Foundations of Business Communications Doc

Foundations of Business
Communications

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Topic industry data......................................................................................................................1
Key businesses, customers, suppliers, competitors, performance, strengths and weaknesses and
challenges faced...........................................................................................................................2
SWOT analysis of the Company.................................................................................................3
Analyse the competitive position of the organisation through Porter’s Five Forces Model.......3
Identifying key issues faced, resourcing and any management / operational issues facing the
owner/managers of the business..................................................................................................4
Any key findings or conclusions you can identify from your research and reading...................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Key skills which are required in the business for its success......................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERECES...................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business communication is essential for the effective management in the company. It is
necessary for sharing the information between persons within the organisation that is performed
for the commercial benefit of the enterprise. In this report chosen company is Pret a manger
which is an international sandwich shop chain based in UK. The aim of organisation is to
develop effective business communication so that operations can manage smoothly. This report
covers the following topics such as impact by the external environment influences which
includes PESTEL analyses and Porter's five force model etc. Apart from this it includes evidence
and links to key skill development in the following cases like: communication, numeracy, ICT,
problem solving and working with others.
TASK 1
Introduction
External environment factors can influence the business and its operations in the
company. This report talks about the Pret a Manger company. The aim of this report is to analyse
the influence of external environment upon business. It covers the following topics such as
industry data, PESTEL analysis, key organisation issues faced by the managers and poster's five
forces model.
Topic industry data
Pret a manger is an organisation which is established in United Kingdom. It has products
like: sandwiches, soups, snacks, coffee and salads. It is an international sandwich shop which
currently operates in 500 shops in the world wide 9 countries. The main motive of this company
is to provide fresh and quality foods to its consumers. It is basically famous for its sandwiches
but it also deals in the business of varieties of snacks. It is a private organisation so it does not
have pressure to develop and grow quickly (Keegan, 2013).
Its main target is to focus the youngsters and adults so it always try to attract them with
its quality product, taste and service to the persons. Its provides the 100% organic products like
coffee and milk. Its opens the first shop in 1986. Now it is doing its business in USA, UK, Hong
Kong, Paris and Shanghai. It deals with more than 300000 consumers on daily basis and all
persons like the products of it.
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Key businesses, customers, suppliers, competitors, performance, strengths and weaknesses and
challenges faced
Key business: Key business of the pre a manger is related to sandwich but it also have snacks,
coffee, milk and soup. It is known for its world famous sandwiches.
Customers: All age group persons are like the products of pre a manger but it mainly focuses on
to attract youngsters and adults because they are important consumers of company and almost all
youth like to eat fast food and ready made products. Its maintain the quality in the products so
that people are interested to buy (Ulrich, 2012).
Suppliers:
It has various supplies who provides the raw material to the company. For an
organisation it is important to take quality material from its suppliers so it can produce better
products. Bread makers supply the bread which is used in making the sandwiches and milkers
providers supply the milk which can be used by the company in preparing coffee and milk. So
pre a manger has good suppliers who provide better products at reasonable prices.
Competitors:
Pret a manger has various competitors like Burger King and McDonald because they also
deals in almost same industry. The prices and quality of its competitors can affect the business of
it. The prices of this organisation is little bit higher than its competitors but its has maintain
better quality and services in food delivery.
Performance:
Performance of pret a manger is effective because it starts its business in UK with one
shop and it only sells the sandwiches but now it has more than 500 shops around the world which
shows its effective performance and growth. Today is also have various food products in its
menu like: soups, snacks, coffee and milk (Galegher, and Egido, 2014).
Strength:
Pret a manger provides the fresh and quality products to it consumers and its the main
strength of it. It has entered in business of coffee and today it has a global coffee brand. It
provides fast services to its consumers.
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Weaknesses :
The products of Pret a Manger is little bit high as compares to its competitors such as
McDonald and Burger King. It has limited items in its menu so consumers are bored from it
because they have very few items to eat and customers does not get any new food item to eat.
Challenges faced :
There are various challenges have been faced by the Pret a Manger. These challenges are
such as follows: how to minimise the prices of its products, how to improves its services and
how to beat its competitors like McDonald and Burger King to capture the more share in the
market.
SWOT analysis of the Company
Swot analysis helps the company to know its strength, weakness, opportunities and threat
in the business so it can take the management decisions according to it.
Strength Weakness Opportunities Threat
Provide quality and
fresh products to its
consumers
High prices of its
products
To minimise the prices
of its products so that
sales can be maximise
Its competitors like
Burger King and
McDonald
Innovative and fast
services to its
consumers.
Limited items in the
menu.
It can add more items
in its menu so that
consumers will have
more alternatives to
eat and it can increase
the profits also.
Health conscious
persons does not like
to eat its products
(Seele and Lock,
2015).
Analyse the competitive position of the organisation through Porter’s Five Forces Model
Porter five forces model is an important tool to understand the competitiveness and helps
the industry to analyse the weakness and strength (Porter five forces model. 2018).It has divided
into five parts which are as follows:
Competitive rivalries:
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Burger king and McDonald are the competitors for the Pret a Manger and they are the
rivalries for the company (Vogelgesang and Avolio, 2013).
Threat of new entrants:
To enter into a new market it is required huge investment and time and to become more
profitable d of scale id needed so that company can prduce in bulk and earn more profit margin.
Bargaining power of suppliers:
Pret a manger is a leading brand in the various countries so suppliers has no power tto
bargin with the company.
Bargaining power of buyer:
There are many restaurants in the country so there are many alternatives and they can
switch one restaurant to another. If they want to cope up with them than it is essential that they
have to provide high quality products at reasonable prices (Chiang and Stohr, 2012).
Threat of substitutes:
Pret a manger has provide the different meals to the customers as compare to the other
restaurants in the United Kingdom. So it has been shown that the organisation has a strong force
as compare to the other restaurants.
Identifying key issues faced, resourcing and any management / operational issues facing the
owner/managers of the business
Pret a manger has faced various issues and it affects the profits of the company also. It has not
much items in the menu so consumers get bored because they have to buy almost same thing.
Menu includes: sandwiches, soup, coffee, milk and snacks. The prices of the products are also
high as compare to its competitors. Burger King and McDonald has provides its products as
reasonable prices so its a challenge for the company so that more consumers can attract and buy
the food products of the organisation. It has limited resouresc in the business because it provides
the limited items to the people (Brannen, and Tietze, 2017).
Any key findings or conclusions you can identify from your research and reading
Pret a manger is a shop and it operates its business in various countries and it established
its shop in that countries. It is famous for the sandwiches around the world. It has serves
products like soup, snacks, coffee and milk. It has a limited items in its menu so consumers
has not much alternatives to eat. The prices of the company are high as compare to the
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McDonalds and Burger King. It has serves fresh and quality products to the customers and
it has effective and fast delivery system in the organisation which makes its different from
the others restaurants in the country.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that Pret a manger is a famous company which
want to improve itself so that it can earn more profits. In this report it takes the help of
porter five force model and swot analysis so that it can know its strengths, weakness,
opportunities and threats so that company can improves itself. It wants to expand it business
so that it analyse about all these things which can help the company to manage its business
effectively and satisfy its consumers by providing quality and fresh products (Jussila and
Aramo-Immonen, 2014).
TASK 2.
Key skills which are required in the business for its success
Communication ( verbal and written):
Effective communication is required in the business for any company. If it is effective
and better than other person can easily understand that what any persons wants to say and
inform. There are two types of communication is required in the organisation. Verbal
communication is that type of communication in which one person want to express its things to
other person by speaking and it should be use proper language which should by the other person.
So other party can easily understand that what is first person try to communicate. Written
communication is that type of communication in which a person can inform to the other person
with the help of hand written notes or written message. It is a another medium of communication
which can be used by the companies in contract making process. Every organisation has to make
contact with its clients such as suppliers, creditors etc. Written communication is more effective
because a person cannot deny from it and it can be shown as a proof (Leminen and et. al., 2012).
Numeracy:
Every company has to use various data and statistic in the organisation. Data can be use
to describe the sales and profits of the organisation in the current year as well as previous year.
Statistic can be also used by the organisations to analyse the growth of the company in current
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year. Pret a Manger can use data and statistic in its company to analyse the sales, purchase,
profits etc. Statistic and data can be used by the enterprise for the comparison and analysis.
ICT:
It is used by the companies in making projects and its day to day important tasks. It is
required by the companies to use it for the smooth work in its organisations. Every organisation
has to prepare its plan and investment strategy so that it can expand itself and more profits. It can
be used by the enterprises to understand the other persons that what they will do and how they
will do any task or any important project for the growth of the organisation (Gretzel and et. al.,
2015).
Problem solving skills:
Problem solving skills are required by any one so that it can tackle the difficult situation
in the company. It is most essential and required skill which a person has to be possess in it. A
company has faced many challenges and issues in its business and its day to day operations so it
is important to it that all members of the organisation has possess problem solving skill. So that
they can solve the problems and issues as soon as possible. If a company want to survive in the
long term than it is essential that it can understand the situation and as per the requirement it can
take decision and solve the problems in the business. Today environment is dynamic and
changes are happens very fast and if Pret a Manger is not able to make changes and solve the
environment influence factors than it can not survive for a lomg period of time. This company
has good managers and leader in its organisation so that it is operating its business in various
countries and make its brand famous.
Working with others:
In a company there are various persons who work for the achievement of the goal of
company. All persons have different attitude and working style in the work. They came from
different – different backgrounds. All persons have to follow the rules and regulations of the the
organisation so that work can be done effectively and efficiently. Manager and leaders of Pret a
Manger are very good and they work as a team. They have effective communication and
coordination so that company can operates its business successfully in the various countries
(Kwok and Yu, 2013).
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CONCLUSION
As from the above report it has been shown that Preat a Manger is using effective
communications so that it can survive in the dynamic environment. Company is using various
effective skills in its business so that it can achieve success in its business. It is focusing on better
commouncation, problem solving skills, team work, ITC and numeracy. These all tools helps the
company to achieve its goals and objectives and it is able to gain sustainable success.
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REFERECES
Books and Journals
Brannen, M. Y., Piekkari, R. and Tietze, S., 2017. The multifaceted role of language in
international business: Unpacking the forms, functions and features of a critical
challenge to MNC theory and performance. In Language in International Business (pp.
139-162). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Chiang, R. H., Goes, P. and Stohr, E. A., 2012. Business intelligence and analytics education,
and program development: A unique opportunity for the information systems
discipline. ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems (TMIS). 3(3). p.12.
Galegher and et. al., 2014. Intellectual teamwork: Social and technological foundations of
cooperative work. Psychology Press.
Gretzel and et. al., 2015. Conceptual foundations for understanding smart tourism
ecosystems. Computers in Human Behavior. 50. pp.558-563.
Jussila, J. J., Kärkkäinen, H. and Aramo-Immonen, H., 2014. Social media utilization in
business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human
Behavior. 30. pp.606-613.
Keegan, D., 2013. Foundations of distance education. Routledge.
Kwok, L. and Yu, B., 2013. Spreading social media messages on Facebook: An analysis of
restaurant business-to-consumer communications. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 54(1),
pp.84-94.
Leminen and et. al., 2012. Towards IOT ecosystems and business models. In Internet of things,
smart spaces, and next generation networking (pp. 15-26). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Seele, P. and Lock, I., 2015. Instrumental and/or deliberative? A typology of CSR
communication tools. Journal of Business Ethics. 131(2). pp.401-414.
Ulrich, P. and Sarasin, C. eds., 2012. Facing public interest: The ethical challenge to business
policy and corporate communications (Vol. 8). Springer Science & Business Media.
Vogelgesang, G.R., Leroy, H. and Avolio, B.J., 2013. The mediating effects of leader integrity
with transparency in communication and work engagement/performance. The
Leadership Quarterly. 24(3). pp.405-413.
Weske, M., 2012. Business process management architectures. In Business Process
Management (pp. 333-371). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Online
Porter five forces model. 2018. [Online]. Available Through:
< https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/porter.asp>
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