company can also conduct Value Chain analysis. If company
is to acquire competitive advantages, each and every function must operate at the best level.
Value Chain is defined as an outline for determining the key skills of organisation internally as
well as in the supply chain. It also helps the firm to know its strengths and weaknesses. It
determines the sources for attaining competitive advantage. To identify the opportunities that
exist in the market, value chain analysis is used.
There are two activities that are performed in this evaluation, that is, primary and the
other one is supporting activity.
Following are some of the primary activities:
1. Inbound Logistics: In this products are received from suppliers of firm for manufacturing
the item. It covers the maintenance of materials, ware-harming and storage of inputs as
well as delivery.
2. Operations: It acquires inputs from the inbound logistics to convert them final items
(Klapper and Parker, 2010). In other terms, raw materials are produced to get the final
goods. In this stage, value is added to the item. It includes ploughing, planting, harvesting
and medicating as well as spraying.
3. Outbound Logistics: It includes the distribution of final goods, its storage and collection.
Once the item is produced they are set to distribute to the components of supply chain
that are suppliers, retailers and consumers.
4. Marketing and Sales: Marketing must ensure that the item must target the right consumer
segment (Moutinho, 2011). Through marketing mix, launching of the strategies that are
effective also competitive advantage if exists must be interacted clearly and specifically
for attaining the targets of company.
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5. Services: After the item is sold, it is in the form of sales services, warranties and
guarantees.
Some of the supporting activities are as follows:
1. Procurement: In this, activities that are involved to buy the raw materials to manufacture
items are involved (Oh, 2010). Negotiation must done with the suppliers and also setting
up the purchasing segments.
2. Technology Development: Functions that enhances company's items and the procedures
comes under this department. Designing and planning of the tools are done so that to
create certain activities regarding the production.
3. Human Resource Management: It includes hiring, selecting, recruiting, developing as
well as balancing the firm's employees.
4. Firm Infrastructure: This section includes the overall management that is finance, book
keeping, government relations and planning as well as legal aspects.
5. Development of strategies, like- determining the resources, opportunities, threats as well
as key skills.
THE VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS
P6 Relationship between PEST and SWOT Analysis
Both PEST as well as SWOT analysis are firmly connected methods which deals with
concern assessment. PEST evaluation is an signifier for policy maker, economical, cultural and
technological affects on Unilever. SWOT assessment is a situational analysis method for firm
managers which includes determining the company's strengths, shortcomings, opportunities as
well as threats.
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SWOT Analysis
Manager of the firm evaluates strengths or qualities, shortcomings, opportunities and
threats while sorting out the functions. Quality evaluation records the organization's key skills
which provides benefit over others (Welford, 2013). Shortcoming evaluations sees inward
weaknesses with regards to rivals. Analysis of opportunities in rising markets or in variation in
the untapped items.
PEST Analysis
PEST concentrates on outer ecological components which majorly influences the
business. While SWOT analysis emphasises on both interior as well as outside elements. PEST
analysis- look into the factors like political, economic, social and legal. By viewing the laws
related to employment, political issues, rules and regulations as well as taxes which affect the
business. Economic elements incorporate currency trade, situation of economy and fiscal
strategy. Social factors covers the arrangement, socio economics and purchasing patterns of the
buyers. Technological factors incorporate accessibility of innovation which influences the
business.
"O" - Opportunities
In SWOT Evaluation, the "O" has some relationship to PEST Analysis. Assessing the
external political, economical, social as well as technological factors which likewise change
firms to reveal its expected opportunities of the venture which can investigate (Xue and Ren,
2010). For instance, companies which strongly depends on the elements like technology in
managing or customer advantage must reliably seek for alteration to keep up their technology for
improving the business entity.
"T" - Threats
"T" depicts the technology in PEST analysis and threat in SWOT evaluation, that gives
the high quality venture that is in between these two vital assessment. SWOT takes more
concentrated strategies and alters the company's perspective towards internal factor. It has
control over external impacts over which has no power.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report, it has been found that the business is required to be
assessed in a proper manner. With the help of environmental scanning, company can evaluate
market in the most effective manner and take the decisions in order to get the competitive
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advantage. Internal and external analysis are done in the most effective manner in order to assess
both the factors. SWOT analysis helps the business to determine the firm, internally. In this
report, value chain analysis is also implemented in the business so that it can be assessed
internally.
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REFERENCES
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