Individual Report: Business Analysis of Pearson (BBS003-1 Module)

This report provides a comprehensive business analysis of Pearson, a prominent educational and publishing company. It begins with an introduction to Pearson, detailing its history, core business, and global presence. The report then delves into a detailed business analysis, examining industry data, key businesses, customers, suppliers, competitors, performance, strengths, weaknesses, and the challenges Pearson faces. It applies theoretical frameworks such as SWOT analysis and Porter's Five Forces model to assess Pearson's competitive position and strategic challenges. The report identifies key issues faced by the owner/managers of the business, including uncertainty and changing customer behavior. The second part of the report is a reflection on the student's learning, focusing on the development of essential employability skills such as communication and problem-solving. The reflection highlights how these skills are crucial for analyzing business environments and achieving organizational goals. The report concludes with a summary of the findings and a discussion of the implications for Pearson's future.

Foundations of
Business
Communication

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Part 1 : Business Analysis................................................................................................................3
Application of theory, models, analysis of the business their impact by the external environment
influences:........................................................................................................................................3
Topic industry data ................................................................................................................3
Key businesses, customers, suppliers, competitors, performance, strengths and weaknesses
and challenges faced ..............................................................................................................3
SWOT analysis.......................................................................................................................4
Porter’s Five Forces Model ...................................................................................................4
Key issues faced by the owner/managers of the business......................................................5
PART 2 ...........................................................................................................................................7
Reflection...............................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCE...................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Education industry is essential for providing education to the people and it can be learned on
different institutions. It helps in gaining knowledge as well as generates revenue and getting jobs
in the market. This industry is working across the globe for gaining of the knowledge. Pearson is
taken as the base company. Pearson is multinational publisher and educational organisation
which was found by Samuel Pearson in 1844 headquartered in UK. It provides learning materials
and assessments to educational institutions as well as vocational educations and professionals. In
this report, it covers the problems faced by the company. It also includes the key issues faced by
the company, SWOT analysis and porter’s five force model. And at last the issues faced by the
owners of the organisation.
Part 1 : Business Analysis
Application of theory, models, analysis of the business their impact by the
external environment influences:
Topic industry data
Pearson is an educational and publishing company headquartered in London, UK. This
company was found by Samuel Pearson as construction company and later switched to
publishing in 1920s. Pearson has the secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange in the
form of American depositary receipts. It is considered as the largest education company and
publisher which are catering across the globe. In this organisation, there are more than 30000
employees are present (Bruhn, 2017). Pearson collaborates with Penguin Books with German
conglomerate in 2013. Along with this, they have also announced Pearson College in 2011 which
will be British degree provider in UK.
Key businesses, customers, suppliers, competitors, performance, strengths and weaknesses and
challenges faced
Pearson is considered as the best educational company which provide materials and
assessments to various education institutions as well as professionals and students and they are
catering their services globally. They do businesses with various education sites for marketing of
their products. Pearson is also using e-commerce sites such as Amazon for proving their
educational materials and assessments to the people. Their competitors are McGraw-hill,

Cambridge University Press and many more which are also in same industry and catering people
across the globe. The strength of the organisation is that they have strong distribution of network
which helps in catering a wide market as well as people (Carillo, 2017). The competitors of
Pearson is more in numbers due to which the company cannot tackle and lost their marketing
shares in niche categories which is considered as the weakness of the company. Their aim is to
optimize the digital applications and these emerging technologies that are currently in the market
is the challenge for Pearson as their application is still being tested for end to end delivery.
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is used by organisation for analysing the competitive position in the
market and also for creating strategic planning. This analysis is used for evaluating the internal
and external factors of the organisation. In context to Pearson, SWOT analysis helps in finding
strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats which are mentioned below:
Strength: Strengths are the elements which make the company stand out of the crowd.
These are the internal factors which are changeable and controllable. In context to Pearson, they
have a strong brand portfolio which helps in expanding the business into new product categories.
Weaknesses: It is the component which lacks the organisation for performing at an
optimal level and these components can be improved to remain the competition. In context to
Pearson, there are some gaps in their product range that leads to less number of choices
given to the people (Egorov, 2020). This may be providing choice of competitors to produce
their range of products.
Opportunities: These are the external factors that can give competitive advantage and
contribute to the success. In context to Pearson, the company has an opportunity to invest in
online publishing as they able to cater a large number of people from all over the world. The
company can use data analytic for knowing the choices of the customers.
Threats: Threats are those elements which can create trouble for the selected company as
the new technology arises, customers are switching more towards online resources which is
affecting the supply chain and that leads in decrease in the productivity and profitability of the
organisation.
Porter’s Five Forces Model
Porter’s five forces is a tool which is used for evaluating the level of competition in the
market. In context to Pearson, the market manager analyse the level of competition which helps

in developing the strategy for increasing the profitability of the organisation (Fraumeni, 2019).
The various porter’s five forces are mentioned below:
Threat of new entry: This force is defined as the entering of new product in the existing
market. Pearson can launch their new products in the existing market which can help in
increasing their productivity as well as helps in developing the economy in scale.
Bargaining power of buyers: In context to the selected organisation, they can build their
large base of customers that will create impact and reduces the bargaining power of buyers
(Mislevy, 2018).If the buyers are less in the market then they will tend to negotiate more with the
prices.
Bargaining power of suppliers: In context to Pearson, this is a type of force where the
supplier has more power when the number of supplier is less which will gradually increase the
demand. The large supply chain developed by the company will helps the organisation in
increasing their productivity.
Threats of substitute products: Pearson can focus more on being service oriented rather
than product oriented as they can face risk while there is similar products in the market from
different firms which can create impact on the performance of the company.
Level of competition: Level of competition is the porter’s last force where the power of the
organisation is less if the level of competition is more in the market and in order to gain
competitive advantage, the selected company can build up their potential differentiation which
helps them in maintaining the competition level (Serafinelli, 2018).
Key issues faced by the owner/managers of the business
In context to the selected organisation, the various issues that are faced by the owner are
mentioned below:
Uncertainty: Uncertainty in an organisation can lead only to focus on short term basis
and not for long terms which directly impact on the performance of the selected firm. When
customers do not purchase from their company and then will lead in closing of their business.
Buying behaviour of customers: Buying behaviour of customer is not always stable as
their need and preferences changes it will create impact on their choice of products and services.
In context to Pearson, the buying behaviour of customer also changes if the same organisation is
giving the product on lesser price. This issue create a huge impact on the organisation’s
performance (Valos, 2017). In order to solve this issue, the owner have to make sure about the

prices of similar products that the competitor is providing as well as r&d can analyse and
compare all the data and then assists in offering a suitable product to the customers.

PART 2
Reflection
There are various skills which helps me in successfully achieving goal of an organisation.
From above discussion I have analysed that environmental skills and management skills are very
important for me in developing PESTLE strategies. This is because an organisation is established
in a dynamic environment and I require to improve my skills for effectively making strategies for
business. Their are two important skills that is my communication skills and problem solving
skills which helps me in effectively archiving organisation goal. These two skills are mention
below:
Communication skills- From above report by effectively analysing the factors is is
analysed by me that my communication skills play an important role in business.
Communication skills means effectively transfer my feels, ideas or any other important
information to other people in organisation and try to make them understandable. With the helps
of above discussion I analysed that its very important to communicate with the other staff
members and tell them regarding the factors influencing business. I try to communicate each and
every problems that company face and helps so that every one will able to provide their view
points because of this I effectively improve my communication skills and tell other staff
members how to achieve organisational goal. I learn that there are two types of communication
one is my verbal communication that is a oral communication and other one is my non-verbal
communication which includes my good presentation skills and writing skills. Both these skills
helps me in effectively analysis the internal and external factors which influence the growth of
business and helps in successfully achieving company goal. I communication skills play an
essential role in my career growth at each point of business I need to communicate with other
members and I try to enhance my communication skills by effectively listing good speakers
which helps me in removing my weak points in my communication so that I communicate better.
Other than this I regularly interact with customers of company so that they also provide me
various ideas in improving business growth. I try to maintain a free flow of communication in
organisation culture so that the communication process is more effective and other members also
provide their ideas and viewpoint which helps me in effectively achieving organisational goal.

I will improve my communication skill by effectively analysing various theories of
communication and management and after that I communicate with my staff members so that
they will also understand what task they needs to perform in order to protect the environmental
condition in industry. My communication skills also helps me in increasing the involvement with
employees which create a good relationship between me and other employees. So my
communication skills are also useful in maintain a good organisation environment inside the
company which increase efficiency of company. From above I analysed that for an effective
communication I need to improve my listing skills and responding skills. This is both listing and
responding help me in developing my communication skills.
From above discussion it is analysed that my communication skills are very important in
effectively achieving organisational goal. It helps me in creating a good impression on my
seniors. My effective communication skills helps me in achieving higher growth along with
company growth. My communication skills business in smoothly running its business activities.
Problem solving skills:
Another weaker area for me is my problem solving skills, from my study I have analysed
that problem solving skills is one of the important skills for an individual, as it helps in analysing
what is the reason behind the occurrence of a particular problem and how an i8ndividual can
tackle that problem effectively, it is ability of an individual to analyse a particular situation and
find effective solution for it. In order to improve my problem solving skill I needs to deal with
the situation where I will have to analyse and apply strategy in order to handle that problem or
situation. Also in order to develop my problem solving skills I have to identifying the problem
effectively and put the solutions into the actions in order to get the best results possible. There
are number of problems available in the external environment like political, economical, social,
technological environmental and social which can effect the functioning of any business, I have
analysed that in ooder to deal withj these external environmental factors strong problem solving
problem is very much required bny an individual. According to me, for organisation to operate
smoothly I need to develop my skills so that problems can be solved not harming any rules and
regulations of the organisation.
This skills plays an very important role in the handle various external factors which can
effect the working of business, so I have analysed that I have to improve my skills by taking the
corrective actions and measure wherever required, from the discussion I have realised that the

skills can be improved by gaining knowledge from wherever it can be possible, I have to
enhance my knowledge and skills by taking lessons on problem solving skills, there are numbers
of areas ava9ilable in order to improve my problem solving skills and can enhance my creativity
and knowledge. Th problem solving skills is mainly based on the using various strategies,
techniques, using effective creativity and self analysing and management, it can be also be
improved by having conversation with the well experienced people, listening to their
experiences. In addition to this I have also learnt that I can improve my problem solving skills by
attending various lectures and seminars on problem solving skills, I think attending seminars and
listening to their experiences can helps me in improving my skills and can enhance my strategies
and knowledge. Effective use of all this methods can help me in handling the various external
factors which can affect the functioning, in today's growing competitive environment it becomes
very important role each business to correctly handle their macro environmental factors in order
to enhance their performance more effectively. I have analysed that having problem solving
skills can helps in dealing with this factors and can helps organisation in the formulation of
required strategies so that they can function effectively and gain competitive advantage.
With this I have analysed that with the helps of problem solving skill how a preamble can
be analysed can be solved easily by taking the corrective measures, there are number of skills
can be used by the individual in order to improve their skills like creativity skills, analytical
skills, decision making skills and so on all this skills helps in analysing the problem and taking
the correct decision and reaching the solutions for an individual.
From the above discussion I have analysed that both communication skills and problem
solving skills are very important for me, as they can help me in dealing with the problem and in
taking corrective actions, I have also analysed that by understanding both the skills has helped
me to effectively communicate and handle the macro environmental factors more effectively.

CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that business communication is a
communication which takes place between two more businesses for sharing of information for
attaining goals. It also takes place within the employees and outside the organisation for doing
the businesses. In this report, it includes the key businesses, customers, suppliers, competitors,
strength, weaknesses and challenges faced by the organisation. It also includes SWOT analysis
which helps in strategic planning for the organisation. Moreover, Porter’s five forces model for
analysing the competitive position in the market is also explained. And at last, it includes the
issues that faces by the owner of the organisation.

REFERENCE
Book & journals
Bruhn, M. and Schnebelen, S., 2017. Integrated marketing communication–from an instrumental
to a customer-centric perspective. European journal of marketing.
Carillo, K. D. A., 2017. Let’s stop trying to be “sexy”–preparing managers for the (big) data-
driven business era. Business Process Management Journal.
Egorov and et. al., 2020. It’sa match: Moralization and the effects of moral foundations
congruence on ethical and unethical leadership perception. Journal of Business
Ethics, 167(4), pp.707-723.
Fraumeni, B. ed., 2019. Measuring Economic Growth and Productivity: Foundations, KLEMS
Production Models, and Extensions. Academic Press.
Mislevy, R. J., 2018. Sociocognitive foundations of educational measurement. Routledge.
Serafinelli, E., 2018. Digital life on Instagram: New social communication of photography.
Emerald Group Publishing.
Valos and et. al., 2017. Integrating social media within an integrated marketing communication
decision-making framework. Journal of Marketing Management, 33(17-18), pp.1522-
1558.
Wang, W. T., Ou, W. M. and Chen, W. Y., 2019. The impact of inertia and user satisfaction on
the continuance intentions to use mobile communication applications: A mobile service
quality perspective. International Journal of Information Management, 44, pp.178-193.
Evidence of research
https://www.pearson.com/uk/
https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/swot-analysis.php
https://www.iqualifyuk.com/library/business-management-section/swot-analysis-a-basic-
understanding/
https://kfknowledgebank.kaplan.co.uk/porter's-five-forces-model-
https://www.think-beyond.co.uk/porters-five-forces-and-marketing-uncertainty/