Marks & Spencer SWOT Analysis

This assignment involves conducting a thorough SWOT analysis for the renowned British multinational retailer, Marks & Spencer. Utilizing the online resource 'SWOT Analysis of Marks & Spencer' from BusinessTeacher as a guide, you are to identify and evaluate internal (Strengths & Weaknesses) and external (Opportunities & Threats) factors influencing the company's business environment. Ensure your analysis is comprehensive, well-researched, and supported by relevant data points.

Business and the Business
Environment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
P1 & P2 Covered in PPT.......................................................................................................1
P3 Different organizational functions relevant to objectives and structure...........................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
P4 PESTEL analysis with positive and negative impacts......................................................2
P5 Internal and external analysis of organization to identify strengths and weaknesses.......4
P6 Strengths and weaknesses interrelate with external macro factors...................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Business environment refers to overall internal and external factors which impacts on
operational activities or procedures in an organization. It involves several elements such as staff
members, customers, management, supply, stakeholders, legal policies, technology and many
more. Moreover, these components may impacts in positive or negative way so tat it is essential
to thoroughly analyze all of them to take appropriate steps for business welfare (Hilton & Platt,
(2013). The present report is based on Cadbury which is a British multinational Confectionery
company wholly owned by Mondelez International. It was founded by John Cadbury in the year
around 1824, almost 194 years ago. Additionally, this firm is known for several products such as
Dairy Milk chocolate, the Creme Egg & Roses selection box and many other confectionery
products. This assignment will focus on different types of organizations like private, public and
voluntary with their legal structures along with size as well as scope. It also include various
organizational functions and positive & negative impacts of eternal factors along with SWOT
analysis.
TASK 1
P1 & P2 Covered in PPT
P3 Different organizational functions relevant to objectives and structure
Every organization has various operational function which are carrying out on daily basis
for generating required outcomes properly.
Human resource Department – This can be described as an important section of an
organization having role to recruit candidates to fulfill overall required position. It is very
essential in terms to select desired individuals for specific designation in company so that they
can fulfill roles and responsibilities in proper manner (Deasy and et. al., (2016) . HRD have duty
to hire team for marketing to promote products or brand which helps to increase sales of
Cadbury.
Finance Department – The funds are mandatory resource which is required for very
small activity of business from starting to the end. They have a role to maintain records of
overall of credits and debits along with making budgets for various procedures. Moreover, they
are helpful to marketing section in terms of providing funds for conducting effective promotional
activities to attract more customers towards Cadbury.
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Research and Development Department – This section of very company conduct
research to determine actual needs or people and analyze trends of market for conveying
appropriate information to production department. In context of Cadbury, they can render real
taste of people to marketing team which helps to to conduct efficient promotional campaigns to
gain objectives of sustaining position in market competition (SavrulIncekara & Sener, (2014) .
Marketing Department – This department is responsible for conducting promotions of
products to make people aware about brand and making them convince to prefer the same.
Additionally, it is helpful to attract new client along with retaining the current ones for attaining
growth objectives of Cadbury (Hamilton & Webster, (2015) .
TASK 2
P4 PESTEL analysis with positive and negative impacts
There are kinds of factors which are included in business environment are required to be
thoroughly studied for evaluating their favorable and unfavorable condition for business. It
include several external elements such as political, economic, social, technological,
environmental and legal which impacts positively or negatively on operations of an organization.
In context to Cadbury, they are required to conduct analyze of external components of business
environment which are as under –
Political factor – This can be described as political stability of particular place where
company is going to establish business to grab more customers for brand and gain better
profitability as well. It include various norms of government of specific country which are
flexible because it is changeable as per authority of different political parties.
Positive impact: It involves about favorable political condition of particular place which
facilitates to conduct easy transportation of raw material and other resources proper to run
business successfully in Cadbury (Moutinho, (2011) .
Negative impact: Unstable political situation of specific geographical area creates many
problems in carrying different activities which results into non- achievement of targets on
desired time in given company.
Economic factor – This factor include several elements like taxation, custom duties,
inflation, interest rate and growth rates which impacts on practices of business. It is necessary to
take appropriate decisions as per economic condition by Cadbury.
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Positive impact: If inflation takes place and price of products will reduced then sales of
brand will start increasing and mostly people prefer them which impacts positively on profits and
brand image of selected firm.
Negative impact: When taxation rate increased then it will directly impacts on
profitability of business which is not favorable for growth of Cadbury.
Social factor – This can be described about cultural or religious values of people which
impacts on their choice of purchasing particular product and usually they skip product against
their beliefs (Kew & Stredwick, (2017) .
Positive impact: If firm will organize marketing events through respecting overall
cultures then it is beneficial for influencing customers to buy goods of Cadbury.
Negative impact: It include that minor mistake in conducting promotional activities may
create major issues between people and impacts negatively on goodwill of given company.
Technological factor – There are various kinds of technological trends which are
observed in market in terms of several innovative techniques, applications, software and
machines. In context of Cadbury, they can utilize creative technological aspects for welfare of
business. .
Positive impact: The innovative applications and machines can be utilized by given
company as it provide support to improve effectiveness of operational procedures. It will
facilitates to manufacture better quality of goods in limited period of time and achieve desired
goals successfully (Cai & Yang, (2014) .
Negative impact: This includes that a minor mistake of technological equipment may
corrupt whole data and create major problems in operations which is considered as loss for
Selected enterprise.
Environmental factor – There are various kinds of environmental issues which are
required to focused by organizations while conducting operations. Moreover, it involve global
warming, pollution, extinction of species and ozone depletion which are generated due to several
manufacturing procedures of businesses. In case of Cadbury, they are required to be make an
appropriate policy to contribute for reducing environmental problems.
Positive impact: In this part, contribution for decreasing natural issues provide help to
boost up brand image in front of government as well as people of country.
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Negative impact: Avoiding responsibility towards nature may create legal problems
which become barrier for conducting operations properly.
Legal factor – This can be described about various kinds of legal rules o regulations
which should be followed by each and every organization properly. It is mandatory for Cadbury
to adopt legislation to run business successfully (Belás and et. al., (2014) .
Positive impact: Legal norms provide an appropriate direction to firms for choosing
correct path for running business which is helpful to gain prosperity and growth.
Negative impact: Several legal rules interrupts and may become barrier in adopting
certain techniques which are helpful for achieving success of business.
P5 Internal and external analysis of organization to identify strengths and weaknesses
Business environment include both internal and external factor which is an important
analysis to facilitates correct decision making. It provide help to understand actual situation of
overall external elements which results into strengths and weaknesses of company. Moreover, it
is essential to determine actual strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats by carrying out an
effective as well as efficient SWOT analysis to take an appropriate action for welfare of business
(Sodeyfi, (2016) . In context of Cadbury, several strong and weak points are identified which are
as follows –
Strengths
 It has high brand value in market which is beneficial to retain customers for a long time
to ensure long- term profitability of company.
 It has an effective research and development section which determine actual taste of
people which facilitates to grab better market share which is around 70 %.
 They have better pricing strategies which are comfortably affordable by common people
due to that it is more preferable brand (Cronan and et. al., (2011) .
 Utilization of innovative technologies in manufacturing which helps to produce build of
units in limited period of time and facilitates to fulfill demands of customers properly.
Weaknesses
 Due to having teeth or gums problems due top which people avoid to purchase chocolates
for their kids which reduce customer count of brand.
 It also include that its sales tend to be seasonal and few or good are a bit highly priced
which are not affordable for every person as per their budget of income.
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 This involves about lack of penetration in rural market.
 Additionally, more people are suffered from diabetes and cholesterol disorders which
impacts on sales of brand due to avoid purchasing products (Ratten, (2014) .
Opportunities
 They have an opportunity to increase share through targeted acquisition for expanding
business along with improving profitability.
 It has an appropriate chance to provide its product to people at global level through
achieving international acceptance of goods.
 They can implement several innovative thoughts or ideas for boosting up quality of
products in terms of grabbing more profit share of market.
 They can adopt present trends of creative technology to improve productivity as well as
profitability of company (Boons & Lüdeke-Freund,(2013) .
Threats
 It faces a tough and cut throat competition with other competitors like Nestle.
 The competition get increased due to entry of many new international brands which may
impacts negatively on sales of products.
 Sometimes, it face negative publicity and certain controversies because of that goodwill
of brand get decreased.
 Use of technology may create minor faults which can results into huge loss of company.
P6 Strengths and weaknesses interrelate with external macro factors
In context of Cadbury, inter- relation of strengths and weaknesses with external macro
factors which are helpful in conducting business to earn desired results of given below:
Political factors : The change of government from free labour law to the conservative
law influence the operations of the cad bury. Government take obesity very seriously due to
which they led the proposal regarding the sugar tax and create pressure on the manufacturer to
reduce the amount of sugar in their product.
Strength : Due to this people intake less amount of sugar in the body and live healthy
life. It will increase the sales of the organisation because in today's time people are get attracted
to the healthy food (Lee, Kao & Yang (2014) .
Weakness : Political factors of country can affect the working of the cad bury chocolates
on the bases of that it was not healthy and secured for the individual.
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Social factors : Cadbury make changes in their product according to the taste and
demand of the product.
Strength : When cadbury make products according to the customer needs and wants then
it will increase the sale of the company.
Weakness : Due to making changes according to the customer sometimes create a huge
loss for the organization as they have to make modification in their full structure. Cad bury is
responded to the campaign of reintroduction of chocolate bar.
Technological factor – This includes about different innovative trends including several
applications, software and techniques which are beneficial for operations.
Strengths: Implementation of new and creative technology is helpful to increase accuracy
of messages within organization and improve speed of manufacturing.
Weaknesses: It include that minor technical mistake can create major fault in company
and may corrupt overall organizational data which is important to be maintained (SWOT
Analysis of Marks & Spencer.2017).
CONCLUSION
The above report had conclude that business environment can be described about various
internal and external elements which impacts on operations of an organization. It include
discussion about types of organizations such as private, public & voluntary including their size,
scope, vision, mission, objectives, legal structure and stakeholders. It also involves various
departments like human resource, marketing, research & development and finance which put
efforts to complete desired objectives of business. Moreover, PESTEL analysis of given firm is
conducted along with their positive as well as negative impacts on operations. It include
determining strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in terms of analyzing external
factors. At last, inter- relation between external factor and internal elements is also mentioned.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hilton, R. W., & Platt, D. E. (2013). Managerial accounting: creating value in a dynamic
business environment. McGraw-Hill Education.
Deasy, S and et. al., (2016). U.S. Patent No. 9,247,042. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office.
Savrul, M., Incekara, A., & Sener, S. (2014). The potential of e-commerce for SMEs in a
globalizing business environment. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 150, 35-
45.
Hamilton, L., & Webster, P. (2015). The international business environment. Oxford University
Press, USA.
Moutinho, L. (Ed.). (2011). Strategic management in tourism. Cabi.
Kew, J., & Stredwick, J. (2017). Business environment: managing in a strategic context. Kogan
Page Publishers.
Cai, S., & Yang, Z. (2014). On the relationship between business environment and competitive
priorities: The role of performance frontiers. International Journal of Production
Economics, 151, 131-145.
Belás, J and et. al., (2014). Significant attributes of the business environment in small and
meduim-sized enterprises. Economics and Sociology.
Sodeyfi, S. (2016). Review of literature on the nexus of financial leverage, product quality, &
business conditions. International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 10(2), 146-150.
Cronan, T. P and et. al., (2011). Decision making in an integrated business process context:
Learning using an ERP simulation game. Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative
Education, 9(2), 227-234.
Ratten, V. (2014). Future research directions for collective entrepreneurship in developing
countries: a small and medium-sized enterprise perspective. International Journal of
Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 22(2), 266-274.
Boons, F., & Lüdeke-Freund, F. (2013). Business models for sustainable innovation: state-of-
the-art and steps towards a research agenda. Journal of Cleaner production, 45, 9-19.
Lee, J., Kao, H. A., & Yang, S. (2014). Service innovation and smart analytics for industry 4.0
and big data environment. Procedia Cirp, 16, 3-8.
Online
SWOT Analysis of Marks & Spencer.2017.[Online].Available
through:<https://businessteacher.org.uk/swot/marks-and-spencer.php >.
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