BUS101: Business Environment Analysis and Decision-Making Processes

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the business environment, encompassing both internal and external factors that influence organizational performance. It begins with an introduction to the business environment and its impact on various types of companies, including public, private, and voluntary organizations, using examples like Waitrose & Partners, JCB, and the British Red Cross. The report delves into the organizational structures, products, services, and objectives of these companies, followed by an examination of their business functions and how they interrelate. It then applies PESTLE and SWOT analyses to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats affecting these organizations. Finally, the report concludes with a critical reflection on the influence of various factors on decision-making processes within these businesses, highlighting key findings and implications for strategic management.

UNIT 1- BUSINESS AND
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
PART 2............................................................................................................................................9
1. The impact of macro environment factors to the organization................................................9
2. Analysis of SWOT for Waitrose and Partners.......................................................................11
3. Reflection on the influence of decision-making progress......................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
A set of factors that impact organizational performance and practices, is named as
business environment, which include external and internal elements (Estevão, Lopes, and Penela,
2022). Business environment, put impact on companies, either in negative or positive way, as it
depend on how a factor impact and what situation is currently running in a nation, where
organizations are established. The set of factors plays important role in organizational growth
context, in term of driving attention towards essential elements' consideration. The current
assessment, will explain different types of companies and progress of international business
environment. It will also define the explanation of each company including details, cover
background, product, service, size, scope, aim, objective, structure and stakeholders.
Furthermore, the report will also cover explanation related to different business functions of one
organization and specify how functions interrelated with each other. It will justify
implementation of PESTLE analysis in the context of a specific company, that have impact on
venture, positively and negatively, with examples. The study will clarify SWOT analysis to
determine strengths, weaknesses and their interrelation with external factors. Lastly, the
assessment will specify the critical reflection part, which overs key findings and evaluate how
factors impact or influence decision-making procedure.
PART 1
Covered in Factsheet
1- Introduction to provide an
overview of several types of
companies and growth of
international business
environment.
In corporate world, different types
and sizes of organizations
accessible, who are conducting
practices related to business term
in professional manner, while
establishing their outlets in a
specific industry. Each type of
Its mission is to enhance
employees and customer
satisfaction level, even better
than last few years or
months.
JCB, vision is to seek to
serve civil construction and
agriculture markets with
excellence. Organization
mission is to deliver
consistent, and exceptional
services to the target market.
It helps to reach desire outcomes
in form of increasing
organizational productivity and
performance, even better than
last few months or weeks, that
might be impacted from certain
factors.
Advantages and the
disadvantages of the
interrelated departments of
the organization
The interrelation of the function

company, defines below;
Public-
In the public sector, those
companies are included, who are
accountable to conduct any
practice, with consideration of
population, or consumer needs.
Waitrose & Partners, is the best
example of public sector
company, that operates in retail
industry and focus on enhancing
customer satisfaction level, more
than the rivals.
Private-
In private sector, those firms work
better, that focus on increasing
profitability, along with customer
base. JCB is the best example of
private organization, which
included in the category of leading
international manufacturing
organizations in the UK.
Furthermore, its objective is
to increase profits and
generate revenue more than
last few years.
British Red Cross, vision is
to develop a world where
people get support they need
in any crisis. Its mission is to
mobilize the power of
humanity, which enables
individuals to have capability
preparing for, deal with and
overcome from major or
minor crisis.
Organizational and legal
structure-
Waitrose & partners can
use functional organizational
structure, which benefits
business in varied manners,
such as to grow, from
national to internal market. It
also adopts partnership as
legal structure, that aid to
of the organization has some
benefits and the drawbacks. The
functions of business which
interrelate with each other in the
organization are the HR
department, finance department,
operation and IT department,
marketing and the research and
the development department.
Therefore, the advantages and
the disadvantages of the
functions are as follows:
Advantages – The advantages
of the interrelation of the
functions are:
 There is the better
coordination between the
HR department and the
marketing department
and the finance
department. Coordinating
with the other
department helps the
business in smooth
processing of the
business.
 The department of
finance in the business
will be easily able to
track all the finance by
coordinating with the

Voluntary-
Organizations working for
individual well-being, including
varied concepts, such as
education, health, etc. are named
voluntary organizations. British
red Cross is one of those
companies, as it focusses on
improving individual’s health,
covering mental and physical.
Growth of international
business environment-
The growth of international
business environment in term of
globalization is increasing day by
day, in varied manners. For
example, in term of business
conduct collaborative
practice with other brands
that operates under similar
industry, where Waitrose &
Partners has created their
brand image, such as with
John Lewis.
JCB, utilize sole
proprietorship as legal
business structure, which
means company is
accountable to handle
everything, from operational
to functional practices. As
company, manufacture
different types of products, it
can utilize divisional
organizational structure.
British Red Cross, may also
utilize divisional
organizational structure
along with utilization of
cooperatives, legal structure,
which enable organization to
achieve target aims and
objectives.
About stakeholders-
Employees, suppliers,
government and wider
community as well as
investors, etc. are included in
other department.
 The work was done more
effectively and timely
through the help of
specialization of different
departments (Ahsan and
et.al., 2019).
 To the level of
department there is the
good coordination as the
employee's were well
qualified in the
respective job.
 Training facilities were
provided to the staff of
the employee's which
helps the company in
getting more effective
work.
 There will be the
increase in the
operational speed as the
senior member of the
department solves the
problem.
 The employees in the
organization were
differentiated according
to there specialization.
 There will be no
duplication of the work

expansion and trade, global
business environment is
progressing, continually, which
provides benefits to each
organization, either public or
private (Ramos-Hidalgo, Edeh
and Acedo, 2022). It can be said
that the progress of international
business environment is attributed
to varied factors, including
modifications in technology,
economics and other terms.
Among these factors, some forces
contribute to increase the level of
global business environment
growth in effective manner, which
is quite essential and useful too,
for the companies, including small
and large.
2- Explaining each of the chosen
company, including
background, aim, product,
service, scope, size and other
details.
Details-
Product and service-
Waitrose & Partners as public
sector company, currently offering
variety of food items and other
products to customers (Waitrose
& Partners, 2022). It offers
category of stakeholders,
whose needs and
requirements, organization
take into their consideration.
JCB, like other companies
also have number of
stakeholders, such as
government, customers,
suppliers and others.
British Red Cross, have
volunteers, candidates,
population and government
bodies as key stakeholders,
which it considers fulfilling
their needs.
3-Examining various
business functions and how
they interrelated with each
other, including
advantages, disadvantages,
and their impact on
organizational structure.
Marketing interrelation
with IT-
These two functions are
currently, working in the
Waitrose & Partners, and
conducting collaborative
practice, which benefit
organization in varied terms
(Thottoli, 2021). They work
as the work is done by
the different peoples in
the organization.
According to the
function the work was
performed by the
organization.
Disadvantages – The
disadvantages of the
interrelation of functions are:
 To the members of the
organization there will be
disrupted between the
organization.
 There will be no clear
status of the project to
the client as the projects
were managed by several
functional managers.
 There was a lack of unity
due to the interrelations

quality and quantity grocery
items, including fresh and chilled
food products, that enhance
customer satisfaction level.
Organization has some goods for
gardening, pet, and florist related.
JCB as private sector
organization, take initiative to
manufacture and provide different
types of equipment, utilized for
varied purpose to conduct certain
practices such as waste handling,
construction, demolition and
agriculture. It manufactures,
backhoe loaders, skid steer,
compactors, etc.
British Red Cross, provided
satisfactory health and other
related services to people in the
crisis, which enables them to
overcome the adverse impact of
any crisis, which occur due to
economic and environmental
factors. It provides the equipment,
resources and space to support
those who are impacted by an
emergency. Size and scope-
The size of chose company, is
defined through number of its
locations in the world, and that is
more than 332, across national
with each other, in term of
sharing information related
to IT issues that marketing
department face and only IT
section have capability to
resolve that in appropriate
manner as they have set of
skills, which aid to overcome
the issue and their impact. It
influences negatively in term
of decreasing the
effectiveness of venture.
IT interrelation with
finance-
Information technology as IT
function, interrelate or work
in collaborative manner with
finance section, on the basis
of certain points. As the
accounts department is
accountable to calculate and
provide funding to any
section, it is important for
other departments like IT to
work with them. It helps both
of department functions.
 The project progress may
be affected due to the
conflicts in the
organization between the
departments of the
functional managers.
 The profit and the
business reputation also
decreases due to the non
coordination of the
departments. All the
departments of the
organization must be in
the working
environment.
 The work of the
organization was divided
into different
departments thus the
structure of the
organization would
negatively impact.
 The team members of the
different departments
were not provided the
opportunities to get
involved in the decision
or to share the
perspective which will
impact the business in

boundary. Along with that the
scope of supermarket is also
specified in form of number of
candidates it has. As Waitrose &
partners have over 52,590
employees. Organization export
its own label and branded
products to more than 50 nations,
including Ghana, Mauritius, etc.
JCB is one of the world biggest
construction equipment
manufacturing brands, on the
basis of volume, as it has 22
plants on 4 continents; 11 in the
United Kingdom and others in
Brazil, India, China, USA and
Russia. The size and scope of
company is specified in term of
varied points such as number of
employees as it may have more
than 15,000 candidates world-
wide. It is fact that, organization
has a wide network of more than
60 suppliers or dealers as well as
700s stores, spread throughout
Indian, where management focus
on employing more than 8,000
professional trained personnel.
British Red Cross, size and scope
is defined in term of varied things
such as it has over 21,500
sections to achieve the goals
and objectives of Waitrose &
Partners, conduct cooperative
practice in the retail industry,
where competition level is
high.
Finance interrelate with
HRM-
Human resource
management and finance
department also accountable
to work collaborative and
productively, because they
can contribute to make
supermarket more
competitive and productive.
Both departments are
interrelated with each other,
as they fulfil their needs,
such as requirement related
to human resource, among
which each candidate is
capable to grow venture and
let management gain
pleasure of increasing sales.
As it is not that easy for the
supermarkets in the retail
sector to survive for longer.
HRM connected with
marketing-
Human resource
the long term (Chen and
Yan, 2019).
 There will be the
disadvantage of
mismanagement of the
HR department. If the
members of the HR does
not perform any
activities in the
organization it will lead
to decrease the rate of
retain of employees.
 The team was finance
department may have
conflicts with the other
departments because of
the mismatch of finance
of the departments.
 The other departments
such as the marketing
department will be liable
if there was unmatch of
the finance.
 In the absence of some
departments will lead to
poor management of
business. For example, in
the absence of IT
department the other
department functions will
effect.

volunteers and more than 4,100
staff, among which each staff
member is able to serve
satisfactory services of company.
Vision, mission and objectives-
Vision of Waitrose & partners is
to be successful and productive
business that powered by its
employees and key principles,
followed by everyone, which
defines their unique organization
today.
management is interrelated
with marketing, because they
create content throughout
which HRM section can
promote requirement of
skilled workforce in the
supermarket.
PART 2
1. The impact of macro environment factors to the organization
Waitrose and Partners is leading supermarket thus it can impact with various external
factors such as political, environmental, technological, legal, social, economic factors. To
identify the impact of macro environment factors PESTLE analysis was evaluated. The factors
were analysed as:
Political Factors – The profits of the business can impact because of the increase in tax
rate of governments. Internal trends and political issues, regulations, policies of government, tax
policy, change and leadership, trends of regulation and de-regulation were included in the
political factors. The becoming of independent of Scotland is the first political issue to the
supermarket industry (Bentham, 2018). There will be the increase in the price of the consumer
due to the issues of pension laws, supply chain. There is also a positive impact on the industry as
due to the stability of the government in the economy. Due to the independent of the Scotland it
will impact the UK consumer with the increase in the price of the products. Example, the
instability of the government will impact in the operations of the business. There was also
another impact to the Waitrose and Partners company is the impact of Brexit.

Economic Factors – Increase in the inflation rate impact the economic factors. UK
supermarket stores were impacted due to the increase in the fuel price. Waitrose and Partners can
impact as the import and export of products are through the road transport (Zhao and Dou, 2019,
March). Thus increase in the fuel and petrol will impact to decrease in the revenue of the firm.
There is also the impact of increase in the salary of the employees, workers which will impact in
increase in the income of the cost and decrease in the revenue. Example, increase in wage rates,
tax rates will majorly impact the operations of the Waitrose and Partners.
Social Factors – The consumer behaviour or the habit of the consumer on buying product
impact the UK supermarkets. For example, if the individual goes shopping with its family
member in another supermarket such as Tesco then it will always select Tesco supermarket. This
can impact the Waitrose and Partners. The choice of the individual shopping depends on the
status of the person (Merritt and Zhao, 2021). To increase the customers and the revenue of the
firm business should adapt the latest trend. Following the latest trend will help the organization
further in operating the business.
Technological Factors – The change in the technology can impact the Waitrose and
Partners in both positive and the negative way. Company should adapt the latest technology to
retain the position in the market. Most of the supermarkets in UK were following the latest
technology to attract the customers. Waitrose and Partners should provide the royalty points,
credit points and the cashback policy to the potential customers to generate the profit in long
term period. Example, UK supermarkets such as Waitrose and Partners were providing the
loyalty points to customers to retain potential customers (Zhao and Dou, 2019, March). The most
appropriate technology which the business choose are the online platforms. Business is
generating the profit in long time through selling the products via online. The online factors such
as the social media platform, online website tools were used by the organization to generate
profit and increase the customers. Waitrose and Partners can target the potential customers
through the online advertising platform.
Environment Factors – The environment factors such as the degradation, climate,
weather change are the environmental factors which can impact the Waitrose and Partners.
Environment can impact through the plastic waste, fossil fuel, etc. Reducing the waste of the
plastic by Waitrose and Partners will help the environment and will also help in operating the
business. For example, the open food grains which were packed in the plastic can be substituted

by packaging in the other materials to reduce the waste of plastic (Merritt and Zhao, 2021).
Waitrose and Partners should prepare a strategic plan so the company should take precautions for
the food material. Due to the change in the climate some products may be impacted which will
lead in the decreasing the profit of the company. Thus, taking precautions such as proper
packaging of food will lead to decrease in the chance of risk of damaging of product.
Legal Factors – There are many rules and regulations which company should adapt to
avoid the problems in the operations of the business. To survive in long time Waitrose and
Partners should adapt all the laws. The company who fails in adopting the laws and the policies
will lead to permission for the business. For example, the laws of minimum wage rate to the
employee's law by the government should follow by the organization, if fails to follow the policy
will impact in the operation of the business (Bentham, 2018). Every country has different laws
and regulations thus the business should adopt the rules and regulations according to different
countries where it is located. Safety laws, consumer laws, sovereign laws, wage rate laws and the
employment laws are the types of laws which company should follow.
2. Analysis of SWOT for Waitrose and Partners
There are several internal factors which impact the organization in the positive and the
negative way. The internal factors such as the strength, weakness, threat and the opportunity
were interrelated with the external factors (Oo, Tam and Walkowska). Understanding the
interrelation of the factors will help the Waitrose and Partners to operate the business for long
time and also helps the business to expand in other countries. To identify the factors the SWOT
analysis was used. The Analysis are as follows:
Strengths – Company has several strengths which are benefiting the company to generate
profit. Some strengths such as that the increase of the stores in the UK market. In the UK market
company has more than 350 stores with the substantial share. The employees of the Waitrose are
more than 50,000 peoples. Waitrose and Partners has the strength of increasing the identity of the
brand worldwide as due to sponsoring the business in the English Cricket Team (Soegoto, 2021).
The other strength by the company is the disruptive innovation of providing the loyalty cards to
the potential customers. It has also the strength of the recipient of the recognition and the several
awards. To supply the groceries to the Prince Charles and the Queen Elizabeth, Waitrose has
royal warrant. In the country company is being popular due to creating the effort on advertising.

Weakness - Waitrose and Partners has several strengths but it also has some weaknesses.
The weaknesses of the company are that the customers were perceiving the company as a retailer
thus they do not enter the market. The competitors of the Waitrose such as the Tesco and the
Aldi and Lidi were supplying the products at the reasonable price according to the middle class
family (HIDIROĞLU, 2019). Thus, the Waitrose and the partners were not able to get more
value than its competitors. In 2020 company has decided to close several stores. In 2019,
company is selling the Easter Duckling chocolates which lead the company to apologize in front
of the customers as the consumers were unhappy with the retails.
Opportunity – To increase the sales and to secure the share market in the UK Waitrose
should apply the strategy of market penetration. Promoting the product and the business to the
customers with the various effective schemes will help the company in generating the money and
the value. To increase the revenue of the company Waitrose can also sell the non-food items to
its consumers it will help in generating the profit (Oo, Tam and Walkowska). The most
appropriate opportunity for the supermarkets are adapting the latest technology. Adapting the
latest technology will help the company increasing the brand value among the consumers of UK.
Company can provide the facility of home delivery to the customers which will help to increase
the sales and the customers. The customers of UK were more reliable on shopping the products
from home.
Threat – To the Waitrose there is the always threat of the competition. In the UK
company faces number of threats from the competitors (HIDIROĞLU, 2019). The maintaining of
the quality and the standard of the product is difficult for the retailer like Waitrose. Waitrose
profit margins can be decreased due to the increase market share and the increase in the
competition.
3. Reflection on the influence of decision-making progress
Waitrose is leading the retail supermarket. Thus, it impacts with several internal and the
external factors. To generate the profit for long time and to retain the position in the UK market,
company should consider the impact of the factors. The internal factors such as strength of the
company will help to reduce the weakness. The weakness of the businesses can reduce by
increase in the strengths of the company (Stevano, Johnston and Codjoe, 2020). Waitrose has a
strength of attracting the potential customers through the loyalty cards. But it was noticed that the
business has weakness due to the increase price of the product, reducing the price of the product