Understanding Business Environment and PESTEL Analysis

The assignment discusses the concept of business environment, including external and internal factors such as employees, customers, suppliers, and others. It also explores the significance of PESTEL analysis in understanding various factors that affect organisational performance. The report touches on the importance of Boards of Directors and stakeholders in an organisation's growth. Additionally, it provides a brief overview of each factor of PESTEL with suitable examples.

BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK1 ............................................................................................................................................3
1. Describe the structure of the company and its management and how it is governed.............3
2. Importance of conducting PESTEL analysis .........................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
3. The PESTLE analysis of Barclay bank Plc.............................................................................7
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Business environment refers to a combination of external and internal factors which
influence the operations of company (Business Environment. 2019). The factors which are
includes in business environment such as competition, clients, suppliers, improvement in
technology, market trends, laws and government activities. This report is related to Barclays
bank which is a multinational and financial services company headquartered in London. Bank is
also specialised in personal banking, wealth management, investment management and corporate
banking. This report includes overview of company, organisational structure and information
related to stakeholders. The importance of PESTLE analysis to examine the external
environment through which decisions making get effected and ways through which impact of
these factor can be controlled in organisation. The negative and positive impact of each external
factor.
TASK1
1. Describe the structure of the company and its management and how it is governed
(A) Overview of Barclays Plc
It is a British multinational investment bank and financial services company
headquartered in London. This company is founded in 1960 and deal sin retail banking, wealth
management, investment banking, commercial banking and the firm also engages in securities
dealing activities or issues credit cards. This organisation operate its business in over 50
countries such as America, Africa, Middle East and Asia etc. and there are 147,500 people who
are working under it. Barclays formed more than 300 years ago and than it known as Barclays
Bank Limited and changed its name to Barclays Plc in January 1985. It has 5000 offices in about
55 countries such as England and Wales or has various subsidiaries in Britain or another
countries (Adeoye and Elegunde, 2012). According the research of 2017, the revenue of this
company is £21.076 billion and net income is £1.301 billion. The net assets are £1.133 trillion
and total equity is £63.905 billion. The company have 1600 branches in UK and offers some
personal banking services through branches of the post office. Most of the branches has 24/7
ATMs in UK.

Organisational structure of Barclays
The new organisational structure bring complementary businesses more close together
and create an enhance focus on its client or customers proposition and offering across all target
sectors.
Source: Organisational structure of Barclays,(2019).
Illustration: Organisational structure of Barclays

(B) Brief Discussion of the company
Barclays Plc is a British multinational investment bank and financial services company.
It was founded in 1690 in the city of London. It is a major global financial services provider
engaged in retail banking, investment banking an d credit cards or wealth management. It Moves
lends, invests and protects money for 48 milli0on customer and clients worldwide. This company
is governed by its Board of Directors, therefore, it has hierarchical structure. The board of
directors of the company make rules and regulations to govern the company nationally. There
are 13 current members of Barclays board of directors (Bah and Fang, 2015). The chairman of
the company is John Thomas McFarlane and he is appointed in 1 January 2015. Jes Staley is the
CEO of Barclays and appointed in 1 December 2015. In this organisation, there are 9 non
executive directors such as Mike Ashley, Tim Breedon, Sir Gerry Grimstone, Rebuen Jeffery,

Dambisa Moyo, Frits Van paasschen, Duiane de Saint Victor, Diane Schueneman and Stephan
Thieke and there are 4 executive directors.
Stakeholder is a person or group of people who own a share in a business. In Barclays,
these stakeholders can be an employee, citizen and customer who is involved with the firm.
Relationship between the Board of Directors and the stakeholders
In stakeholders customers, employees and shareholders are involve and they each are
relate to the board of directors (Belás and et. al., 2014)). Shareholders are those persons who
invest within the company and have a wish that when they get it in return, they earned profit. In
this context,, the Board of directors should make policies and strategies which fulfil their
shareholders needs and provide profit to them. Employees of Barclays are also the stakeholders
of the company and they are related with the boards of directors because they design the working
policies, strategies and techniques to them and provide compensation, benefits to the employees.
The customers have relationship with them because the boards of directors of Barclays design
and develop product & services according the customers demands such as they firstly brought
credit card and currently launched the One Plus card which combing various functions.
2. Importance of conducting PESTEL analysis
PESTEL analysis is framework or tool used by marketers to analyse and monitor the
macro environmental or external factors that have an impact on an organisation (Buğra and
Savaşkan, 2012). The importance of conducting PESTEL analysis is that this analysis is
concerned with the broader factors that impact on the business performance of Barclays. By
conducting this analysis the company can get information about the political, economical,
technological and demographic changes in rules and regulations of the country and other nation
or their impact. It is important to identifying the needs & demands of the customers. It is
important because if the management department of the company organise it, they can get
information about the rapid changes related to government policy, political stability, foreign
trade policy, labour law, environmental law and various others factors that are beneficial for the
business growth of the company. If the management department of Barclays conduct this
analysis, they can kn ow about the various promotional technologies that can help the company
to provide the information of the company related to its products and services to its consumers.

TASK 2
3. The PESTLE analysis of Barclay bank Plc.
The PESTLE analysis is a tool used for analysing external environment of a company.
These are factors that effects the strategic business planning and have a long impact upon
operations of organisation (Enofe and et. al., 2013). To examine these factors properly company
is being able to maximise opportunities and minimise threats to the organisation. PESTLE
analysis stands for political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors
which is used to examine business opportunities & threats or for marketing planning,
organisational change, strategic planning, research report, business and product development.
The PESTLE analysis are:-
 Political factor:- It refers to opportunities and pressure brought by political institution
and at what extent these government policies can impact the business (Gupta, 2013). If
government of UK introduced new tax in country then company is required to change is
entire revenue polices. The political factors also includes fiscal policies, trade, tax
policies and tariff rates. Government polices at both the level whether it's national or
local can effects the day-to-day business operations throughout the policies & laws but
also at strategic level by creating threats or opportunities for company. The banking
industry is heavily regulated as according to government regulation of country where the
firm is operating. The Barclay bank has it's work in many country so bank have to work
accordance with to government policies otherwise bank faced a lot of difficulties to run
business effectively. The UK government have certain rules and legislation related to
banking which is ring fencing order (Hamilton and Webster, 2018). It means banks are
required to run it's operations separate from financial retail system of bank. Through this
policy Barclay bank can easily operates it's operation independently and enhance better
client services or client focus. The US trade tariff rates can effects it's capital inflow and
through which firms in US also affects as Barclays operations get impaired in US.
 Economical factor:- It refers to economic structure, economic policies and at what
extent these factors can impact the business operations. In this factors are related to
economic performance, which as a long term impact due to economic factor directly
impact business operations. If inflation rates are increased in economy then price of
product and services of bank are also get effected, sometimes economy impacts the

worldwide effects. The factors includes interest rates, inflation rates and exchange rates
which have direct effect on price, cost, competitiveness and probability of the business.
There is a uncertainty and economic risk for UK to exist from Europe and EU poses
significant challenge to banks of UK like Barclay which is depends upon different
international agreements between other EU members states and Britain. The pound value
is declining as compare to other major country currencies like euro & dollar. The
situation of UK become worse if they leave EU (Hillary, ed., 2017). Due to this Barclay
bank does face negative impact for capital, operation or on regulations and employees,
customers and clients are also get impacted due to this economic risk as well as
uncertainty in market.
 Social factors:- It refers to factor related to attitude, beliefs, cultural aspects these factors
must affects the demand of companies product and it's operations (Hilton and Platt,
2013). Every country has it's own culture as well as mind set, these uniqueness of cast
can impact the sales of product or business operations. It also includes factor like work
ethic, market view of the industry, consumer buying patterns, buying access & trends,
advertisement etc. The shared attitudes and beliefs of a population play a crucial role the
way marketer of Barclay bank can understand it's potential customers and way of
designing message to attract more customers from market. Every company must conduct
research upon domestic culture, social life cycle, and it's implication as to understand
companies customer or market better. The social changes have potential to either be
opportunities or threat for the Barclays banks. The Barclay bank have launched two
pension plans or products for it's customers as to rival stakeholders pensions. The
customers can choose either in between basic investment solution to stakeholder products
and customers can diversify their pension assets which includes the option of fund
proposition of select choice. The bank considered that new plan have more flexibility and
less complicated structure as compare to stakeholder pension plan.
 Technological factor:- It refers to technological innovation, technology aspects and at
what level these factors impact the business operations of bank (Kljucnikov and et. al.,
2016). The organisations must be integrated with technology in order to stay connected
with new trends. There are certain research are conducted in which it is proved that
customers have positive response towards to new technology and adoption of advance

technology. These technology revolution open new doors of technology trends which
produces opportunities or many benefits for business. The organisations which don't
adopt these new technologies will faced enormous threats (Pulver, 2012). The banking
industry has reached to smaller change but with large impact on digital capabilities which
are accelerating the change of banking and now a days very work of banking can be done
online. The increase in agile, digital players, Fin-techs which are considered as
leveraging technology as they enter in financial markets with certain guild lines like easy
to use, simple, convenient and cost effective. It had a significant impact due to disruptive
technology in banking industry. The Barclay bank is also adopting new technology and
invest huge amount to improve mobile or digital capabilities by offering different
products. The bank also invest in cyber risk, adopt appropriate software for managing
data and in IT security.
 Legal factor:- It refers to regulation, legislation , laws which will affects the operations
of banks. The laws and regulation of every country is changing time to time which affect
many business operation and process (Savrul, Incekara and Sener, 2014). The banks
must follow current legislation, international legislation, regulatory bodies & process,
consumer protection, competitive regulation and money laundering regulation. The banks
must compliance with legislation and need to change their strategies according to
regulations. The laws which Barclay must considered before enter in specified market
like anti trust law, discrimination law, copyright & patent law, data protection law etc. In
June 2017, in Barclay bank four senior executives were charged with fraud by SFO of a
bank in Qatar when financial crisis were high. The total fund which is around £ 11.8
billion bank has raised from various investors included Qatar holding and other fund
from Abu Dhabi. The investigation was underway from 2011 and finally comes to legal
charges or criminal charges. The first it was under high street of UK for senior manager
for doing activities even in high financial crisis. The bank faced huge fines and reputation
of bank is also get effect due to conducting scandal even in financial crisis. The whistle-
blowing activity is also conducted against Barclay.
 Environmental factor:- It refers to factor related to environmental and ecological factor
which will effect the demand of products and services as well as business operations. It
deals with the location of the country where the bank has been setup and conduct it's

trading. The climate changes also effects the procedure of banks. Every country has it's
own environment standards as which can impact the profitability as well as revenue of a
company (Shenkar, Luo, and Chi, 2014). If company is starting new business in other
country or conduct it's operations in same market then certain factors need to considered
like whether, climate change, waste management in financial sector etc. The Barclay
must consider current trends and demand of business as to reduce the carbon foot print.
Due to it's plan of citizenship bank is reducing carbon food print and also reducing
energy consumption. These aspects are only possible with carbon offsetting initiatives
and sustainable development funding. If environmental factors are considered by banks
before entering in new market or even in same market then operations as well as demand
of products never get effected.
SWOT analysis of Barclays
It is a strategic planning technique used to help a person or organisation to identify the
strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats related to the project planning and business
competition. The SWOT analysis of Barclays is as following:
Strengths Weaknesses
 Barclays is one of the best known
financial brands and have good market
presence.
 The bank has moreover 4500 breaches
and has operations in more than 560
countries of the world.
 It use innovation in its products and
services such as in 1966 it brought first
credit card and currently launched the
OnePluse card which combing various
functions.
 Ethical problems are the weaknes of
the company such as in Zimbabwe, it
connected people with the Zanu PF and
it create controversy or people raised
questions on the integrity and ethics of
the company.
 This bank pay high amount to its
directors which attracted unwanted
attention from commentators and
generate a weakness for the company.
Opportunities Threats
 There are great opportunities for
Barclays in emerging economies
 There are various competitors in the
market such as Royal Bank of

because now these there is a rising
demand of credit in retail and
wholesale banking spaces.
 Opened new venture into online
banking that is a huge untapped area to
provide various growth opportunities to
Barclays.
 Now these days, the education level
improve and there are a rise in the
number of youngsters who are looking
for investment options and Braclays
has a strong brand recall among
youngsters.
Scotland, JP Morgan and Chase, Wells
Fargo etc. which create competition
for the company.
 Change in consumer buying behaviour
from online channel can be a threat to
the company.
 Economic stability and stringent
economic policies world over is a
threat for the business of Barclays.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment it can be concluded that business environment is the sum
total of all external and internal factors such as employees, customers needs and expectations,
clients, suppliers and various others. All individuals, entities and other factors which may or may
not be under the control of the company are necessary for the organisational growth. In this
report, discussed about the overview of Barclays, its structure, Boards of Directors and relation
between boards of directors and stakeholders. The importance of PESTEL analysis is explained
to provide various necessary information for the organisational growth. A brief discussion of
each factor of PESTEL is defined with the suitable examples.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
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organisational performance in the food and beverage industry in Nigeria. British
Journal of Arts and Social Sciences. 6(2). pp.194-201.
Bah, E. H. and Fang, L., 2015. Impact of the business environment on output and productivity in
Africa. Journal of Development Economics. 114. pp.159-171.
Belás, J. and et. al., 2014. Significant attributes of the business environment in small and
meduim-sized enterprises. Economics and Sociology.
Buğra, A. and Savaşkan, O., 2012. Politics and class: The Turkish business environment in the
neoliberal age. New Perspectives on Turkey. 46. pp.27-63.
Enofe, A. O. and et. al., 2013. Determinants of audit quality in the Nigerian business
environment. Research journal of finance and Accounting. 4(4). pp.36-43.
Gupta, A., 2013. Environment & PEST analysis: an approach to external business environment.
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Hamilton, L. and Webster, P., 2018. The international business environment. Oxford University
Press.
Hillary, R. ed., 2017. Small and medium-sized enterprises and the environment: business
imperatives. Routledge.
Hilton, R. W. and Platt, D. E., 2013. Managerial accounting: creating value in a dynamic
business environment. McGraw-Hill Education.
Kljucnikov, A. and et. al., 2016. The entreprenurial perception of SME business environment
quality in the Czech Republic. Journal of Competitiveness. 8(1).
Pulver, S., 2012. Business and the Environment.
Savrul, M., Incekara, A. and Sener, S., 2014. The potential of e-commerce for SMEs in a
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Shenkar, O., Luo, Y. and Chi, T., 2014. International business. Routledge.
Online
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