Next Plc: Impact of Innovation, CSR, and Business Environment Analysis

This report examines the business environment of Next Plc, a multinational retailer, focusing on the impacts of innovation and technology on its sales, profits, and growth. The report assesses how Next Plc has adopted new processes and technologies, like the BvS framework, online platforms, and AI, to enhance its operations and customer experience, particularly highlighting the growth during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the report evaluates the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for Next Plc, analyzing its efforts in ethical trading, employee relations, and community engagement. Applying Archie Carroll’s CSR model, the report discusses Next Plc's responsibilities across economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic dimensions. The analysis underscores the intricate relationship between innovation, technology, CSR, and the overall success of Next Plc within the competitive retail landscape.

Business
Environment

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................2
Assess the impacts of innovation and technology and how it has affected the sales, profits and
growth of one of the following companies.............................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Evaluate the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for the same organisation
of your choice in Task One above..........................................................................................4
Apply Archie Carroll’s (1991) CSR model to your chosen organisation..............................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business Environment refers to the sum total of all those factors which influence the
business organisation either internally or externally. It helps the business organisation in the
identification of opportunities spouting useful resources, growth and their profitability. Further,
business environment is classified in two types i.e. Micro Business Environment and Macro
Business Environment. Suppliers, media, economic condition, government, customer, investors
and many more are the forces of business environment. There are various forms of business
organisation which is depend on the size of business, nature of business, business operations etc.
and business environment is varies from business to business. This report is based on Next Plc
which is multinational footwear, clothing home product retailer having headquarter in Enderby,
England, United Kingdom. The purpose of this report is to explain various types of innovation &
technology and their effect on the economic progress of the country. Along with this, it state the
importance of Corporate Social Responsibility.
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TASK 1
Assess the impacts of innovation and technology and how it has affected the sales, profits and
growth of one of the following companies.
When an organisation starts adopting or introducing new processes, products or services for the
purpose of an effective positive change in business is known as innovation. It includes change or
improvement in existing practices or methods. It’s main objective is to adding or creating new
values for the purpose of increasing productivity and profitability. Technology refers to the
branch of knowledge which performs the task of creation, use of technical means and their
relation with life, environment and society. Improvement in technology is directly related to the
innovation in an organisation (Kumar 2021). As technology is growing day by day and it is the
reason behind the introduction of various innovation in an organisation.
In the terms of economy, the development and application of new ideas can be described by
innovation and technology makes the production of goods and services effective. As the
technology improve, the production of goods and services will also improve and productivity is
directly related to the increase in profitability or increase in profit which means the growth of
economy. There is a intricate and multifaceted relation between the innovation and economic
growth. In the corresponding of this, innovation is directly related to the growth. Along with this,
growth is also an important factor for the purpose of investment and demand which guide to
innovation. In simple words, it can be said that both innovation and economic growth of country
have a long term relation. Technological innovation is most important factor of source of growth
of economy. Economic growth means the increment in inflation by adjusting market values of
goods and services produced by economy of a country over a period of time (Galvão and et. al.,
2020).
Introduction of new technology is related with both challenge as well as opportunity.
Continually change in technology gives various new and innovative ways of doing the work.
Along with this, the impact of technology in an business organisation can be easily seen on the
communication of staff members, improvement of customer service, managing projects in an
effective way, introduce automation at work place. Along with this, introducing new technology
in business organisation implies the presence of various set of challenges for the management of
organisation for doing the work. Mainly it is a huge challenge for managers as they have to adopt
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that new technology and provide the complete training and knowledge to the complete staff of
organisation in order to achieve the organisational goals and objectives. They also have to do the
work as technical developer and implementers. Also adoption of change in technology works as
boosting revenue and it is only possible when the information regarding the same is properly
communicate to the customer so that they can aware about their advance technology.
Next Plc was founded by Joseph Hepworth in 1864. It is a multinational brand which deals in
home product, clothing and footwear etc. It’s headquarter is in Enderby, England, United
Kingdom. This company can be known as the largest retailer of cloths by sales in United
Kingdom as they have undertaken Marks & Spencer in 2012. They are dealing in almost 700
stores in which approx 500 are in United Kingdom and 200 stores are doing operations across
Europe, Middle East and Asia (Laukkanen 2020). The founder of this company was working as
tailor as Joseph Hepworth & sons. After some time he did partnership with James Rhodes, but
because of many reasons they have to dissolve that partnership in 1872. Hepworth, by own
started working on the development of organisation and in 1884, the company had started 100
outlets in Britain. From 1963, company has started providing ready to wear suits collection. This
state that, they were continuously adopting new technologies for the purpose of performing
various innovations in their organisation.
Currently Next Plc is working globally with their total sales of approx £4.1 billion. One of
the most common innovations of Next Plc is BvS framework of innovation. Under this
framework, it is analysed that the core of innovation of company are concerned to leadership,
strategy, vision and operating process of organisation. For the purpose of supporting innovation
which aim at effective integration. They had adopted effective leadership style for effective work
performance of employees which help in the growth and development of their organisation.
Before introducing online apps and websites for shopping, Next Plc was not performing too well
because of high competition in the market (Freeman and et. al., 2020). But making available
products online to the customers, works as a perfect introduction of technology in their
organisation which result in increase in profit and sales of their products. According to a report,
it is found that in 2012, they had made sales of £3441 million (including retail sales of £2191
million and online sales of £1089). Improvement can be seen at the time of COVID-19 as their
sales in 2020 was £4363 million (which include retail sales of £1852 million and online sale of
£2147 million). Hence, it is cleared that the technology and innovation plays an important role in
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the growth and development of Next Plc. Because of various innovations on time, they
performed well in the market and gain a good place in the global market.
For a successful business model, repeat buying, competitors and loyalty of customers works as
key element. With the increase in e-commerce, Next Plc was required to offer their products on
through multi channel. They merge the outline of physical stores and digital world. They started
using this technology as a tool for the purpose of attracting customers (Fraccascia and et. al.,
2020).
Various and fast growth in the machines capability by the combination of robotics and AI
for the purpose of transforming the economic of retailing which help them in improving outlook
for retailers.
Another technology used by Next Plc is that, they use various data for the purpose of providing
more personalised consumer experience. Adoption of this technology gives result in the high
sales and growth of organisation in market. This act works for attraction of customers
(Trevlopoulos and et. al., 2021).
They had started accepting orders of customers by the use of A.I. computing technology
which help the customers in placing order by messaging, email, text, mobile app and voice.
Along with this, it also works as store assistant in physical stores.
TASK 2
Evaluate the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for the same organisation of
your choice in Task One above
Corporate Governance refers to those rules, processes and practices though which any
organisation is controlled and directed. Main focus of Corporate Governance is to maintain a
balance of interest of various stakeholders which include financiers, suppliers, the government,
customers, shareholders, various executives of management and many more. It also provide
many frameworks which help the organisation in achieving their goals and objectives in an
effective way. Along with this, it encloses almost each and every domain of management from
action plans or various internal controls to the measurement of performance and disclosing
corporate. Basically it made and develops various frameworks or set of rules and policies which
should be put at work place to tell about corporate behaviour (Dahlmann 2020). Corporate
Governance shows company’s direction and business integrity. So that, they can plays an
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important role for investor of organisation. On the other hand, Corporate Social Responsibility is
a model which helps the business organisation for being social accountable to the public, their
stakeholders. It is used by business organisation for the purpose of raising morale at work place
as it is important to both customers as well as companies. Corporate Social Responsibility can be
said as a concept of management combine environmental and social concerns of their business
operations.
There are various reports which comes under the UK Government Governance (Sisodia and et.
al., 2020). Also UK Corporate Governance has influence Corporate Governance regulations in
the European Union and United States. In 1992, the Cadbury Report on The Financial Aspects of
Corporate Governance, Rutteman Guidance (1994), Greenbury Report (1995), Hampel report on
Corporate Governance (June 1998), Turnbull Report on Internal Control: Gidance for Directors
on the Combined Codes (1999) and Higgs Report on the Review of the role and effectiveness of
non executive director (January 2003) are the various reports of United Kingdom Corporate
Governance. These disclose that the UK is successful in influencing US Corporate Governance
regulation (Morgan 2021).
Next Plc is providing various efforts in order to making complete their Corporate Social
Responsibility. They are performing various acts which result in the fulfilment of Corporate
Social Responsibility towards their suppliers, customers, community, environment, gender and
many common rights. These act mainly help them in maintaining the interest of various
stakeholders of their organisation which include customers, suppliers, shareholders, investors,
government and many more. The first challenge for them is to trading ethically and acting
responsible towards the workers within the suppliers of organisation. This work as a key priority
for them. Their main objective is to meet the expectations of customers by providing beautiful,
unique and exciting designs and qualities of clothes, footwear, home ware and accessories. This
act provide complete satisfaction to their customers which help them in making a positive
reputation in the market as satisfying customer is the priority for every business. Along with this,
it a first step for every organisation to success as it results in making brand loyalty and repeat
customers (Batat 2020). For the purpose of retaining employees in their organisation, they are
creating such environment at work place which makes feel the employees comfortable and
satisfy. By making good working environment to their employees, they attract, inspire and retain
the right person to the right work at every level. Along with this, they are continuously protect
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the human rights of their employees so that they can work comfortably which leads to increase in
productivity and profitability as well.
Apply Archie Carroll’s (1991) CSR model to your chosen organisation
Archie Carroll’s defined Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility in 1991. This pyramid
states that the corporate have to fulfil their responsibility at four levels i.e. Economic, legal,
Ethical and Philanthropic.
Economic Responsibilities state that the company should be profitable because without making
profit, it is not possible for organisation to fulfil their Corporate Social Responsibility. It
highlight the first duty of company which is production of goods (Rode and et. al., 2021). Next
Plc is providing goods to the customer in a satisfactory way. They are also focusing on
innovation so that they can provide best products to the customers in a different way which will
also help them in beating the competition in the market.
Legal Responsibility is the second level responsibility of organisation which state that the
organisation should follow all the legal laws and rules & regulation for the purpose of successful
running of business. Next Plc is following various legal rules and policies which include
employment law, tax regulations, safety of employees, competitions with other companies which
leads to the higher comfortable environment to employees. If they will not fulfil these
responsibilities, this will imply a huge negative impact on employees as well as it will destroy
the reputation of organisation in the market.
Ethical Responsibilities implies that doing right thing that should be fair in all the
situations which help in avoiding harm. Next Plc is not only doing the business by applying all
laws. Along with this, they are doing business ethically which help them in doing fair with
everybody at every situation, which help the organisation in attaining the employees in their
organisation and also making a good reputation in the market. These responsibilities help them in
gaining more attraction from stakeholders which is also a positive impact for Next Plc (Bacinello
and et. al., 2020).
Philanthropic Responsibilities occupy a very small space in the pyramid. All businesses are
divided for their carbon footprint, their part in pollution, using natural resources and many more.
Next Plc is giving back to the society as they are using various natural resources from the
society. These responsibilities comes on higher level in the pyramid of Carroll’s. It also shows
the true value of organisation as through these responsibilities they are giving back some values
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to the society in the exchange of using various resources of society. The positive and negative
effect on the reputation of the organisation is build only because of these responsibilities
(Sannino and et. al., 2020).
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it is analysed that the business environment is responsible for the
growth and various challenges of every business. For the purpose of running business
successfully, it is necessary for organisation to do grab the opportunities available in the market
by doing SWOT or PESTEL analyses. These are the tools which helps the organisations in
analysing the environmental factors which are going to influence the organisation. Furthermore,
it is analysed that Next Plc is a multinational retail brand which is working by taking care of
Corporate Social Responsibility. Along with this, it is found that Next Plc has make various
changes in their organisation by introducing technology which lead in the growth and
development of the complete organisation as technology has introduced various advance services
for their customers. It not only increases profitability and productivity, as it also leads to the
generation of positive reputation in the market.
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REFERENCES
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proposal towards sustainable agriculture development in United Arab Emirates. British
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innovation, intellectual capital, environmental and economic performance. Environment
Systems and Decisions, 41(1), pp.163-178.
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