Business Environment and Organisational Functions at John Lewis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the business environment, focusing on John Lewis & Partnership. It begins by explaining different types of organizations, including public, private, and voluntary sectors, along with their legal structures. The report then examines the size and scope of these organizations, specifically the Crown Prosecution Service, John Lewis, and Oxfam. Task 2 delves into the relationships between various organizational functions, particularly within John Lewis, highlighting the interplay between marketing, human resources, finance, and research & development. Furthermore, the report identifies the positive and negative impacts of the macro environment (PEST analysis) on the business, as well as internal and external analysis of the organization to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses. Finally, it explores how these strengths and weaknesses interrelate with external macro factors, providing a detailed understanding of the business environment and its impact on the company's sustainability and growth.

Business and the Business
Environment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................3
P1 Explain different types and purposes of organisations; public, private and voluntary sectors
and legal structures.................................................................................................................3
P2 Explain the size and scope of a range of different types of organisations........................5
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................6
P3: Explain the relationship between different organisational functions...............................6
P4 Identify the positive and negative impacts the macro environment (PEST)....................7
P5 explain internal and external analysis of an organisation in order to identify strengths and
weakness.................................................................................................................................9
P6 Explain how strength and weakness interrelate with external macro factors.................10
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Business environment is considered as an effective concept and topic for this project
report. An effective environment in the business entity creates opportunities for every employee,
resources to get utilized in the most effective and proper manner. The appropriate environment in
an organisation enables the scope and future of the company to survive and sustain for long
period of time. This report is carried on John lewis & Partnership which is the leading
supermarkets chain and other retail business. This report is carried on the business environment
and its positive and negative effect on the business sustainability and growth. It will cover the
different types of an organisation and their size and scope in the current and future period. This
will cover the PEST analysis as well as their positive as well as negative in regards with the
given companies(Bell, 2015).
TASK 1
P1 Explain different types and purposes of organisations; public, private and voluntary sectors
and legal structures.
Organisation is a kind of a legal structure which is constituted with purpose of continuing
and carrying on the business related activities according to prescribed rules and regulations. In
the current scenario, organisation is termed as most lawful and legally authorized branch and
structure in order to generate employment and productivity along with the motive of the common
welfare and efficiency of the people. For the discussion over this, there are different types of an
organisation which comprises of public, private and voluntary etc. All three different kinds of the
legal structure and statutory department etc. The different types of sector's of an organisation are
as follow(Sanyman, 2014).
Public sector - It is owned, controlled and managed by the official government bodies,
related subsidiaries, government agency etc. with the purpose of providing better and efficient
advantage to their general public. The main aim of this sector is to focus mainly on the welfare
and development of the general public of the country. This type of an organisation is generally
comes into existence with the focal motive of not exploiting the power and roles of an
organisation and focus completely on human and civil welfare and rights. In context with Crown
Prosecution service's, it is named as public prosecuting agency for conducting and regulating the
criminal prosecution in the United Kingdom. This organisation is headed by the director general

of public prosecution. Public sector's are bounded by the certain law, rules and regulation. The
legal structure of the public sector is comprises of:
Central government - This is the supreme body of the public sector organisation. It
controls every part of the government bodies with the purpose of maintaining structure and
accountability of the belief and faith of the people in the officials.
State government - It controls the affairs and matter related to the state. Basically central
government funds the state for welfare and development related activities for the general people.
Local government - This sector comes in the lowest hierarchy of the government. It
doesn't have rights and freedom to take the decision and even allocate the money or resources
without the approval of the state or central government(Botha, 2014).
Private sector - It is owned, controlled and managed by the various different private
bodies, channels or any independent agencies etc. The shareholder have rights to acquire the
shares or holdings in the private sector, but to some limited extent. The maximum authorized
capital in the private sector is £10400. Private sector needs to hold the annual general meeting in
every 18 months prior from the last meeting held. The main purpose of the private sector is to
earn profit to survive and continue business operations. Job opportunities are high and diverse in
the private sector because of large scope in the market relating to the human resource, finance,
operation and marketing etc. This type of organisation is regulated by authorized laws and
regulations and not by any kinds of the government interference. The legal structure of the
private sector is not wide and large because of independent policy and regulation to work and
operate. In context with the John lewis partnership, it is a UK based company owned by the
employee who operates John Lewis stores, supermarkets, banking and financial services and
other retail activities.
The legal structure of private sector comprises of:
Partnership - Partnership is a formation of an association by two or more person with the
common goal to achieve business objectives and targets. Partner's generally share profit within
themselves into their respective ratio by the legal consent through the signing the agreement. If
there is no agreement involved, profit will be shared equally(Kourie, 2016).
Sole proprietorship - Sole proprietorship is formed by the solo person with the common
purpose of earning the profit individually. He is the one who found the business and completely

run and managed by their own. There is no as such sharing of the profits except the approval of
business owner.
Voluntary - It is a group of an individuals who entered into an agreement, as a volunteer
to form a body to attain the common purpose. It includes trade association, trade union, formal
associations etc. It may be incorporated or unincorporated. The main purpose of the voluntary
association is to work towards the common welfare, contribution to the society and development
of the people etc. various companies, associations, government agencies provides funds to the
voluntary entities to carry their welfare and development activities.
Oxfam is considered as voluntary organisation which was established for the purpose of
removal of poverty from the society and culture of the countries. There are many activities which
they performs such as disaster relief, poverty removal etc. The main purpose of Oxfam as a
voluntary organisation is to perform activities and measures to remove poverty from the society
and provide awareness towards the education and knowledge.
Types: These types of the voluntary organisation are regarded as the unincorporated
association, which basically aims at the providing benefits and welfare to the common and needy
people.
Purpose: The main purpose of this type of organisation is to provide maximum benefit to
the people and needy one without any profit generation.
P2 Explain the size and scope of a range of different types of organisations
Crown prosecution service, John lewis and Oxfam have different size and scope of their
business and structure. The size and scope of all three organisation are classified on the basis of
public, private and voluntary sector which are as follows:
Crown prosecution service -
Vision & Mission - Vision of crown prosecution is to deliver provide the fair and correct
opportunity to everyone to justify themselves. Mission is to become well known prosecution
service in the United Kingdom.
Size - It is the largest public prosecuting agency for conducting the criminal prosecution
and cases. It has approx 6000 employee's with the annual budget of £592 million. This public
service is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.

Scope - The present scenario of the company is wide and full of opportunities to pursue
more prosecuting service. It will grow in the future and would lead the public sector for the long
tenure(Hodges, 2017).
John lewis -
Vision & Mission - The Vision is to deliver best to the customer's out of the complete
quality available with the brand. The mission is to “Capture the large market share in the entire
United Kingdom”.
Size - The John lewis partnership is the United Kingdom based company which operates
clothes and other accessories departmental stores, supermarket, banking and financial services
and other retail activities etc. It has around 88000 employees with the annual revenue of 1100
crores GBP in 2015-2016.
Scope - Company is expanding their business in the different countries after the massive
growth in the business and profitability etc. There is a estimated requirement of the funds for the
expansion Waitrose and their banking and financial service etc.
Oxfam -
Vision & Mission - The vision & Mission of the Oxfam is common. They want to help
the needy one, provide welfare related opportunities to everyone, provide education facilities etc.
Size - Oxfam is the group of 20 independent organisation with the charitable purpose
whose focus is lies on the removal of the poverty and creating the awareness for the education
and knowledge. Winnie byanyima is the founder and director of the Oxfam international since
2013. As it is a voluntary organisation, it is clear from the organisation that an individual or
group can join with the full faith of the interest and working towards achieving the common
welfare goals(Wagner, 2017).
Scope - The sector in which Oxfam is working is very opportunistic and active field.
The scope of the company is very wide and long worthy. They need to cover the different scope
and part of the world for the welfare and development purpose.
TASK 2
P3: Explain the relationship between different organisational functions
John lewis is a private organisation with the aim to earn profitability and productivity to
survive and sustain in the business operation and capturing the large amount of the market share.

For achieving this milestone, there should be a strong collaboration among the different
department of an organisation. It has to be make clear that different departments have different
and unique roles and duties, but working together would lead to the achievements of goals and
targets. There should be a clear and understanding relation among the all departments which are
as follows:
Marketing with the human resource management - Marketing is the core department of
every organisation. Human resource needs to hire the most appropriate and competent guy from
the number of applicants for the particular position say sales executive. Human resource needs to
take care of optimum utilization of available manpower resources. The combination of the two is
like if marketing Dept. need the manpower or sales force, they directly contact to the human
resource department for hiring the suitable manpower for the purpose of goal
achievement(Schaltegger, 2016).
Marketing with finance department - The relationship between marketing and finance is
closely related. After the sales, sales executive wants to submit the cheques and bills to the
finance department to record the revenue and expenses. It is important and mandatory to record
the financial aspects of the business. Finance department also provides the funds and money to
the marketing department to bear expenses for the purpose of increasing the sales. Finance
department will provide funds to the marketing Dept. for the marketing relating activities such as
promotion, launch and other related activities to attain the organisational objectives.
Marketing with the research & development - This part covers the aspect of product
development in an organisation. It starts with the idea generation which is performed by the
marketing department and after the analysis of the whole idea, they transfer it to the research &
development to finalize the structure of the products. R&D needs to create and structure of the
products. In context with the John lewis, R&D is required to send the finalize structure to the
production units and operations to get final output of the products. The link between two would
help in transformation of an idea into the final satisfaction of the consumer, which will result in
the achievement of the organisational objective.
In the John lewis, all these are closely interrelated with each other and lead towards the
attainment of the goals or targets. Their focus should be lies on working together in order to
achieve the outcomes after the whole process of relationships given below. Company must

expand their marketing department in order to gain the profitability and productivity in the
business(Bromford, 2017)
P4 Identify the positive and negative impacts the macro environment (PEST)
PEST analysis is a legal framework which reveals the various macro economic factors
such as political, economical, social and technological factors for the advantage and
competitiveness of the business. In context with John lewis, there is a positive and negative
impact of PEST factors for the business of the company are as follows:
Political - it includes the stability of the government, any political circumstances etc.
which will lead to influencing the growth of the company and up down their revenue ability. In
context with the John lewis, there is a requirement of both positive as well as negative discussion
regarding the political factors:
Positive - Political factors will create positive impact in sense like establishing the
opportunity and advantage for the growth and development of the company.
Negative - Negative aspect of the political factor is that there is a partial chance of lack
of productivity and high economic risk in the country where company is operating their business
operation's. Because political factor would create the issues and problem with the company for
the requirement and availability of the resources.
Economical - This factor tells about the stability in the price of the commodity,
economic condition of the country and resource factor etc. in context with John lewis, economic
factors has great or reverse effect on the financial and economic condition of the company.
Positive - Effective economic policies can raise the future growth of the John lewis. If an
economic policies are fair and good, it would be easy for the manage and control prices of the
products they are offering to the customers.
Negative - Poor economic policies such as declining and diminishing in the currency
rates, heavy tax levied and lack of the corporate can create the hurdle for the company to operate
in this market. Hence, it will be impossible for the company to operate in the market.
Social - Social factors plays an important in influencing the behaviour of an individual
as well as group. These factors can influence the internal and external behaviour of the person in
order to gain the response of the customer.

Positive - It plays an important role in the influence and attracting the behaviour and
attitude of the customers for the purpose of getting business and profitability. Social factors will
create positive response in the mind of the consumer regarding the market change.
Negative - It can effect the purchase decision of an individual customer or buyer before
getting the purchase done. This is important to maintain the response of the customer's to
increase the maximum chances of the business building and profitability.
Technological - This aspect presents to fast disruptive technological activities of an
industry. From last 4 years, John lewis is rapidly transforming and giving high competition to
rivals in market( Hoffman, 2016).
Positive - These technological development is supporting to new product offering which
helping in sales earnings. John lewis carry out the paperless system by using IT facilities that
making business operations more flexible.
Negative - It may addressed to technological diffusion if it is not matches with the
customer's preferences.
Environmental - Every country has different norms and culture standards that directly
affect to an enterprise's profitability. Before entering new and existing market, company should
concerns about liabilities clauses for executing operations plans.
Positive - Environmental factor would creates positive impact like deciding the
appropriate policies and rules for the betterment of an organisation for the purpose of achieving
and attaining the business objectives and goals.
Negative - If a company avoids these consideration then it create many barriers in
business expansion and operation planning. Because environmental factors decides the overall
business potential and growth of an organisation.
Legal - A country's legal framework and departments are not completely enough for
organisational property's protection. So here in John lewis, managers should analyse carefully
these aspect which can addressed to theft secret of company.
Positive - This aspect supports to anti-trust, copyright, data protection and e-commerce
for household products enterprise which protect to John lewis.
Negative - John lewis need to match their terms and conditions with country's legislation
otherwise it will affect negatively in further processes.

P5 explain internal and external analysis of an organisation in order to identify strengths and
weakness.
SWOT analysis provide assistance in strategic planning by assessing external and
internal factors for an organisational success. It includes four important elements that alert about
market opportunities, threats, strength and weakness. By using this simple tool, John lewis can
identify every prospects of succession areas and take profits in business development. This also
allows gathering informations about changes in customer's preferences and attitudes towards the
existing products. So, manager can map out related modifications in their goods for delivering
better quality to potential customers. Now, discussing SWOT analysis in above statements:
Strength: This factor brings light on positive points of an organisation so management
can attend maximum profits by using their competencies. In respect of John lewis, company has
strong image because they are using internet applications for selling their products. It helping in
raising standard as well as increasing productivity level in target market. As John lewis is one of
the most popular retail stores in Untied Kingdom, they are facilitating for wide range of fashion
trades. Company working with 'never knowingly undersold' policy which fascinating more
people by unique efforts. Moreover, company can also plan strategies for enhancing sales to
manage extensive range of product(Hunger, 2016).
Weakness: It shows the weakest points that occur operation and organisational
enhancement. As John lewis has no adequate experience of international business, it can create
several challenges from different countries. So, here managers need to hire sophisticated people
who belongs from related country. They will assist in target segmentation procedures through
providing new updates about environmental changes. These information also helps in further
decisions of production procedures. Secondly, products are more expensive than other retail
stores such as: grocery and supermarket. It is leading to limited sales in targeting market.
Opportunities: This possibilities aspect provides many options for business succession
by analysing all related target prospects. In context of John lewis, company has several chances
of earning from international market expansion. Managers are using unique selling product
technique which supporting to better quality availability along with high profitability
programme. Apart from this, many young professionals are staying out of station or countries so
they relying on this brand image and improving their lifestyle. Moreover new product plans also

increasing earning source by severing into global market. Management plans strategically for
attaining new opportunities from international class(T.L., 2015).
Threats: It indicates new challenges and alert about market problems which can harm to
company standards. John lewis facing difficulties due to cultural differences and inadequate
knowledge in traditional assumptions of people. It affected in cash flow during low market share,
because supermarkets, and grocery stores gives tough competition. It supply more probability to
high contest from strong rivals. Secondly in John lewis, it is leading another threat of robbery
and consideration on property loss in various countries. During peak period at workplace,
employees works till late night so managers should give priority for safety purpose. Thirdly,
competition laws creating barriers in business development programmes on large scale.
Thus, these are the major aspects of SWOT analysis that provides support in guiding
business activities for long term succession. In respect of John lewis, manager should assessing
thoroughly all sales aspects for maintaining brand image and standards in new versus existing
international market.
P6 Explain how strength and weakness interrelate with external macro factors.
Strength and weaknesses related to the macro factors of Marks & Spencer is the crucial
and necessary task to analyse the potential of the company to satisfy their customer and clients at
the bigger level and stage. Marks & Spencer are currently working on their positive along with
negative perception over their products & services. One of the major strength of the Marks &
Spencer is that they are very loyal towards their customer satisfaction and enrichments, This has
make their products & services at the fullest and optimum level to succeed in their potential
market. Marks & Spencer is required to work on their strategies and planing process to make
correct their weaknesses to achieve organisational objectives effectively and properly. In context
with political factors, M&S needs to look at their weakness to implement legal policies and
procedures for the customer satisfaction and production of goods and services effectively and
efficiently. Also, M&S need to look over the current social and technological scenario to co-
operate with the market situation and arrange the resources more appropriately.

Conclusion
As per given report, has explained the main purpose of John lewis along with different
types of organizations. It has included three kind of enterprises such as public, private and
voluntary bases. Secondly, it has discussed size, scope and range of organization to knowing
competencies. By this report we can understand that how different departments are connected
with each other within an organisation. Thirdly, analysed all different aspects of macro
environment influence on business operation plans along with its strength and weaknesses.