Business Environment Analysis: Next Plc, NHS, Oxfam - Unit 1 Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the business environment, focusing on three distinct organizations: Next Plc (private sector), NHS (public sector), and Oxfam (voluntary sector). The report begins by explaining the different types and purposes of organizations, including their legal structures and scopes. It then delves into the relationship between various organizational functions, such as marketing and HR, and how they contribute to overall organizational objectives and structures, specifically using the hierarchical structure of Next Plc as an example. The analysis extends to the macro environment, identifying both positive and negative impacts on business operations, supported by specific examples. Furthermore, the report conducts internal and external analyses of the chosen organizations to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses, and explains how these interrelate with external macro factors. The report concludes with a synthesis of the findings and a discussion of the implications for business strategy and performance. The report includes references to support the analysis.

Unit 1: Business & the
Business Environment
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
P1 Explain different types and purposes of organisations; public, private and voluntary sectors
and legal structures......................................................................................................................4
P2 Explain the size and scope of a range of different types of organisations.............................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
P3 Explain the relationship between different organisational functions and how they link to
organisational objectives and structure.......................................................................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P4 Identify the positive and negative impacts the macro environment has upon business
operations, supported by specific examples................................................................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
P5 Conduct internal and external analysis of specific organisations in order to identify
strengths and weaknesses..........................................................................................................11
P6 Explain how strengths and weaknesses interrelate with external macro factors.................13
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................15
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INTRODUCTION
Business environment is the sum or collection of the all kinds of internal and external
factors which directly contributes in organisational development and enhancement such as
employees, customer needs and expectation, innovation in technology and many more.
Respective factors directly affect the functions of an organisation in order to gain optimum
outcomes. This report is based on the Next Plc which is a British multinational clothing,
footwear and home products retailer in the whole world. It has around 700 stores in the UK
marketplace which is the private organisation. As per the brief the public sector organisation
NHS and voluntary organisation is Oxfam. This assignment is based on the Types and various
purposes of the organisation such as public, private and voluntary organisation with their legal
structure and their size and scope. Further it elaborates the different organisational functions and
their relationship with the organisational objectives and structures. In order to evaluate factors of
environment it is very much essential to evaluate the internal and external with micro and macro
factors in order to identify the various factors with their correlation with one another.
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TASK 1
P1 Explain different types and purposes of organisations; public, private and voluntary sectors
and legal structures.
There are majorly three kinds of business organisation existed that serves the various
purposes or goals in order to remain always competitive in marketplace that are as follows:
Private organisation:
Private organisation is any kind of partnership, cooperative and agency which not
controlled or coordinated with the help of public sector or government organisation (Quinlan
and et.al ., 2019.). Respective assignment covers as private organisation Next Plc that are very
much important organisation in serving needs and wants of consumers that are as follows:
Purposes:
Mission and vision:
Their mission is to meet the consumer experiences by providing one of most innovative,
beautifully designed with excellent quality of products by creating the environment that helps to
attract, retain and inspire the right people at work place (Next Plc- Company profile, information,
business description, History, Background information on Next Plc, 2019). they always by
focusing on consumer needs and wants build products in order to gain potential outcomes in
positive manner for gaining sustainability.
Objectives:
The primary financial objective of Next Plc is to deliver long term returns to the
shareholders by using sustainable growth strategies in order to remain competitive in
marketplace.
Legal structure:
Private organisation follows the structured kind of legal structure in order to gain
optimum kinds of objectives that are as follows:
Sole trader:
Sole trader is a one-person business that commonly found in trade that only required
small amount of money or finance (Trad and Kalpić, 2019.). The examples of such kind of legal
structure organisation are hairdressers, news agents, market traders and many more.
Public limited company:
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Respective kind of legal structure which is much larger than other organisational
structure they are kind of joint stock company (Somers, 2019.). A public limited company is
incorporated business which is operated by board of directors on behalf of stakeholders. In
context of Next Plc which work under public limited company legal structure by sharing role and
responsibilities to one another.
Public organisation:
Public organisation which is controlled or coordinated by the government and their
primary motive is to serve the citizens in best manner (Boone and et.al ., 2019). The public
sector organisation that is chosen in respective report is NHS that provides services of health and
social care in market of Northern Ireland.
Purposes:
Mission:
Mission of NHS is to focus on improve health and wellbeing of patients and experiences
of people in positive manner. They value the excellence and professionalism as it founds
anywhere to make the life of people better.
Vision of NHS:
The vision of NHS is to build network to reach at large no. of people and organisation by
creating a positive environment that helps to bring changes and innovation for wellbeing of
people.
Objectives:
The major objective of NHS is to improve the quality of services by eliminating errors
from the whole processes. They by support and value to their staff members enables to give one
of best services by taking funds from public that solely devoted to NHS patients. They by giving
training and development to their employees in order to their career enhancement by putting one
of their best efforts in positive manner.
Legal structure:
Local government:
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Local government is one of most important authority that determine or execute measure
in a restricted area inside the whole state. The variant of local government is significant in
context of freedom of locality to decide and act.
State government:
A state government is the type of government of a country by subdivide federal form of
government that shares the political power with the federal or national government (Crane and
et.al ., 2019). The state government have some level of political autonomy that direct control
over federal government. The NHS come under the state government as all activities and
proceedings are coordinated by state government.
Voluntary organisation:
Voluntary organisation which rely on the occasional or on basis of regular volunteers to
conduct their operations and not have paid staff. The volunteer organisation characterized by
autonomy from state, non-for-profit orientation and many more (Maunder, 2019. ). The chosen
organisation is Oxfam which focus on elimination of voluntary from the whole world.
Mission:
The mission of respective organisation is to adopt the ways or methods to eliminate the
poverty from the whole world. They are the symbol of change at global level by empowering
people for their bright future to gain potential outcomes.
Vision:
Their vision is to build world out of destitution and build a place where all people treated
in equal manner (Oxfam, 2018). they want a world where people are treated in equal manner and
enjoy their rights and influence decisions that affecting their lives.
Objectives:
The major objective of respective organisation is to build world out of poverty by
approaching their world in right manner.
Legal structure of Voluntary organisation:
In organisational structure of voluntary organisation are as follows:
A trust:
Trust are majorly set or existed to serve the problems or concerns of people by
coordinating the money or funds (Dwyer and Hopwood, 2019). They by creating the positive
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relationship in between the donors, trustees and beneficiaries to attain optimum results. Oxfam
which is well known trust that works to eliminate poverty from whole world in positive manner.
Limited corporation:
A limited organisation structure of organisation is very much popular in between the
people now a days as it is most appropriate to manage the workings of staff.
P2 Explain the size and scope of a range of different types of organisations.
The size and scope of business plays very crucial role that are as follows:
Next Plc:
The size of Next Plc store is 3500 square feet and they have some kind of small stores
that are 500 square feet by following the large departmental store concept (Next Plc- Company
profile, information, business description, History, Background information on Next Plc, 2019).
They divided into the tow complementary activities such as retail stores and catalogue sales
throughout the England and Ireland.
Scope:
The major scope of Next Plc is to enlarge business in positive manner by directing and
controlling the activities to the ultimate consumer base (Ansoff and et.al ., 2019.). As they
already operated in the market of UK so they aimed to bring new products and services into
clothing and homeward products that are well made and safe also in regards of consumers in
positive manner.
NHS:
Size:
In size of NHS includes the no. of staff members as they have 106430 doctors, 285893
nurses and health visitors and they are specialised in various services areas such as transportation
by including the accidents and emergency, mental health services, dentist and optician many
more (NHS statistics, facts and figures, 2019).
Scope:
Respective organisation well known for their best service in the whole UK in field of
health and social care to masses in positive manner. They always aimed to provide services
under the one roof in order to gain large market share in positive manner.
Oxfam:
Size:
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In recent year Oxfam spends more than 1.27 billion dollar to reach more than the 22.2
million people by giving their best services to raise living standard of people in positive manner (
(Top 10 things you need to know about Oxfam, 2019).
Scope:
Oxfam established or existed in marketplace with the aim to eliminate poverty at larger
extent by putting vulnerable efforts in order to bring equality in life of individuals. They majorly
work on justice, fair trade, providing education, debt services and gender equality in order to
give best living standard to people in positive manner.
TASK 2
P3 Explain the relationship between different organisational functions and how they link to
organisational objectives and structure.
In an organisation there are various departments existed that work for different purposes
or goals by giving one of their best efforts in order to achieve organisational goals and objectives
in proper manner that are as follows:
Relationship in between Marketing and HR:
In an organisation there are various departments existed that work collaboratively in
order to attain organisational goals and objectives in positive manner. With the help of marketing
department that helps to create brand value of organisation that ultimately helps to attract and
retain one of most potential candidates within the organisation (Kwilinski and et.al ., 2019.). As
in today's scenario people always work with the organisation that are well known and recognized
for their work culture. So, with the help of marketing department enables to select and retain one
of most competitive staff members in positive manner. It directly links with the organisational
structure in context of Next Plc as they follow the hierarchical organisational structure in which
roles and responsibilities passes through the definite path in order to attain desirable goals and
objectives.
Marketing department with finance:
Both marketing and finance functional activities and departments are very much
important for an organisation as they share the roles and responsibilities to each other to obtain
desirable goals and objectives (Das, 2019. ). Finance department majorly concerned for the
budgeting, planning and resource allocation and on other hand marketing department by using
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various tools and techniques tried to aware people about their products and services in positive
manner. So finance department approves the budget as per the activities that required for Next
Plc to reach at large no. of consumers to gain competitive advantage. There are close
relationship in both the departments and in it their organisational structure contributes to share
potential knowledge and information.
Departments by sharing the roles and responsibilities to one another after accessing their
major skills and capabilities influence to put one of their best efforts in order to achieve desirable
objectives and goals.
In context of Next Plc they follow the hierarchical organisational structure in which each
and every information passes through the definite path by sharing the roles and responsibilities in
proper manner. As with help of organisational structure organisation can deliver one of their best
value to ultimate end users and gain potential outcomes.
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Illustration 1: Niche Area - Next Plc Organisational Structure, 2019

TASK 3
P4 Identify the positive and negative impacts the macro environment has upon business
operations, supported by specific examples.
Macro environmental factor that directly influence the business works and activities for
that organisation must build plans and strategies in order to remain always competitive in
marketplace that are as follows:
Political factors:
Political factors refer to the activities related to politics in context of Next plc as they
operate in various nations so the changes in political climate effect on their business decision
making. With the commencement of Brexit, the prices of products rise that impact on their
profitability in negative way (Kasemsap, 2019.).
Positive:
The positive aspect of Brexit that Next Plc can be able to gain more profitability by adjust
their business activities as per the climate.
Negative:
The negative impact of political changes that Brexit reduces the disposable income of
consumers that negatively impact profitability of business.
Economic factors:
Economic factors related with the tax regimes, interest rates and pay structure in order to
gain potential outcomes in context of business. In context of Next Plc, they with the advent of
inflation which simultaneously enhance price of products that effect on organisational activities.
Positive impact:
The positive impact of economic changes as organisation can gain higher profitability
and sustainability in order to mould products as per the consumer choice and preferences
(Harmon, 2019).
Negative impact:
Due to increase of price of products that it decreases the purchasing capabilities of
individuals that negatively impact on business.
Social factor:
In social factors of business related with change in taste and preferences of consumers
that effect on the business works and activities in both positive and negative manner (Kretovics,
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and Eckert, 2019). In context of Next plc they bring regular changes in their products after
analysing consumer’s needs.
Positive impact:
The positive impact of change in consumers taste and preferences that organisation with
it become more competent and carry out necessary changes in their products to gain
sustainability in marketplace.
Negative impact:
When changes occur in social taste and preferences then organisation sometimes fail to
adopt changes rapidly that occurs too much cost and time.
Technological factors:
In technological factors consist of the commencement of advance tools and techniques in
order to create or bring efficiency in results.
Positive impact:
In context of Next Plc technological advancement helps to improve consumer
experiences in positive manner and enhance level of productivity.
Negative impact:
It is very crucial for an organisation to adopt advance tools and techniques but on other
hand it occurs too much cost to give training to employees.
Legal factors:
In legal factors consist of the laws, legislations and regulations that affect to the business
works and procedures in order to attain desirable outcomes ('Birt and et.al ., 2019). In context
of Next Plc they take important measures related to the consumer protection, health and tax
regimes in order to treat positively with consumers.
Positive impact:
Legal factors proved very much beneficial for organisation as they able to properly
coordinate and comply with changes in positive manner.
Negative factors:
While various regulations applied in organisation sometimes, they failed to comply with
them in positive manner that create chaos in firm.
Environmental factors:
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In environmental factors consist of the various regulations, CSR activities and ecological
conditions that impact on the business works and activities. In context of Next Plc, they focus on
reduction in wastage (You and et.al ., 2019).
Positive impact:
Environmental factors that bring loyalty in consumers as it helps in create sense of
belongingness towards organisation.
Negative impact:
To occupy the environmental factors sometimes impact negatively on the organisational
works and activities negatively as it occurs too much cost.
TASK 4
P5 Conduct internal and external analysis of specific organisations in order to identify strengths
and weaknesses.
SWOT Analysis of Next Plc-
Strengths-
The company has a large presence in the market with outlets in almost every state with a
strong network of distribution which ensures that products are available to the customers easily.
The company has seen five consecutive successful years with profit reserves that can be used in
the future. It has a strong active presence on social media with millions of followers on each
platform.
Weaknesses-
One of the major weaknesses of Next Plc is that a major part of the property owned by
the company is rented for which high amount of rents are to be paid. With customer needs
evolving over time, it becomes necessary for the brand to conduct surveys to find out the latest
trends in the market to be able to manufacture products that are up to the expectation levels of
the customers. Decision making in the company consumes a lot of time leading to reduced
innovation within the company.
Opportunities-
There are opportunities of expanding online for the brand in the market with Internet
taking over the traditional ways. With the population growing at an increasing rate, Next Plc has
an opportunity to target an increased number of potential customers and increase in new
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