Contemporary Developments in Business and Management

This report discusses the external factors influencing business in the postal/courier service industry, with a focus on Royal Mail. It also examines the impact of customer relationship management on policies and decision making. The report evaluates the effectiveness of enterprise response and identifies areas for improvement.

BUSINESS:
CONTEMPORARY
DEVELOPMENTS IN
BUSINESS AND
MANAGEMENT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In the report two tasks are covered in which first task is about overview and division about
primary external influences in relevance with chosen firm; Royal Mail which is postal services in
UK. It is affected by many external factors such political, economic, social, technological,
environmental and legal. Business and level of competition is rising at rapid level. Further in Task 2
how decision making of Royal Mail is affected and has impact on business and its activities.
Moreover, by considering customer relationship management as theme in postal /services industry
has been discussed.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................5
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................5
Explain the external factors influencing organisation business.......................................................5
TASK 2 ................................................................................................................................................7
1. Examine the chosen theme in relevance with organisation and its impact on policies &
decision making accordance with chosen industry sector...............................................................7
2. Identify the effectiveness of enterprise response ........................................................................8
3. Discuss improvement areas in the response of organisation.......................................................9
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................12
Books&Journal:.............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
In organisation, development of business is important so that firm is able to survive in
market. Without development, it is not possible for entity to grow its function, operations and
activities. Thus, entities use strategies and tactics to develop their business at rapid level. Due to
changing demand as well as need of people in market development of business has increased at
broader scale. Royal Mail, which is postal and courier service headquartered in UK. It has ample
numbers of subsidiaries such as GLS, e-courier, N.D.C etc. Firm provides its services at wider level
and adopting new tactics for their development. It is operated under British government and now
has been converted into privatisation. It also uses e-business for its product & services to access
international market easier. Due to its older establishment of brand, it is well known firm in UK.
This report includes primarily external influences, theme like customer relationship management,
influence on decision making and policies, response of enterprise and areas of improvement.
TASK 1
Explain the external factors influencing organisation business
Industry sector- Postal/courier service
Market is dynamic and changeable which makes difficult for enterprise to survive in market
and run business smoothly. Organisation is affected by entity at wider level. Thus, to determine and
analyse these external factors, entities use PESTEL (La Rocca, 2019). It is a framework used by
many corporations to examine the elements which influence the business activities. It is time
consuming process but effective and is mostly used corporate world. In context to Royal Mail,
market & research team of firm also uses PESTEL appropriately which has been discussed below-
Political Factor- These are those factors which comprises of environmental law, labour law,
trade restrictions etc. In this, involvement of government depends upon the situation and events. In
relation with Royal Mail, they provide service like parcels, letters, shipping for business etc. and
these are affected by such factors at both national and international level. For example- Royal Mail
is situated in UK and businesses that run under EU region of country are affected by other countries
political environment such as Istanbul has stopped the services of Royal Mail for some period of
time due to COVID19. Hence, such type of political situations acts as hurdle/obstacle in function &
operation of business (Amankwah-Amoah, 2019).

Economical- In every country, economy is the base of the particular country through which
they are able to operate their functions and operation in proper manner. It is important to keep
knowledge about country’s economy especially when it comes to business sector. In relevance with
chosen firm, status of UK economy is stable and adopts the mixed economy. Such factors include
tax rates, policies, unemployment etc. It has also found that there is huge decrease in postal / courier
service business with implementation of technology and using it at as necessity. But, overall
economic growth is developing at larger scale and which give a hope to the postal businesses also.
Hence, it is essential to change the business according to the time period.
Social Factor- Further comes the sociological factor in which standard of living, income,
attitude and behaviour of individual is involved. Through these elements it becomes easy for the
business to operate their activities and functions in proper manner. In relation with Royal Mail, firm
is affected by social elements at broader due to modernization and development. It has seen that
demand and needs of people towards courier services has been drastically declined. Thus, to deal
with the situation entity is using and introducing new services in market so that demand of market
rises. It attracts more customers towards the business and assist in understanding their need wants.
Technological- Then come the technological factors in which advance use of software,
hardware, artificial intelligence etc. are included. Use of technology has risen at larger scale.
Through this, manpower and work in organisation has become simplified and easy. In relevance
with Royal Mail, customer demand fast and effective services within a specific time period. To
counter this situation, they have updated their online management system and but which has
affected their cost of production. Such as they have introduced online tracking system and e-
payment. By using such effective system it become much easy and convenient for them to operate
widely. More new digital technology is to be used so that customer access becomes more efficient.
Environmental- In such type of factors climate change, temperature, pollution etc. are
involved. Organisation focuses on these environmental elements so that these do not affect the
business. In relation with Royal Mail, to prevent them self from being getting exploited by such
elements they operate after getting complete information by their environmental department about
these which slows down the growth of business. With help if environmental factors, enterprise are
able to adopts ethical sustainability in appropriate manner (Ganesan, 2019).
Legal Factor- In Corporation, involvement of government mainly rises due to not following
legal factors in proper manner. These involves agreement, contract etc. which is govern by the law
with mutual consideration of both the parties. In context to Royal Mail, changing policies, rules and
regulations of EU region and BREXIT has affected the progress as well performance level of
business. Such type of laws slows down the overall development of business and its operations. It is

duty of HR manager and legal team of company to keep updated about the laws as well as
legislations which are crucial for business (Pan, 2019).
After a brief analysis of above matter it is stated that primarily external factors has a deep
impact on business. Thus, function and operations of business are unable to run in effective manner.
So, it is important to be aware about such factors so that problem & conflict do not arise. Also, by
using the above framework is assist in implementing the strategies for business to overcome with
rivals in market. In this, high level of skills and expertise are required so that they are able to
perform market research properly.
TASK 2
1. Examine the chosen theme in relevance with organisation and its impact on policies & decision
making accordance with chosen industry sector
Theme- Customer Relationship Management
Customer relationship management also known as CRM in which relation and interaction
with customer is maintained as well as managed between end user & firm. It is essential for every
enterprise to manage CRM so that profitability and creditability of business increases at wider scale.
So, Royal Mail uses strategies to acquire the trust of customer in service.
Changing trends- Main issue with managing CRM is that in market trends are changing
periodically and demand of people are also reacting accordingly. Without customer relationship
management it is not possible for entities to run and conduct the business activity. This has a deep
impact on enterprise in decision making a lot because they have to be aware time to time so that
manger and team members have information regarding the customer behaviour and requirements.
For example- Royal Mail did not focus on CRM and which leads to decline in the business profit.
This was the main reason of merging up with Alibaba so that sales revenue & profit are covered up
with the e-business companies. Hence, analysing emerging trends is not easy task because it
requires deep focus & concentration of analysis on market and business (de la Rosa, 2019).
Competition- In this competitive era, it is a challenging and difficult task to run the
business with rise in competition. New businesses and entry of new firm influence the existing
organisation and its end users. In relevance with chosen entity, they also are affected by many
competitors like TNT, Robinson, XPO Logistics etc. This also makes it challenging for business to
acquire the customer for their services & products. Thus, it is necessary to have a health
competition around the market and sectors. This also results in positive relationship between other
enterprises with their competitors (orsenberger, 202).

Technology- Nowadays, every firm has adopted technology in their management to deal
with the modernization and urbanization. It has becomes necessity for the people to use technology
because it simplifies the human work but also it has reduced the importance of manpower in
market. In context to Royal Mail, they are adopting technology and using latest online management
system but this also lead increased their cost of production. To counter this problem, they need
skilled employees and labour who can manage as well as maintained their technology department.
After a brief overview of above matter it is seen that in when organisation adopts CRM they
faces many challenges and issues. Also, it is time consuming process to take effective decision on
such matter. Hence, with proper market research, firm is able to know about market situation. In
relevance with postal/courier service sector, adoption of new strategies will give rise to their profit
ratios.
2. Identify the effectiveness of enterprise response
Strategy & tactics adopted by Royal Mail such as diversification and market development of
products and services leads to dealing with market trends in appropriate manner. By using the
strategy methods, firm is able to prepare plan for their product and target market. To maintain CRM,
RM has been partnered with many other countries like China and Japan. It means that this assist
them in providing their services across the globe. In decision making and policies such type of
strategies are most valuable and used at wider level. Further, RM is expanding their market with use
of tactics in the business (Barton, 2019).
Further, another strategy which is helpful for business is adoption of E-business strategy in
market. In today’s world, most of the firms are operating their business online via e-commerce
websites. This has given a chance to the industry to access internal market globally. For example-
Amazon & Alibaba Group are merged up with Royal Mail allowing entity to increase its services &
products at broader level. Online business has ease the customer access to purchase and consume
the product at anywhere, any time. This is the most suitable strategy which is to be used by Royal
Mail to enhance their progress & performance as well as to increase the profit of business. Through
e-business customer get satisfied that they can do the shopping at any time (Edwards, 2019).
Then, to overcome with rise in competition many enterprise use methods and frameworks so
that switching behaviour of customer is analysed properly. This is important so that weak spot of
product and management is examined. This also assist firm in identifying the customer loyalty
towards brand. So, to identify the customer loyalty they various types of indicators are used such
referral, frequency, renewal etc. Such type of indicators helps business that how many end users has
been stick to their brand as well as product. This is also another strategy which is adopted by Royal

Mail to analyse the impact of competition on their customer behaviour. Also, manager of company
need to well aware and informed about such tactics so that problems & issues do not arise in near
future.
Another one is that Royal Mail has been gone into privatisation. This means that people in
the firm will be more focused towards the growth & overall development of corporation.
Privatisation refers to giving ownership from government to private. It is important for every
business so that customer experience & growth of business get enhanced. It also means that it helps
entity in generating more revenues & sales with better price by encouraging and motivating
shareholders to invest in business.
After a brief analysis of above matter it is stated that it is essential for corporation to
response to factors which has deep impact on business. This is because they distract entity from
their core activities. HR manager of company need to make ensure that all the strategies are tactics
used and adopted by firm is effective and produce positive results. Thus, in this decision making is
to be done by involving everyone so that employee shares ideas and thoughts for development.
Royal Mail has to be more improvised and competitive by launching new services so that CRM
sustain for longer period of time.
3. Discuss improvement areas in the response of organisation
Every organisation has weak and strong spot of business and which are to be considered in
proper manner. This is essential because improvement in firm and its activities leads to longer
sustainability. In relation with Royal Mail, they also have some areas where improvement is needed
such as they need to improve and enhance their functioning of local service to its customers across
the region and worldwide. This can be done by providing proper customer care and service so that
of any individual faces problem they may contact to them in easier manner. This is because in many
part of countries Royal Mail doesn’t have proper and well established offices. To make customer
relationship management present in the business they need to be responsive to their customer (Isa,
2019)
Further, another area for improvising is that RM need use and adopt more advanced and
secured technology as well as software so that data and information related with end user are safe &
are not misused by third party or rivals. New and regular update of management system leads to
touch with customer on regular basis and understand as well as give attention to their problems.
This increases firm goodwill and enhances trust of customer towards the entity. Technology is to be
used in such a way that it does not have negative impact on cost of production. This also results to
use of resources at optimum level and which also increases the efficiency scale of business.

(Nwanzu, 2019).
Then, e-business is being trending and emerging in market which is making all the firms
digitalised. In relation with RM, there main focus is on delivering the e-commerce business parcels
to the customer. It is making their functions and operation push to acquire the market but for growth
& development it is necessary for Royal Mail to stretch their network chain at wider & broader
level. This is crucial so that with help of more contacts and wider network chain enterprise will be
able to increase and enhance their sales as well as revenues. They can enhance their network by
merging up with online e-business companies who deliver the products at national & international
market. This also helps RM to access the market globally as well as effectively (Bradley, 2019).
Moreover, they also need to improve the management and structure of the entity. This is
because better the infrastructure of firm, higher is the chance of exploring opportunities. Also, RM
needs to higher skilled as well as professional people in firm so that management has the ability to
deal with customer. This is cost effective but progress as well as performance level of business
increases in better way (Park, 2019).
After a brief analysis of above matter it is analysed that to for growth of business
improvement is necessary. It is responsibility of manager of enterprise to track and monitor the
management as well as structure so that business activities are operated in proper manner. This also
results in better productivity and higher profitability. Thus, to maintain and manage customer
relationship management in the postal/courier service industry resources are to be used effectively.

CONCLUSION
After a brief analysis of above report, it is concluded that contemporary business
development is essential for firm. This is because of changing trend and requirements of people in
the market. Each & every organisation is affected by external factors so PESTEL has been used to
analyse them. Manager and leaders of corporation need to be aware about such elements for the
smooth running of business. This helps in making effective decision in firm and implementing
policies. Further, customer relationship management in entity are to be considered top priority so
that development is done at faster rate. Therefore, in postal/ courier services, it is necessary to
analyse & examine the important weak & strong spot of firm so that suitable measures and
strategies are adopted and improvement is done accordingly. Hence, to run enterprise and its
business smoothly decision making need to be done properly.

REFERENCES
Books&Journal:
Amankwah-Amoah, 2019. Opening editorial: Contemporary business risks: An overview and new
research agenda.
La Rocca, 2019. The role of supplier relationships in the development of new business
ventures.Industrial Marketing Management,80, pp.149-159.
Ganesan, 2019.Employment, technology and construction development: With case studies in Asia
and China. Routledge.
Pan, 2019. PESTEL analysis of construction productivity enhancement strategies: A case study of
three economies.Journal of Management in Engineering,35(1), p.05018013.
de la Rosa, 2019. PESTEL analysis with neutrosophic cognitive maps to determine the factors that
affect rural sustainability. Case Study of the South-Eastern plain of the province of Pinar del
Río.Neutrosophic Sets and Systems,27(1), p.19.
Borsenberger, 2020. The Economic and Social Utility of the Postal Infrastructure: Above and
Beyond Postal Items Delivery. InThe Changing Postal Environment(pp. 321-333). Springer,
Cham.
Barton, 2019. does the united states postal service charge amazon too little?.journal of business and
accounting, p.19.
Edwards, 2019. Restructuring the US Postal Service.Cato J.,39, p.667.
Isa, 2019. The impact of service quality in postal services: the mediating role of self-service
technology.International Journal of Services and Operations Management,33(3), pp.395-
419.
Nwanzu, 2019. Predictive Relationship between Sustainable Organisational Practices and
Organisational Effectiveness: The Mediating role of Organisational Identification and
Organisation-Based Self-Esteem.Sustainability,11(12), p.3440.
Park, S.H. and Leem, C.S., 2019. Service model development and importance analysis using shared

economic service-As a specialization center for mail service.Journal of the Korea
Convergence Society,10(5), pp.181-188.
Bradley, 2019, December. Approximating Bounded Job Start Scheduling with Application in Royal
Mail Deliveries Under Uncertainty. InInternational Conference on Combinatorial
Optimization and Applications(pp. 69-81). Springer, Cham.
Driffield, 2019. Brexit and foreign investment in the UK.Journal of the Royal Statistical Society:
Series A (Statistics in Society),182(2), pp.559-582.
(Amankwah-Amoah, 2019)(La Rocca, 2019)(Ganesan, 2019)(Pan, 2019)(de la Rosa, 2019)
(orsenberger, 202)(Barton, 2019)(Edwards, 2019)(Isa, 2019)(Nwanzu, 2019)(Park, 2019)(Bradley,
2019)(Driffield, 2019.)