Business Environment Report: Impacts of Innovation and CSR Analysis

This report analyzes the business environment of Aston Martin Lagonda, focusing on the impacts of innovation and technology on sales, profits, and growth. It examines how innovation and ICT have influenced the company's ability to adapt to market changes and compete with rivals like Tesla. The report also evaluates the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for Aston Martin, highlighting its ethical and strategic significance. Applying Archie Carroll's CSR model, the report assesses the company's economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities. It emphasizes the need for Aston Martin to embrace both radical and incremental innovation, adapt to changing market trends, and integrate CSR practices to ensure long-term sustainability and competitiveness. The report concludes by stressing the interconnectedness of innovation, CSR, and financial performance, advocating for strategic investments in these areas to foster growth and maintain a strong brand image.

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Assess the impacts of innovation and technology and how it has affected the sales, profits and
growth..........................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Evaluate the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility......................................................5
Apply Archie Carroll’s (1991) CSR model.................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business Environment is sum or collection of all internal and external factors such as employees,
customers needs and expectations, supply and demand, management, clients, suppliers, owners,
activities by government, innovation in technology, social trends, market trends, economic
changes, etc. Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings plc is a British independent manufacturer
of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. It was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert
Bamford. This report contains issues such as the impacts of innovation and technology and how
it has affected the sales, profits and growth. Evaluate the importance of Corporate Social
Responsibility and the model of Archie Carroll’s CSR model has been assessed in this report in
order to understand the value and morale of CSR interlinked with the duties of the company
(SHTAL and et.al., 2018).
TASK 1
Assess the impacts of innovation and technology and how it has affected the sales, profits and
growth.
Innovation and changes in technology has helped many companies to evolve and make
changes in their process so that they can achieve growth in the market and increase their share. It
is a challenging aspect for many businesses to adapt change on the basis of needs and wants of
the market. With the help of innovation and the aspect of ICT that is information communication
technology they are able (Camilleri, 2017) to increase the potential of globalization and add
more value in the services offered by them. It is because of this that Aston Martin Lagonda has
been able to challenge other companies so that others can work as per their model of business
and form their culture simultaneously. This is done so that they can stay competitive. If
companies are able to assess the management of change then they will be able to gather core
competencies in the market. Even those competitors of the company who have strongly
established their brand and positioned themselves well enough are not able to assess the threat of
changes in the drivers of innovation as they are very uncertain and not predictable. For instance
many of the companies have not been able to keep up with the pace which is why they have to
exit many markets which were advanced and way ahead of their service delivery (Evans and
et.al., 2017). Many of them were even acquired by their competitors as they were not able to

meet up with the required level of innovation. Companies those are successful in the market such
as Aston Martin Lagonda has strong culture in the area of corporate sector through which it is
easy to encourage the attitude to those factors because of which company has been successful in
the market. In order to comply with the innovative areas and generate them it was necessary for
Aston Martin Lagonda to invest a lot of money through which it can assess the needs and wants
of people by sending the team of research and development and this way they will be able to
assess what innovative methods and ideas they require which will help them to boost their sales
and achieve growth in the market. The activities that are taken by technology and innovation are
in the area of bringing more luxury to the car, more comfort, more power and more futuristic
appeal (Crowley and Jordan, 2017) this is done in order to grab the attention of the customers
and sustain their market. although it was before that the position of the company in the market
was good but since the last few years company has not been able to achieve and reflect positive
and high operational profits some of the analysts even assessed that at this rate Aston Martin
Lagonda will meet bankruptcy. The reason behind that is they tried to comply with their
competitors but some of them introduced new strategies and new portfolio such as portfolio of
Tesla is very futuristic as they offer eco friendly cars with high fuel efficiency and that are fast as
Aston Martin. Other than this another feature of Tesla that helped them to leave companies such
as Aston Martin Lagonda leave behind is they offer autonomous driving which is why people
feel that Aston Martin Lagonda was not able to keep up the pace of innovation in the competitive
market they serve in and that is the reason why the sales of the company were affected which
limited their rate of growth. Company believes on the level of awareness of the competition that
are faced from the companies such as Ferrari and it has affected their sales. It is because of the
changes in market trends and the level of technological upgradation that the price of stock of the
company has lost half of its value. It is necessary for Aston Martin Lagonda make changes in
their portfolio and offer products and services that meets with the change that is demanded by the
customers so that they are able to increase their revenue. In order to do that it is necessary to look
the offerings and technologies offered by their competitors and understand the reasons and
factors that they are ahead of them. Also it is necessary for the company at times like this
company needs to focus on reducing the price of their offerings and target audience on the basis
of that with all of their wants taken care of as this is only method that can save the company from
bankruptcy. It is important for them to reduce the gap between the level of innovation that is

radical and incremental. It is assessed that focusing only on the aspect of incremental innovation
will not help them to satisfy the needs of their customers. In order to work for achieving goals
and sustain the market it is necessary that the company focus more on change that is radical. It
will help the company to change their model and make it more eco friendly as only this will
allow them to prepare for future and sustain their operations. Also this will be a long term tool
for the company so that they can serve in the market for long with achieving success. It is
important that necessary and required changes are made by the company because in the last
decade they have not been able to achieve the expected level of sales that helps them to increase
the prices of the products and if not they have to reduce the prices of their offerings so that they
can attract and retain their share in this competitive business environment. It is necessary that in
order to achieve the growth in economic factors company has to comply with innovative factors
as they both are interrelated. This is because innovation helps the company to achieve more
productivity and gain access to more areas so that they can serve their offerings in different
markets in order to achieve growth. Other than this company also has to look after the role of
ICT and financial issues as there are many areas that they help in such as taking decisions that
are better for the company by analyzing the sector of corporate. By enrolling and allocating the
funds in the right area and right aspects they will be able to manage the area of productivity in
order to increase it so that company can achieve growth in the market. This can be easily done by
allowing them to take the use of tools of ICT as with the help of it they will be able to ease the
load of work by enhancing the level of automation. Other than this with the help of ICT and
assessing the solution of financial aspects they will be able to improve the service of customers
through which they will have chances to gain their share of market and look after the solutions to
their problems (Fogarassy, Horvath and Magda, 2017).
TASK 2
Evaluate the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility
It is important for every company specially that are dealing on scale such as Aston Martin
LagondaLagondawith a good brand image which makes it important for them to interact with the
customers of the company and look after the activities that encourage social welfare and with the
help of this it will be easy for them to gain trust of people and even people get benefit from them

which is a win win strategy for all. Aston Martin LagondaLagondahas pledged that they will do
business in an manner which follows ethics and manner that is transparent and with all the
protocols which is over the governance that is good. The aim of the company is to strategize the
brand within a model that is sustainable and deals in luxury goods. This will be done with the
aspect of enabling the promotion and taking responsibility of growth of the economy that can be
sustainable. With the help of this strategy the company has been able to form a strategy of
corporate social responsibility that is integrated. Also it is based on the principles of the UN
Global. In order to keep up with the needs of competition it is necessary that they engage in these
activities as customers today are educated and aware about these things. This way company will
be able to add value into their offerings. It is necessary for them to serve under the guidelines of
this responsibility as with the help of it they improve the goodwill of the brand. Even if some of
the employees of the company volunteer to work for the benefit of people and their social
welfare it will reflect the culture of the company which will influence the decision of the buyers
in an positive manner. If Aston Martin Lagonda regularly follows protocols and work in an
ethical manner then they will be able to increase the level of awareness of the brand through
which power of recognition of the brand in the market will be more. This is important for the
company as with the help of it they will get assured orders and that will save the cost incurred in
the stages of manufacturing. One of the most important reasons for doing it is it also helps the
company to gain advantage over other companies this way company will also be considered way
ahead of their competitors in the aspect of social dealings which will help to improve their
portfolio and positioning in the minds of target audience (Paranitharan and et.al., 2016).
Apply Archie Carroll’s (1991) CSR model
This model that is given and introduced by Caroll states that it helps to assess that why it is
necessary for the companies to comply with this responsibility. There are four most important
aspects in this model and it is established on one approach that is profit. In order to comply with
it successfully it is necessary that Aston Martin Lagonda follows and works under the laws and
regulations and as per the needs of the shareholders of the company. in order to work with
responsibility that is philanthropic it is necessary for them to work with ethical responsibilities
(Phillips and et.al., 2016).
Four components of Carroll Pyramid-

Economic Responsibility-
This aspect of the model states that Aston Martin Lagonda must deliver goods that
matches with the needs of the society and through which they can earn substantial amount of
profits. There are many shareholders whose only purpose with the company is to get the agreed
amount of return. The employees of the company wants safety of their job that is why they excel
at their performance and deliver quality services to their customers. On the basis of these aspects
the model is formed and other layer stands on it. Corporate social responsibility in this is to make
sure that the company is profitable and maintain the operations in that way through which they
can help them for long term.
Legal Responsibility-
This responsibility states that set rules needs to be followed. This means that operations
and their boundation needs to be set under the restriction of the rules. Other than laws and
regulations they also ethics are also assessed so that they can work on the basis of views of the
society. They also help the companies such as Aston Martin Lagonda to work in a ethical manner
that is on the basis of local, regional and national level. CSR in this responsibility is dealing in a
manner that is consistent under the requirements stated by government. Working on the basis of
regulations that are different whether national or local. Meeting with the obligations that are
under the law and distributing their services under the legal compliance (Nyström and Mustonen,
2017).
Ethical Responsibility-
This aspect states that business needs to go apart from the expectations of the people,
laws and rules. People of the society also believe that they will get fair treatment from the
company. It is difficult to assess the difference between legal and ethical expectations. CSR of
this responsibility includes perform on the basis which fulfills the expectations of the society in a
consistent manner. Working on the basis of standards and morale that is newly developed. In
order to achieve objectives no infringement is done by Aston Martin. They are proper citizens of
business through which they serve on the expectations of morally or ethically aspects (Katz and
Green, 2018).

Philanthropic Responsibility or Discretionary Responsibility-
This responsibility is assessed when business volunteer in order to serve in this sector of
welfare. This responsibility is not literal but consumers and general public expects it from the
company. They believe that they must serve these practices in an ethical manner this way they
will be able to give positive impression to public so that they can serve to their society in return.
The contribution made in this sector can be in the form of donations, gifts, development of
community, work of volunteers and contributions with a different approach that helps to develop
the aspects of the community (Harc and Martina, 2016).
CONCLUSION
From the above studies it has been concluded that companies Aston Martin Lagonda need to
comply with the aspect and rapid pace of innovation and technological advancements so that
they can make changes in their structure, model of business and their portfolio so that they can
regain their position back in the market with the craze of the brand that people were ready to pay
for. Other than this they need to indulge in the activities of corporate social responsibility as it is
necessary to maintain their image in the market so that they can work up their image in the
market and increase the awareness of the brand. This report highlights the importance of CSR
and what benefits it offers to the company. Also there is a pyramid by Carroll for the
implementation of CSR activities so that it can be done effectively.

REFERENCES
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