Contemporary Management Issues (Distinction Criteria) - P&O Ferries Case Study

Contemporary
management issues

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK...............................................................................................................................................1
Business environment of P & O Ferries......................................................................................1
What are the drivers of change that might have informed P & O Ferries strategic decision
making.........................................................................................................................................3
Evaluating implications of strategic decision on P&O ferries commercial and operations going
forward. ......................................................................................................................................5
Suggest alternative avenues they could have explored considering the nature of the pressures
for change/drivers of change.......................................................................................................6
Make relevant recommendations that recognises ethical and sustainability considerations for
the company................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
References:.....................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Management refers to the five step process including planning, organising, staffing,
directing and controlling and ensuring the achievement of organisational goals and objectives in
an effective and efficient manner. A business organisation have to work in the dynamic
environment. As a result, the organisation have to face several issues in order to perform the
functions in changing environment. For the purpose of bringing changes in the functioning of the
business organisation as per the modified environment, the management of business organisation
is required to analyse the internal as well as external environment and develop effective
strategies which leads to their success (Abaeian, Khong, Yeoh, and McCabe, 2019) . P&O
Ferries is the selected business organisation for this report. It is a British shipping company
which operate ferries from United Kingdom to Ireland and continental Europe. Several of
changes has been analysed in the business operations of the respective business organisation.
The respective report include the analysis of business environment, drivers of changes,
implications in making strategic decision making along with the avenues of exploring
consideration for the business. In addition to this, it also include the recommendations through
recognising sustainability and ethical consideration.
TASK
Business environment of P & O Ferries
Changes in the business environment is a constant process. All these changes directly
effect the business operations as it bring changes in the operational strategies as well. PESTLE
analysis is a tool which is most preferred by the business organisations for the purpose of
analysing the external business environment factors which are effecting the operations of
business organisations (Helmold and Samara, 2019). PESTLE stands for political, economic,
social, technological, legal and environmental factors. These are also consider as the external
factors which effect the business operations. Below mentioned is the analysis of external
business environment factors of P & O ferries:
 Political factors: Political factors refers to the strategies or decisions developed by the
government which also influence the functioning of industry. Some of political factors
include conflicts, fiscal policies, trade tariffs and many more (Alhawamdeh, and
Alsmairat, 2019) . P & O Ferries is the company is registered with several countries and
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majorly operating on the routes from UK ports to Europe. It result in the increase in the
risk for the company and it is essential for them to follow all the political laws and
regulations. The management of P & O Ferries is require to ensure the following of
political laws and regulations of all the countries in which the organisation is performing
its operations.
 Economic Factors: It is a wide term or concept which involve several factors such as
foreign exchange rates, availability of capital, inflation rate, interest rate and many others.
Due to COVID-19, several of changes in the operating ways of P & O Ferries have been
analysed. The demand of imported products have been decreased due to the lock down
which directly effect the working of the respective business organisation (Pius,
Alharahsheh and Adesanmi, 2020). As a result, the P & O Ferries had beard several
losses at the time of COVID-19 pandemic.
 Social Factors: In the achievement or success of business organisation, the social factors
have crucial role. Some of social factors which effect the working of P & O Ferries
include population rate, culture of clients, buying trends of customers, demographic and
many more. P & O Ferries is require top focus on the needs and demand of customers.
The respective company is taking care for the demographic factors which result in the
enhancement of positive customer experience (Belza, and et.al., 2019).
 Technological factors: The technology is growing day by day which result in the the
introduction of higher advancement in the us of technology on the business operations. In
order to work with the advancement of technology, the management of business
organisation have to analyse the technology in an effective way. The management of P &
O Ferries is constantly focusing on the research of market by adopting the advance
technology as it will help the organisation in getting the relevant and effective results
(Heinola and Sörelius, 2021). The usage of advance technology in the research help the
organisation in performing the operation in the cost and time effective manner. It become
easy for the organisation to manage the tasks.
 Legal factors: All the laws and regulations which are being formed by the government of
country are consider as the legal factors which affect the business functioning. Some of
laws developed by the government of UK include health and safety law, laws of
operations, labour laws and many more (Calabrese and et.al., 2019). P & O Ferries is
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