Global Business Environment: Macro-Environmental Changes and Long-Term Planning

This briefing note discusses the macro-environmental changes that Watches of Switzerland can expect to face over the next 12-24 months and how it needs to factor them into long-term planning. The report outlines the top 3 major macro-environmental issues that will impact the organization, ranks the issues in terms of urgency, provides critical discussion points for the board of directors, and lists the sources used to evidence the argument. The key issues identified are the challenge of e-commerce, political uncertainty, and the threat of Covid-19. The report uses PESTEL analysis to discuss the impact of these issues on the organization and provides recommendations for long-term planning.

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Briefing Note
Globalization & Strategic Planning Directorate
Requested by Brian Duffy, CEO Date requested: 12/11/21 Action required by: TBC
Action required Other attachments for consideration
For approval With correspondence Chief Executive’s
authorisation
Authority to publicise
For meeting For Information letter of advice
BRIEFING NOTE FOR INFORMATION
This briefing note is written to provide information for discussion and use at subsequent meetings by the
management team on the subject matter outlined below.
Covid-19 has presented unique challenges to the Watches of Switzerland company. In order to plan for the
recovery of the global economy the CEO, Brian Duffy, has requested this briefing note for use at the next
board meeting to discuss actions with fellow board members.
SUBJECT: What macro-environmental changes in the global economy can the
organization expect to face over the next 12-24 months that it needs to factor into long-
term planning?
Proposal
To set contextual background for why the report is required, to outline how the report
was constructed and what tools, models and evaluation were applied, to identify the top
3 major macro-environmental issues that will impact upon the organization, rank the
issues in terms of urgency, provide critical discussion points for the board of directors
and list the sources used to evidence the argument.
Urgency
Rank the key issues as:
Critical (major or significant organizational risk because of no action)
Urgent (compelling or requiring immediate action or attention)
Routine (action required within next 3-6 months)

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1. Background
Global business environment can be described as environment of different countries that
affect the resources capability of the home country. It can be classified into two types such as
internal and external environment that consist of social, economic and political that affect the
overall growth of the business (Global business environment., 2021).
The present report is based on company Watches of Switzerland that is a British retailer
of Swiss watches. The headquarter of the company is situated at England and the company
has 16 store in UK. Furthermore, there are recent technological changes in the luxury market
that has increased the demand of luxury watches. Lastly, the study will discuss on the global
macro environmental factors and key issues faced by the company.
.
2. Key issues
a. Challenge of e-commerce (Technology)
b. Political uncertainty (Political)
c. Covid-19 threat (Environment)
You need to write about Economic
3. Global Macro-Environmental Factors Critical Discussion Point
In this section discuss about the above issues besed on PESTEL that you chose. For
example:
Environment: Coved 19
Technology: Challenge of e-commerce
Economic: Global recession due to pandemic.
For analysing the global environment, company can make use of PESTEL that is a strategic
tool that help the organization in analysing the external business environment. Moreover,
PESTEL stands for political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal. The
political factor is consisting of government laws, regulation and trade fair restriction that directly
affect the firm growth (Kairuz, and et.al., 2020). Whereas, the European union has that has
affected the overall revenue of the organization. For example, the company is facing political
issues in France.
Furthermore, economical factor is consisting of economic growth, inflation rate and
unemployment. Presently, Swiss watch is facing key issues related to the export and low
demand rate thus, the company has faced global recession due to pandemic has affected the
luxury store. For example, the company is facing economic issues such as inflation rate and
recession due to covid-19 that has lead in downfall for the company growth.
Along with this, social factor included taste and preference of the customer that majorly
affect the brand image of the company in the competitive environment. The company is facing
issues such as chines customer is moving their attention to the other brand that has leads in
loss for the business for instance, consumer is demanding for smart watches (Zentner and et.al.,
2020). Therefore, Swiss watch can make use of the innovative resources or make the product
according to the ethics of the chines customer. Thus, it will allow to attract more audience.
However, the organization is facing challenges such as consumer is demanding for new smart
and Swiss watch only produce luxury product. This has negatively affected the customer rate of
the company (Islam, 2017). In addition to this, technological factors challenge that firm is facing
is innovative technology as it requires higher budget. For instance, organization can use robotic
machinery for increasing the sales of the company in the local and international market. And
facing issues related to r- marketing.

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On the, other hand legal factor is related to laws made by the government for
running the business and maintain the peace. The company was involved in law suits
related to the trade mark that has affected the brand reputation of the organization that
resulted in low profit. For example, company has been in the legal suit related to the trade
mark. Lastly, environmental factor include weather, climate and pressures from NGO’s. the
company is taking initiative for sustainable practice while operating in the business for
example, the company is following CSR policy to develop the environment and the major
threat is pandemic.(Thakur, V., 2021). Along, with this environmental and ethical
consideration is integral part of the society.
4. Resources & Evidence Used in the Completion of the Briefing Note (Reference List
in Harvard Format)
Books and Journal
Islam, M .A., 2017. SWOT Mix and PESTEL Analysis: Effective Tools of Risk Management of
Leasing Companies. The Millennium University Journal. 2(1). pp.1-18.
Kairuz, A. R. P. and et.al., 2020. PESTEL analysis of environment state responsibility in
Ecuador. Neutrosophic Sets and Systems. 34. pp.70-78.
Thakur, V., 2021. Framework for PESTEL dimensions of sustainable healthcare waste
management: Learnings from COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of cleaner production. 287.
p.125562.
Zentner, K. and et.al., 2020. A Comparative PESTEL Analysis of Canada and China's
Management of Energy Markets. Journal of Applied Business & Economics. 22(12).
Online
Global business environment., 2021. [Online]. Available through <
https://www.icmrindia.org/courseware/Global%20Business%20Environment/Global
%20Business%20Environment.htm >.
Recommendation
None to be made at this stage.

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General information to the briefing note
SUBMIT YOUR COMPLETED MODEL(S) HERE IN THIS BOX. Note this should not exceed 1 full page.