Business Environment Report: Business Analysis and Impact Factors

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the business environment, focusing on two contrasting businesses: ASDA, a Public Limited Company (PLC), and Ladybirds, a Limited Company (LTD). The report begins by describing the types of businesses, their purposes, and ownership structures, highlighting the differences between a large supermarket chain and a childcare provider. It then delves into the stakeholders influencing each business, including trade unions, owners, customers, employees, and suppliers, examining their impact on the businesses' objectives. The report further explores the organizational structures of the two businesses, including functional and geographical structures, and explains how these structures help fulfill their respective purposes. The influence of economic environments, such as economic growth and recession, on business activities is discussed, along with the impact of political, legal, and social factors. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and insights into the dynamic interplay of these various factors within the business environment.

Business Environment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1- Describe the type of business, purpose and ownership of two contrasting businesses........1
P2- Describe the different stakeholders who influence the purpose of two contrasting
businesses....................................................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3- Describe how two businesses are organised.........................................................................3
P4- Explain how their style of organisation helps them to fulfil their purposes.........................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
P5- Describe the influence of two contrasting economic environments on business activities .5
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................5
P6- Political, legal and social factors are impacting upon the business activities .....................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In this current era, business environment or working surrounding affected by several
factors. Due to, it is very important for every business firm to effectively evaluate and analyse
them with the help of smart methods and strategies. This research project will be explaining
about different type of business firm and their purposes as well as various stakeholders of
organisation (Welford, 2013). Moreover, major factors or causes such as political, legal and
social factors will be explaining, which directly impacting upon business firm and their working
system. In the other words, will be describing various style of organisation which helps to full fill
major goals and objectives of a particular enterprise. This research project has been chosen
ASDA supermarket of UK, which is dealing with all kind of home products and goods.
TASK 1
P1- Describe the type of business, purpose and ownership of two contrasting businesses
ASDA – PLC
The type of ownership that ASDA is a Public Limited Company; this means that they are
protected legally and they float the company in the stock market, and with ASDA being a Public
Limited Company it means they are a big company but people can buy shares into the company
(Iskanius, Page and Anbuudayasankar, 2010).
The main purpose at ASDA is to sell things and serve them to the UK customers; they also sell a
range of different products that are IT products, food, and clothing. They are also trying to get
more people to do their shopping from home by using the online shopping system. This shows us
the different types of products that ASDA sell.
It’s also great to see that ASDA are trying to get more people to use the home shopping
online, this is good because it will be easier for them single mums that don’t drive to go
shopping and wait for it to arrive. Instead of going into a busy supermarket trying to shop,
because they will also need to find a way to get there shopping home, this is showing you that
you can sign in and order your shopping online and can get it delivered to your door.
At the moment ASDA is using a new advertisement which it’s called the price lock, this
is showing you that they try to keep their prices as low as possible and stick to one price
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throughout the year. This is also good for ASDA’s purpose as its showing us as customers that
they are the cheapest supermarkets in the UK (Chavis, Klapper and Love, 2011).
Ladybirds – LTD
Ladybirds is a private limited company this also means that they are protected legally,
with Ladybirds being an Limited Company this means that only the people that are involved it
this will have the shares to the company.
The purpose of Ladybirds is to provide a service to parents that need daycare for their
children so they can go off to work, they don’t just offer a great service to they parents they also
offer a great service to children, the children they offer great care for is 0-5’s. They also offer to
educate all of the age groups and also they have great nutrient food recipes, they also have great
indoor and outdoor facilities.
Ladybirds also have a mission statement and this is what it is ‘'Our aim is to exceed all
standards in care & education for young children through a highly qualified & caring team, in a
well equipped environment allowing children to mix & learn together & independently grow in
confidence each day. Here children are prepared to take on their next challenge.'’
P2- Describe the different stakeholders who influence the purpose of two contrasting businesses
Stakeholders: Stakeholders is where a person or a group that either has an interest of
concern in an organization, also they can have an affect or can affect on the actions an
organization and the objectives and policies put in place (Commander and Svejnar, 2011).
Trade Unions: Trade Unions are a membership group that looks after the interests of the
employees so in some cases it may lead to strike action if the Union decide to disagree with the
company. Asda don’t have Union membership any more and neither do Ladybirds usually just
public owned businesses like schools / fire brigade
Owners: The owners are there to make sure that the business expands and to make sure it
makes a healthy profit every year after the sales, also the owners will be willing to take risks that
will involve the business and will get a reward when the risks will pay off. And the owners are
responsible for the business and they will make sure that the company is set up and running well
financially. The owners have the main impact on ASDA but if there is more than one and then
the disagreements are discovered, then ASDA cannot bring in new ideas and expand the business
and also they then may want different things to happen for the business.
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Customers: The customers are the very important part of the company as they are
expected to purchase products from the business, and also they should by products from the
company because they will give the business the profit to carry on running well and successfully,
but without the customers the business wouldn’t be able to stay open and make money.
Employees: The employees are employed to expand and develop their career and then
they are also there to get promotions for the good and hard work and also they should be working
in a calm and orderly manner whilst respecting every other member of staff as well as the
customers (Gecevska and et.al., 2010).
Suppliers: The suppliers should be given the orders to supply the company with the
correct things that they will need and, also they should be trusted with getting the supplies to the
company on time and undamaged with the correct order that they asked for.
TASK 2
P3- Describe how two businesses are organised
Organisational structures: It refers to the hierarchy of an organisation and how the
components of this hierarchy work together to achieve the objectives of the company. For
example, in a particular area there are staffs who are reporting their managers who then report to
another manager or to the director CEO, depending on the difficulty of the structure or on the
size of the actual organisation. Each of these groups of persons had their own distinct tasks to
also complete that contribute to their main given goals.
Functional: For all businesses, whether they are big or small, they each have a number
of functions in which they need to carry out to ensure that the business runs smoothly. These are
also links to other aims and objectives of the business and what it wants to achieve. The actual
functions in which are required to do this are shown in the diagram to the right (Shigang, 2010).
Geographical: The geographic structure is one of several organisational designs. This
particular structure brings workers together in geographical divisions. Other divisional structures
group according to product, service or customer. Each division operates as if it is a company in
itself, complete with the personnel to carry out various business functions such as finance,
marketing and production. The divisions establish themselves in the geographical area they
serve, creating regional, national or international operations.
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P4- Explain how their style of organisation helps them to fulfil their purposes
ASDA structure is where they have the top manager at the top of the structure where
there is the CEO in which is the most important, then there are the retail, the financial part and
also the marketing in which are also very important, for the bottom has obviously got to be the
colleagues, and the assistants of training as well.
For the finance and HR of ASDA, is very simple form the fact that they have This team
manages, develops, implements and communicates HR policy and strategy purely for the 3,000
colleagues at Home Office. We work closely with all the business areas in day to day HR issues,
helping to launch new initiatives, embed new ways of working and recruit new talent. We drive
colleague development, support the appraisal process and manage major projects like the recent
relocation of three departments to the new Mint Building in Leeds (Moutinho, 2011).
Divisions of work: A divisional organisation structure it gives a larger business
enterprise the ability to segregate larger sections of the company business into semi-autonomous
groups. These are mostly self-managed and focused upon a slight piece of the company’s
products in which they sell off for their services in which they give and receive. As with any
organisations structure, divisions they both have their equal strengths and weaknesses.
Although with small businesses they rarely use a divisional structure, it can work for such
firms as advertising agencies in which have dedicated staff and budgets that focus on major
clients or even some industries. And divisions work well from the fact that they allow a team to
focus on a single product or a single service, with a leadership structure that supports its major
strategic objectives. Having its own president or vice president makes it more likely the division
will receive the resources it needs from the actual company.
Lines of control: In a line organisation, with the top management they have complete
control, and the chain of command is clear and simple. Examples of line organizations are small
businesses in which the top manager, often the owner, is positioned at the top of the
organisational structure and also has clear lines of distinction between the top manager and their
employees.
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TASK 3
P5- Describe the influence of two contrasting economic environments on business activities
There are two very important economic environments that effect ASDA, economic
growth and the recession. An economic growth will be good for ASDA as business will be
booming, more goods are being produced and profits are increasing. When this happens ASDA
becomes a very high profit business and invest in new products or stores which can lead to
ASDA being more profitable business wise.
For example during an economic boom people tend to buy luxuries as they have the spare
money to spend, so a customer instead of buying a ready meal might decide they will have a
steak instead and there could be a large amount of ASDA’s customers with the same thought
process, this will in turn mean that ASDA will order a large amount of steak’s from the farmers
and if they can’t supply this they will lose ASDA’s business and also ASDA won’t be able to
meet its customer demands and could also lose business (Wetherly and Otter, 2014).
TASK 4
P6- Political, legal and social factors are impacting upon the business activities
Illustration 1: External factors, 2017
(Source- External factors, 2017)
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Political: ASDA are largely impacted by political change and this can be done various
different changes that the government can make. For example when the government changes tax
and alter business taxation this consequently can cause ASDA to raise prices or even result to
reducing costs within the business, which can lead to unemployment and other various factors.
Legal factors: These are relate to new laws or directives governing how businesses
behave. This can be in relation to other businesses, customers or the environment. For example,
it is essential that all agricultural products are used safely. ASDA seeks to meet and exceed the
requirements of local and international laws for all the countries within which it operates.
Social factors: Social factors relate to changes in the behaviour, tastes and lifestyles of
communities on a local, national and international scale. Social factors ASDA needs to take
account of include:
 Changing diets - for example, more people worldwide eating meat
 Competition for land for growing crops. (Siewiorek and et.al., 2012)
 The rapid growth of the Chinese and Indian economies requiring large increases in food,
feed and fuel
 Rising demand for more fuel in developed countries
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned this research project it has been concluded that, major factors
and causes which directly impacted upon business environment and working system. It has been
defined, several type of organisations and their major purposes. In the addition of this,
organisation structure of an particular organisation has been explained in appropriate manner.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chavis, L. W., Klapper, L. F. and Love, I., 2011. The impact of the business environment on
young firm financing. The world bank economic review. 25(3). pp.486-507.
Commander, S. and Svejnar, J., 2011. Business environment, exports, ownership, and firm
performance. The Review of Economics and Statistics. 93(1). pp.309-337.
Gecevska, V., and et.al., 2010. Product lifecycle management through innovative and
competitive business environment. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management.
3(2). pp.323-336.
Iskanius, P., Page, T. and Anbuudayasankar, S. P., 2010. The traditional industry sector in the
changing business environment–a case study of the Finnish steel product industry.
International Journal of Electronic Customer Relationship Management. 4(4). pp.395-
414.
Moutinho, L. ed., 2011. Strategic management in tourism. Cabi.
Shigang, Y., 2010. Competitive strategy and business environment: The case of small enterprises
in China. Asian Social Science. 6(11). p.64.
Siewiorek, A., and et.al., 2012. Learning leadership skills in a simulated business environment.
Computers & Education. 58(1). pp.121-135.
Welford, R., 2013. Hijacking environmentalism: Corporate responses to sustainable
development. Routledge.
Wetherly, P. and Otter, D. eds., 2014. The business environment: themes and issues in a
globalizing world. Oxford University Press.
Online
HRM and the Business Environment, 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.hrmguide.co.uk/hrm_and_the_business_environment/>. [Accessed on 17th August
2017]
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