Strategic Analysis of Event Industry & Business Ethics: AOK Events

This report provides a detailed analysis of the event industry, focusing on AOK Events Company, a leading event management company in London. It examines the macro and micro environments using PESTEL and SWOT analyses, identifying competitive advantages through Porter’s generic strategies. The report also highlights the significance of business ethics, emphasizing ethical considerations in today's business environment. AOK Events' mission, objectives, and strategies are discussed, including cost leadership and focus strategies, to understand how the company maintains its competitive edge and satisfies customer needs. Desklib offers similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

ASSESSMENT

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Part 1................................................................................................................................................1
Part 2................................................................................................................................................2
Part 3................................................................................................................................................6
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

Introduction
Event industry is one of the most growing and vast group of business offering event
planning related services to their customers. it includes handling all the organisation and task in
to deliver an effective and successful event as per the need and preference of the customers
(Remko, 2020). The event industry largely contributes to the growth and development of the
economy. For this report AOK Events Company is taken as the base company. The AOK events
company is one of the top and award winning event management company in London. The
company focus on offering quality services to their customers through organising and managing
the events. The major client of the company includes the LinkedIn, Microsoft, Deloitte and so
on. This report highlights detailed analysis of the event industry and the chosen organisation.
Also the macro and micro environment of the organisation along with the competitive advantage
is also highlighted. In addition to this the benefits of business ethics and ethical consideration in
today’s environment is also highlighted in this report.
Part 1
Overview
Event industry is one of the growing industry in UK, it includes one individual or party
plans events for large companies with a passion for and experience in offering memorable and
great corporate and social events. The event industry largely contribute to the UK economy that
is worth around 42.3 billion in terms of direct spend by the event and the organisers. There are
more than 25,000 businesses in the event industry like event organisers, venues, destination
marketing organisation or companies, event production companies and so on. The event industry
sustains around 5,70,000 jobs mainly in the small and medium sized business. It also have
turnover of around 3.5 billion in UK (SASAKI, 2020). There are more than 1.3 million business
events are organised annually in UK. The event industry generates around 20.6 billion in gross
value added and 58.4 billion in gross domestic products. The direct spending associated with the
UK event organiser is around 24.7 billion. From the first event in 19th century like great
exhibition to the 2012 musical festival, the event industry has grown and had largely contributed
to the growth of the economy. Event industry is one of the major industry largely contributing to
the growth and development of the economy. The event industry is also one of the vast group of
organisation that offers quality services to their target customers. The main focus of the event
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industry is to satisfy the needs and wants of the customers and offering them great experience.
Event industry is one of the most growing sector around the globe with large number of
customers base, also offering huge job opportunities.
For this report AOK Events company is taken into consideration. The AOK Events
company is one of the well-established and award winning event brand in London. The company
was founded in 2000 in London, United Kingdom (Mair and Weber, 2019). The company has
over 20 years of experience of successfully organising and managing corporate events. The
company is committed to offer great event experience for their customers. The company offers
unique and great events experience with technical and logistical expertise, it is trusted by some
of the UK’s biggest brands. The main clients of the company includes LinkedIn, Microsoft,
Deloitte, Innocent and so on. The AOK Events company location is the major factor behind its
success as the as company is found on the major road. The main focus of the company is offering
quality services to their customers at affordable prices leading to satisfy their needs and wants.
All the services offered by the company is of great quality, it also has loyal customers base. The
AOK Events company is also expanding their company in the international market in order to
increase their customer base. The company is also consist of skilled and qualified team of
professionals as well as highly professional executive teams.
Mission: The mission statement of the AOK Events company is to make their brand the best
they can through focusing on satisfying their customers’ needs and wants.
Objectives: The objective of the AOK Events company is to become the market leader and
expand their business in the international market. Also their objectives is to become the biggest
budget events company.
Part 2
Business environment is defined as the combination of all the factors present inside and
outside the business organisation but has direct influence on the functioning of the business
(Heuchert, 2021). It includes the factors that surrounds the business organisation directly
impacting its operations and determine its effectiveness in the marketplace. In context to AOK
Events company, to analyse the macro and micro environment the PESTEL and SWOT analysis
is taken into consideration and mentioned below:
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PESTEL analysis: It is one of the essential strategic framework used by the business
organisation in order to analyse the factors present outside the business organisation but creating
direct impact on the operations of the business. The PESTEL analysis stands for political,
economic, social, technological, environmental and legal. In context to AOK Events company,
the PESTEL analysis is mentioned below:
Political: It includes the extent to which the government or its policy intervenes in the
operations and functioning of the business. Any kind of political instability leads creating
unfavourable environment for the business organisation. The positive and effective collaboration
with the UK government has lead the event industry towards growth and success. Event industry
is considered to the largest industry in UK offering employment opportunity to more than 2.4
million individuals (Zhang and Zhuang, 2020). In case of AOK Events company, considering
the political factors and policies will helps them to smoothly carry out activity and enhance their
performance in the marketplace.
Economic: It includes the factors like interest rate, inflation rate, employment rate, GDP
and so on which directly influence the operations of the business. Developed economy allows the
customers to spend leading to increase the profitability of the business. The event industry
largely contribute to the growth and development of the economy. In case of AOK Events
company, it is one the top award winning event company largely contributing to the economy.
The events company also operates in the developed economy will helps them to enhance their
revenue.
Social: It includes the behaviour and cultural factors of the customers that leads to
impacting the performance of the business. Not satisfying the social needs of the customers will
reduce the profitability of the business. In case of AOK Events company, the company is largely
focused on satisfying the needs of their customers and re-implementing their strategy as the
changing social values and customers trends. They offer quality services and 10% money back
guarantee to their customers.
Technological: it includes any kind of changes or advancements in technology which
leads to directly influencing the functioning of business (Grabher, 2021). The use of well
advanced technology allows the business organization to grow and become successful in the
marketplace. In context AOK Events company, the manager ensures that the events company
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uses well advanced technology to smoothly carry their operation and attract large number of
customers.
Environmental: The environmental factors includes the working towards the
sustainability of the environment. At present the customers are more attracted towards the
organisation using sustainable product and services. So in order to gain competitive advantage it
becomes essential for the organisation to contribute towards environment. In case of AOK
Events company, it is largely contributing towards environment through reducing operational
carbon emission and waste from the in their operations. Also reducing wastage, also focused on
using sustainable product. This allows them to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Legal: The legal factors includes the legal laws and legislation implemented and are
needed to be followed by the each and every organisation in order to smoothly carry out their
work. In case of AOK Events company, the events company follows all the required legal laws
to avoid any kind of legal issues. The company also developed responsible sourcing policy
including the minimum standards and cooperation, company expects from their suppliers and
business partners (Shen and Zhang, 2019).
SWOT analysis: It is an essential study considered by the business organisation in order to
analyse and determine their internal strength and weakness and also the various opportunity and
threat available to the business effectively (Chereau and Meschi, 2018). It helps the business
organisation to analyse their effectiveness in the marketplace. In context to AOK Events
company the SWOT analysis is mentioned below:
Strength Weakness
 AOK Events company is considered to
the biggest and well established award
winning event company across UK.
 The events company has effective
network of supply along with strong
brand recognition.
 AOK Events company also has high
level of customer satisfaction base and
highly skilled and motivated team of
professionals
 AOK Events company has limited
global presence which is one of the
weakness of the company.
 The huge competition for the events
company leads to small margin leading
to its weakness.
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Opportunity Threat
 Expansion into new international
market can be great opportunity for the
company
 Adoption of new technology or digital
technology will allows them to enhance
their business
 Enhancing customers experience will
help them to build brand value
 Increasing competition can be threat for
the company
 Changes in political and economic
environment can be another threat for
the chosen company.
Porter’s generic strategy: It is one of the essential strategy used by the business organisation in
order to determine the company’s competitiveness in the selected market place. In context to
AOK Events company, to analyse the company’s competitive advantage the Porter’s generic
strategy is mentioned below:
Cost leadership: The cost leadership strategy allows the business organisation to gain
competitive advantage in the marketplace through reducing the cost also increasing their market
share through charging low prices in the marketplace and still earning reasonable profit. This
allows the business organisation to offer quality products at the reasonable prices. This helps the
business organisation to attract large numbers of customers enhancing their overall profitability
and productivity (Ibrahim and Harrison, 2020).
Differentiation strategy: Another strategy is the differentiation strategy, this strategy
allows the business organisation to gain competitive advantage through offering unique and
differentiated products or services to their customers making them different form their
competitors. This strategy focus on offering different and innovative services to their customers
in order to satisfy their needs and compete in the marketplace.
Focus strategy: The last strategy that allows the business organisation to gain
competitive advantage in the marketplace is the focus strategy. Under this strategy the main
focus is given on the target audience in order to attract their attention and satisfy their needs
effectively. it involves two types, the cost focus and differentiation focus. The cost focus aims at
reducing the cost only to satisfy the needs of niche market. Whereas the differentiation focus
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strategy is aimed at offering unique and differentiated products and services the niche market
leading to satisfy their needs and wants (Ciulla, 2020).
In case of AOK Events company, it is one of the well-established and growing business
offering quality services to their customers. The company follows cost leadership and focus
strategy in order to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace. As this strategy allows the
business organisation to become the largest budget company across UK and gain competitive
advantage also the focus strategy allows the company to focus on the niche market and
accordingly satisfy their needs and wants (Finn, 2021).
Part 3
Business Ethics
Business ethics is defined as the moral principles that act as guidelines for the business
organisation to act in a certain way. It allows the business organisation to analyse and determine
what is rights and wrong as well as what is suitable in the workplace environment. Business
ethics helps business organisation to follow right path and consider all the faithful activities
while carrying out their operation. It also help in framing a positive image of the business in the
marketplace allowing them to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace. The business
ethics helps the organisation like AOK Events company to promote integrity among their
customers, employees as well as enhance trust from their major stakeholders like investors and
consumers. In order to grow and become successful in the competitive environment it becomes
essential for the business organisation to follow proper ethical policy (Kimbell and Dossantos,
2020). In context to AOK Events company, the proper ethical consideration will allow the
events company to contribute in enhancing the productivity of the business through reducing
losses, building positive and trust worthy relationship with suppliers, creating customers loyalty
and also retaining them for long period of time. It will also help in building and maintaining
strong and qualified team of employees who are committed towards achieving desired goals and
objectives of the business. The ethical consideration plays an important role in the growth and
success of the event industry, it helps them to have proper guidelines and instructions allowing
them to have clear idea of what is right and what is wrong and what is needed to be done by
them. Also helps them to implement right strategy to carry out their operations and activity. In
case of AOK Events company, the company is effectively focused on the ethical consideration,
the ethical policy allows them to analyse and determine what is right and what is wrong also it
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helps them to contribute to the welfare of the society and environment. Also it allows the events
company to build strong image in the marketplace and gain competitive advantage.
Corporate social responsibility
The AOK event company also follows effective corporate social responsibility which
allows them to enhance their performance in the marketplace and become successful. CSR is
defined as essential management concept allowing business organisation to integrate social and
environmental related concern in their business operations and effectively contribute towards the
sustainability of the environment. In case of AOK Events company, it is positively committed to
corporate social responsibility programs. The company is effectively building their values (Paul,
2019). They are also focused on community enhancement programs which lead them to improve
their performance in the marketplace and gain competitive advantage. The corporate social
responsibility is considered to be their most effective integral part of operations. Their corporate
social responsibility is mainly focused on six areas such as environment, people, sourcing,
health, community and customers. The company keep improvising their strategy in these areas in
order to fulfil their commitment and enhance their performance. Additionally, company largely
focuses on these areas in order to maintain their position in the market. In order to continue to
follow the ethical consideration and CSR policy requires proper management and leadership.
The AOK Events company, needs to ensure that both activities are properly managed and handle
(Couch and Bernacchio, 2020).
A leader plays an essential role in managing and leading the team towards performing
better and achieve desired corporate goals and objectives. The leaders of the AOK Events
company follows transformational leadership style which allows the leaders to motivate their
team members to be creative and innovative and effectively work towards the change. Also these
kind of leaders their team member to offer unique and creative ideas and contribute to the
transformational change in the organisation. Transformational leader will motivate the team
members of the chosen company to effectively work towards the corporate social responsibility
and following ethical policy of the business. he will lead the business towards continuous growth
and success and enhancing overall performance.
Recommendations
With the increasing competition in the market it becomes essential for the business
organisation to remain competitive through offering unique and quality services to their
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customers as it will help them to gain competitive advantage. In case of AOK Events company,
as the budget event companies are growing in the UK market it is essential for the events
company to consider their strategy. In order to continue to grow and enhance their performance
in the marketplace, it is recommended that with the changing spending patterns leading the
customers to look for cheaper products with high quality, the events company should grab this
opportunity and should further expand their business into the new international market (Ahsan,
2020). This will helps them to fulfil their objectives of becoming the leading events company. It
is also recommended, as there are number of expansion opportunity available to the company so,
they should adopt the market development strategy, this strategy will allows the company to
enhance their market size with their existing product and services. This strategy will also help the
company to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace and overcome their weakness of
having limited global presence. In addition to this another recommendation that can be
considered by the company can be adoption of new and advance technology like AI technology,
this will help the company to smoothly carry out their task and attract large number of
customers. This will enable them to effectively satisfy the needs and wants of their target
customers as well maintaining their position in the marketplace (Aydin, 2020).
Conclusion
From the above report it can be concluded that properly analysing the environment allows
the business organisation to overcome barriers and enhance their performance in the
marketplace. It is analysed that there various internal and external factors present that directly
influence the functioning and profitability of the business, proper analysis of these factors will
help the business to smoothly carry out their activity and achieve desired goals. It is also
analysed that the event industry is one of the most growing sector largely contributing to the
growth and development of the economy also offering large number of opportunities. This report
helps in analysing the contribution of event industry in the growth of economy. Also the external
and internal environment of the chosen organisation is analysed using PESTEL and SWOT
analysis along with the competitive advantage using the porter’s generic strategy is also analysed
in this report. Additionally it is also analysed that ethical consideration plays an essential role in
the growth of the business such as using CSR policy is also analysed in this report. Also the role
of leadership style in ethical aspect is also analysed in this report.
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References
Books and Journals
Ahsan, M., 2020. Entrepreneurship and ethics in the sharing economy: A critical
perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 161(1), pp.19-33.
Aydin, N., 2020. Paradigmatic foundation and moral axioms of ihsan ethics in Islamic
economics and business. Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research.
Chereau, P. and Meschi, P.X., 2018. The performance implications of the strategy–business
model fit. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development.
Ciulla, J.B., 2020. The Search for Ethics in Leadership, Business, and Beyond. Springer.
Couch, R. and Bernacchio, C., 2020. The virtues of equality and dissensus: MacIntyre in a
dialogue with Rancière and Mouffe. Journal of Business Ethics, 164(4), pp.633-642.
Finn, D.K., 2021. Business Ethics and Catholic Social Thought. Georgetown University Press.
Grabher, B., 2021. Doing Gender in Events: Feminist Perspectives in Critical Event Studies.
Routledge.
Heuchert, M., 2021. Event Information Systems: A Process and Data Reference Model for Event
Management (Vol. 62). Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH.
Ibrahim, E.B. and Harrison, T., 2020. The impact of internal, external, and competitor factors on
marketing strategy performance. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 28(7), pp.639-658.
Kimbell, J.P. and Dossantos, P.L., 2020. BUSINESS ETHICS CASE COMPETITIONS: A
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Business and Ethics, 12, pp.40-62.
Mair, J. and Weber, K., 2019. Event and festival research: A review and research
directions. International Journal of Event and Festival Management.
Paul, P., 2019. A gap analysis of teaching marketing ethics: Desired versus current state. Journal
of Education for Business, 94(7), pp.460-470.
Remko, V.H., 2020. Research opportunities for a more resilient post-COVID-19 supply chain–
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SASAKI, H., 2020. Event held by collaboration between cities as initial implementation of
regional promotion-through a case study in Onden, Shibuya and Iida City, Nagano. AIJ
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Shen, J. and Zhang, H., 2019. Socially responsible human resource management and employee
support for external CSR: roles of organizational CSR climate and perceived CSR
directed toward employees. Journal of Business Ethics, 156(3), pp.875-888.
Zhang, T. and Zhuang, Y., 2020. Research on the impact of Fintech event on Chinese
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