Business Environment: Comparing Two Business Organizations Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the business environment, focusing on two contrasting organizations: Marks and Spencer (M&S) and the National Health Service (NHS). The report begins by defining the business environment and its impact on organizations, considering both internal and external factors. Task 1 explores the types of businesses, their purposes, and ownership structures, comparing M&S as a public limited company in the tertiary sector with the NHS as a government-owned, not-for-profit organization. It also identifies and examines the influence of different stakeholders, including customers, employees, and suppliers, on the organizations' objectives. Task 2 delves into organizational structures, contrasting hierarchical and flat structures, and analyzing the organizational style of M&S. Task 3 examines the influence of contrasting economic environments, such as growth and recession, on business activities, specifically considering how M&S operates under these conditions. Finally, Task 4 describes the factors impacting business activities, including political and legal impacts, providing a holistic view of the external forces shaping the business landscape.

THE BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1-Type of business, purpose and ownership ............................................................................3
P2-Different stakeholders who influence the purpose ...............................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3-How two businesses are organised........................................................................................4
P4-Style of organisation .............................................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5-Influence of two contrasting economic environments ..........................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
P6- Describe how factor impacting upon the business activities ...............................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business environment may be define internal and external factor in this organisation.
This factor affecting company functions ans their programs including customer, employees,
management, demand and supply process. Businesses environment setting macro and micro
environment and take the many plans and ideas related to the company environment process.
This is also applying many approach including system, social responsibility and creative. It is
many be create company best decision and innovative ideas related to technological and many
factor. It is also improving international and economic growth and find out many process relating
to company environment (Boons and Lüdeke-Freund ., 2013 ).
TASK 1
P1-Type of business, purpose and ownership
There are two types of the business including Marks and Spencer or national and health
services in this organisation. The M&S company is a international company and create an
organisation objectives. The health services company provide many facility related to the
coma0pny environment and product services.
Marks and Spencer
it is a international company and its part of the tertiary sector, an international business in
an operate and sell the product and services around the whole world. This company trades an
Europe, the middle east and Asia. It is a public related company, the public part or its means that
share can be brought by the public and its limited company that means they have only limited
liabilities and creditors.
The purpose of this company is to supply the company product and services and create
the many objectives and plan related to company share and their liabilities. The chairman of this
company ensure that all the board meeting run smoothly and help to achieving the board
decision. The shareholder put capital into the business by buying share then receive a dividend
payment depending on how many share they own(Cantwell and et. al., 2010).
National health services
The NHS is a national not for the profit organisation and it is apart of the many sector. It
is also a public sector company meaning that is closely-held by the government, it was set in the

labour government decision and plan. This services is a part of the sector that provide many
services related to the general population.
Purpose of the NHS is to provide the high quality of the services and product. This
company employees doctor, nurse, and other health care professional so even thought it is not
profit organisation. Money from taxation is used to pay for all the running costs like staff wages,
medicines, equipments and buildings etc.
This is owned by the government, this is responsible for the NHS in the department of
health which lead by the state of the health.
P2-Different stakeholders who influence the purpose
There are many stakeholder that influencing the purpose of organisation aims and
objectives and create the many stakeholder in this organisation. I am going to describe that
different stakeholder and explain how they influences national services and marks and Spencer.
Customers: This are key stakeholder in any organisation and explained how they influences
level of satisfaction determines then the company runs(Carroll and Shabana ., 2010). Customer
wants value of money which involves providing the highest quality products and competitive
price.
Employees: Their stake is that the company provides them with a livelihood. They want security
of employment, good rates of reward and also promotional opportunities. These stakeholder
may also want to work for a company that they are proud of and can influences the success of an
organisation.
Suppliers: They want to feel valued by the company and order of the product payment. These
stakeholder also want steady orders can decide whether to raise prices for order which can take
the best policies.
TASK 2
P3-How two businesses are organised
All organisational need a best structure which can help to manage the business so that it
can be successful. The structures can be shown in an organisation chart which is used to
represent lines of authority within an organisation.
Hierarchical structures are used by businesses to show how an organisation is organised
by showing the levels of authority, the span of control and the chain of common (Harrison .,

2011). In a hierarchical structure the person with the greatest authority is at the top and each
level has a subordinate apart from the bottom level. Each level has managers or employees of
equal authority or status. The advantages of a hierarchical organisation is that it shows the lines
of authority, the formal lines of communication between managers and, how many people each
manager is responsible for. Hierarchical organisations also show where each individual is in the
chain of command and the status of the post they hold as well as the departmental structure of the
business. The disadvantage of a hierarchical organisation is that it can make the organisation
inflexible and slow to respond to changes such as consumer tastes or market conditions due to
the longer chain of command meaning there are more people in the business.
Communications between top and bottom levels of the hierarchy can be slow as there are
more people in the business between the person at the top and the bottom of the chart. Separate
departments can lead to poor coordination between them and decisions made can be for the
benefit of the department not the whole business (Harrison ., 2011). The span of control tells you
how many people are directly reporting to and accountable to the person above them. For
example a manager may have a span control of up to four numbers of staffs who report back to
them on the progress of the business that they are in charge of. The chain of command runs
straight from the top to the bottom.
This is the line of authority through which orders and downward communication are
passed. Flat organisational structures have few levels of hierarchy and management which are
usually 2 or 3 levels. It has a short chain of command and each manager has a shorter span of
control. Tall structures are very similar to flat organisational structures but instead have a longer
chain of command from the top to the bottom of the organisation. Each manager also has a
narrow span of control. The advantage of both a flat and tall organisational structures is that
there are fewer managers, so fixed costs of salaries and other employment-related costs are
reduced.
There is a shorter chain of command which could lead to quicker and more precise
communication between top levels and lower levels in the organisation. Also there are wider
spans of control. This means that each manager will need to delegate more, which could result in
higher levels of motivation for subordinate employees. However, there are also a few
disadvantages to a flat organisational (Klapper and Parker ., 2011).

P4-Style of organisation
Marks and Spencer is a company that wants to sell all of the best products to customers
and be one of the best selling supermarkets in the UK. It is a Public Limited company which
means that shareholders own the company which means the ownership moves around a lot. This
is a private limited company and was founded as an Associated Dairies & Farm Stores Limited
in 1949 in Leeds. Also the company offer shares to the public. This is a tertiary business. This
means that it is a company that sell the products that have been made. Organisation is an
nationwide company . Marks and Spencer is the Second largest chain of Supermarket in the UK
after health services .
They have 175,000 employees and have over 500 stores in the UK, the Super centres
sell more than 40,000 products so you’ll find a huge choice of groceries alongside George
clothing, household goods and electronics (Moutinho ., 2011). They has a hierarchical style
which means there are fewer people at the top of the organisation managing the people below.
This style means that the managing directors of the company at the top of the chart can make all
of the key decisions in which way the businesses performance should go. Andy Clarke was a
regional store manager for many years before being promoted to the main board and he is now.
Each director is accountable for a different division of the business. For example
customer service is very important for the company because it is the one place that customers
will go to ask for help or any problems that they may have. The company will have one person
that manages a large team in head office, at all call centres and in stores where every colleague is
responsible for taking care of each customer. The sales director is responsible for making sure
that all of the The sales director is responsible for making sure that all of the right products are
bought into the store. He cannot check every item but has to make sure that the right people are
buying these products and that the different buying team must focus on one area only and leave
other areas to look after their products.
TASK 3
P5-Influence of two contrasting economic environments
In this task I would be talking about the influence of two economic environments on
business activities. So this could be how marks and Spencer in the UK operated during the
recession and the boom period (Pingali and Roger ., 2012). The UK is in the growth economic

environment and this means the country was before in the recession economic environment and
now it is growing. This does not mean they are a rich country compared to China.
Economic
Importance of stability- order is when business people can make predictions for the short
and the medium term about likely demands for their products in the near future. Marks and
Spencer would be affected if there are changes in the economic environment and these are
growth, recession and ripple effect. Growth is when more products are being produced and
consumed. This also means the incomes are rising. So in this company if customers buy more
goods and services, the production department would make more products than the usual so that
they can sell more products (Trkman ., 2010).
This also means that the company would employ workers and invest in equipment such
as machinery where they would use this to make more products. When organisation sell more
products to customers this means the business is making a profit. Recession is when there is a
decline in the GDP and this also means there is an increase in the unemployment rate. Recession
will take place if customers tend to save more money than to spend it on goods and service. Also
if producers tend produce fewer goods can also result to recession.
If business were in recession they would not be affected as other business however at
this state customers would save more money than buy more goods and services and the
production department might not make goods to sell, and this means they would lose some of
their profit.
TASK 4
P6- Describe how factor impacting upon the business activities
Political impacts
Political stability is usually defined as the state of peace that is normal experienced in a country
from the activities from the government and also the government in this situation will make
decisions and keeping the best interests in mind for people (Wheelen and Hunger ., 2011).
Legal impacts
The legal impacts are that mark and Spencer must follow the law, and an example of this
is the trade description act, this is where the product most be described accurately otherwise it
can cause an issue and an example of this the big issue with meat earlier this year, so it is

extremely important that you describe the product well and accurately if not then the trading
standards will have no other choice but to get involved.
Social impacts
The social impacts that marks and Spencer may face are the difficulty to recruit the right
people for the job in the stores or the offices depending on where they will be based, also most of
the workers that are in the stores are an unskilled workers on the minimum wage given .
This is a company that will support charities and the main one they support every year is tickled
pink, they are always thing outside the past ways they have raised money to, give customers a
new product to buy to support the charity (Harrison ., 2011).
CONCLUSION
As per the mention report determine many environment factor in this organisation. There
are many types of the business that take the company profitability ration and define company
aims and objectives. This report taking different stakeholder including customers, employees
distributors and many suppliers. Business environment also define the structure of human
resources, financial, production, product and services, marketing plan etc. company also
reasoning the pestle analysis and define many activity and method related to company
environment.

REFERENCES
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international business activity: The co-evolution of MNEs and the institutional
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Carroll, A.B. and Shabana, K.M., 2010. The business case for corporate social responsibility: A
review of concepts, research and practice. International journal of management reviews.
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Harrison, R., 2011. Learning and development. Development and Learning in Organizations: An
International Journal. 26(1).
Harrison, R., 2011. Learning and development. Development and Learning in Organizations: An
International Journal. 26(1).
Klapper, L.F. and Parker, S.C., 2011. Gender and the business environment for new firm
creation. The World Bank Research Observer. 26(2). pp.237-257.
Moutinho, L. ed., 2011. Strategic management in tourism. Cabi.
Pingali, P.L. and Roger, P.A. Eds., 2012. Impact of pesticides on farmer health and the rice
environment (Vol. 7). Springer Science & Business Media.
Trkman, P., 2010. The critical success factors of business process management. International
journal of information management. 30(2). pp.125-134.
Wheelen, T.L. and Hunger, J.D., 2011. Concepts in strategic management and business policy.
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Online
business environment. 2017. [Online]. Available
through:<http://www.yourdictionary.com/business-environment>.[Accessed on 5th June
2017].