Business Report: Contrasting RSPCA and Sainsbury's Business Models

This report undertakes a comparative analysis of two contrasting businesses: the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and Sainsbury's. It begins by differentiating the types of businesses, their purposes, and ownership structures, highlighting the contrasting nature of a non-profit charitable organization and a large retail chain. The report then examines the influence of various stakeholders on each business, including customers, employees, and suppliers, and how their needs and expectations shape the companies' objectives. Furthermore, it describes the organizational structures of both businesses, explaining how these structures facilitate the fulfillment of their respective purposes. The analysis extends to the impact of economic environments, such as booms and recessions, on RSPCA's activities, and it concludes by describing the influence of political, legal, and social factors on the RSPCA's operations. The report utilizes a matrix structure to compare and contrast key aspects of the two businesses, providing a comprehensive overview of their operations and strategic considerations.

Table of contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................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
P3 Describe how two businesses are organised.....................................................................3
P4 Explain how their style of organisation helps them to fulfil their purposes.....................5
P5 Describe the influence of two contrasting economic environments on business activities
within a selected organisation................................................................................................6
P6 Describe how political, legal and social factors are impacting upon the business activities
of the RSPCA........................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The report is going to carry out an investigation for two businesses and whether they
belong to a private sector, public sector, and non-profit sector. The report is also going to find out if
it’s a primary, secondary, Tertiary and whether it’s international and local company. The two
businesses. The companies which have chosen are RSPCA and Sainsbury.
P1 Describe the type of business, purpose, and ownership of two contrasting businesses
Sainsbury’s:
Background information
Sainsbury's Supermarkets is the UK’s longest standing major food retailing chain,
having opened its first store in 1869. The Sainsbury’s brand is built upon a heritage of
providing customers with healthy, safe, fresh, and delicious food (AL Qahtani and Saba,
2013). It differentiates itself by offering a broad range of great quality products at fair prices
with emphasis on fresh food, a strong ethical approach to business and continuous leadership
and innovation.
Size of business
J Sainsbury plc consists of Sainsbury’s – a chain of 504 supermarkets and 319
convenience stores. A large Sainsbury’s store offers around 30,000 products and an
increasing number of stores also offer complementary non-food products and services (Bah
and Fang, 2015).
Business sector
Sainsbury’s is currently in the Tertiary and Secondary Sector this is because
Sainsbury’s provide services from their own banks, sell Food and, they have their own farm.
Main goals and purpose
At Sainsbury’s they will deliver an ever-improving quality shopping experience for
their customers with great products at fair prices. Their aim is to exceed customer
expectations for healthy, safe, fresh, and delicious food, making their lives easier every day.
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RSPCA
Background information
RSPCA stands for The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The
RSPCA’s vision is to work for a world in which all humans respect and live in harmony with
all other members of the animal kingdom. The RSPCA began in 1824 as the Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Bansal and Hoffman, 2012). The RSPCA is a registered
charity (no. 219099) that receives no lottery or state aid. Voluntary donations and legacies
exclusively fund its £82 million annual running costs.
Size of business
Regional inspectors were appointed, with local campaigners promising to raise £20 a
year towards their inspector’s wages. This development created the nucleus of a national
network of 172 branches in England and Wales that exists today. These branches run a
further 38 clinics and 33 animal centres. In addition to the branch run establishments there is
one other animal centre run by a trust and another run by a charitable company.
Main goals and purpose
The main goals for RSPCA is reducing the use and suffering of dogs in medicines
testing. The purpose is to give animals with special needs and give pets a loving care homes.
Type of ownership
The type of ownership RSPCA fit into is charitable trust; this is set up to raise funds
and support other people and animals for good cause (Barkeeper and Tsang, 2014).
Liability: They are liable to pay to the creditors and all the members have the unlimited
liability.
Debt:
P2 Describe the different stakeholders who influence the purpose of two contrasting
businesses
Sainsbury’s Key stakeholders
 Customers – They want a company to produce high quality, value for money
products. They like to see improvements that give them better value for money.
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 Employees – Their stake is that the company provides them with a livelihood. They
seek security of employment, promotion opportunities, and good rates of reward (AL
Qahtani and Saba, 2013).
 Suppliers – want steady orders and prompt payment. They also want to feel valued
by the company that they supply.
RSPCA Key stakeholders
 Employees – The employees will need to be happy to be working on a voluntary
basis and need to be caring for the animals that are suffering (Bah and Fang, 2015).
 Governments – The government wants the business to be successful – it wants to see
prosperous businesses that take a full responsibility in looking after the welfare of
society.
 Local and national communities – The actions of business can have a dramatic
effect on communities. Community leaders therefore represent important interest
groups
 Customers: These are the individual and group of people for which the goods is
being manufactured. The company basically focus on the needs and wants of the
clients so that they can able to generate revenue and create loyal customers.
P3 Describe how two businesses are organised
Matrix –
The matrix structure is usually found in organisations that can deal with the special
one-off type of projects, also these companies can also work on several projects all at the
same time (Bansal and Hoffman, 2012). Although while these projects are ongoing, they have
and expert team seeing it through making sure it goes well.
Product
A product structure is the way an organisation represents the parts of a product and
the way they fit together and interact, also the organized levels in the detail based on the type
of structure. Also, this type of structure that is also used to manage the changes, testing and
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the problem resolution for the complex products with numerous parts and functions
(Barkeeper and Tsang, 2014).
Functional
The functional structure is more of an organisational structure where the employees
are all grouped hierarchically and then these are managed through the clear lines of authority
and then only report to the only person in charge (AL Qahtani and Saba, 2013).
The purpose of a structure
Divisions of work
The divisions of work are where a company has different types of works and these are
the manager, a few deputy managers and then the workers. Having these divisions at work
means that the employees know, who to talk to if they need help.
Lines of control
This is important that they have deputy manager just in case the manager is in a
meeting, and the workers need help the deputy mangers are second in line to be in charge if
help if needed or if there is a problem (Bah and Fang, 2015). This also means that each layer
in the structure for RSPCA has a certain amount of control.
The functional areas of RSPCA
The finance department will manage the payrolls, invoices, P&L also balance sheets
and the business's performance, the finance department will also report how well the business
is doing to the rest of the company departments (Bah and Fang, 2015). This will happen each
day if there is any major area of concern, plus there will also be a monthly late lunch meeting
for everyone in the RSPCA house this then will be videoed and sent out to all the stores.
Also, the Human Resources department will work with all the different departments
and will offer the training that will be needed, and will also help when recruiting the key
people for the different areas. Also, an example of this is the buyer may also leave a produce
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and then they will need to recruit someone who has an experience and knowledge about
buying products.
Also, IT department will also work with all the other departments, because this
department are always looking for new ways of doing things to help the business progress
and move forward.
The functional areas of Airedale Fisheries
The manager will manage the payrolls, invoices, P&L also balance sheets and the
business's performance, the manager will also report how well the business is doing to the
rest if the employees (Barkeeper and Tsang, 2014). Also, the old employees will offer the
training that will be needed and they are always looking for new ways of doing things to help
the business progress and move forward.
Also, the PR Department work extremely close with the press and they will let them
know if there are any stories to report about Airedale fisheries as they try to ensure that
Airedale fisheries will be seen in a positive light, but this is not always possible.
P4 Explain how their style of organisation helps them to fulfil their purposes.
RSPCA is a public limited company it is formerly known as a PLC, they have a lot of
stores across the UK, plus they sell a wide range of products, and this variety from food, toys,
electronics, drinks, clothes, toiletries (AL Qahtani and Saba, 2013).
The background of RSPCA started out as a group of Yorkshire Farmers and this was
the beginning of RSPCA in the 1920’s, also in the 1999 RSPCA became more of a successful
business when the parent owner brought in Wal-Mart, in the beginning they started out from
a market selling products in Leeds, but since then they grew out in to the northern area, then
up to being a big based supermarket, and most successful in the European area (Bah and
Fang, 2015).
The organisational structure RSPCA has is a hierarchical style and this means, that
there will be fewer people at the top of the company managing the people below. Plus, this
also will allow the managing directors, at the top of this chart to make the big decisions about
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which way the business should take next. These decisions are important and should be made
by the top executives with the right experience and intelligence in this type of experience.
An example of this is that Andy Clarke was a regional store manager for many years
until he was promoted to the main board and that is where he is now. Under Andy there are
several layers of the hierarchy and “This is a relatively flat structure” Sarah Colclough –
buyer at RSPCA “as there are thousands of people that work there and only 6 or 7
layers”
The sales director is responsible for making sure that all the right products are bought
for the store, although he doesn’t have change to check every individual one he knows they
must ensure that the right people are buying these products (Barkeeper and Tsang, 2014).
Also, by having this type of organisational structure it also allows each team to run in their
own areas and research about them properly to help them find out about the new trends across
the world and try to be one of the first to market or offer out the best deals.
P5 Describe the influence of two contrasting economic environments on business activities
within a selected organisation
The chosen organisation is RSPCA. This is from the fact that is known more about
RSPCA and it is a big supermarket to which everyone knows about.
Boom
A boom could be very bad news for more valued stores like RSPCA as the higher
earners may switch to more premium supermarkets in which could be like using Aldi or may
be Sainsbury’s who target higher earners (AL Qahtani and Saba, 2013). For example, with
the ‘eat in’ trend in which may not be as popular as the higher earners would decide to eat out
at restaurants instead. RSPCA must therefore guarantee their customers that they have more
luxury products on sale for their customers and for them to stay at the top of the best for their
business and their company and investors.
Recession
In a recession people fear that they may lose their jobs and they often do
unfortunately. This means that they then need to spend less money since they don’t get what
they used to once they had a job. This therefore means that with RSPCA, people tend to go
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there or to any other supermarket which they know is cheap like Aldi for example. Although
there is still a good number of customers still attending RSPCA for their cheap products the
supermarket still loses some of their customers to value stores like Aldi or Lidl or
Sainsbury’s, "The jury is slightly out now on when Sainsbury's will overtake RSPCA”. The
latter tends to do very well in the summer period, with non-food as families buy barbecues
and beach balls, but Sainsbury's usually improves around Christmas”
P6 Describe how political, legal, and social factors are impacting upon the business activities
of the RSPCA
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 the government in this situation will
make decisions and keeping the best interests in mind for people.
The conservative party that is normally referred as the Tory party and is a centre –
right political party in the UK and as of 2013 it has become the largest political party in the
UK and the largest single party in the house of commons with 303 MP’s. Govt initiatives: is
when the Government can support business through grants and tax reductions and an example
of this is the solar panels grant (Barkeeper and Tsang, 2014).
Also, when the government chooses to Investment finance this then involves selling
part of your business (‘shares’) to an investor. The investor will then take a share of any
profits or losses that the company makes.
Legal impacts
The legal impacts are that RSPCA 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 (AL Qahtani and Saba, 2013).
Social impacts
The social impacts that RSPCA 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
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workers that are in the stores are an unskilled worker on the minimum wage given (Bah and
Fang, 2015).
RSPCA has a company cannot discriminate anyone from having a disability,
different religion or if they are pregnant and other things on these terms and when they are
employed by the company or if they are in the HR Department they are then recruiting they
are also not allowed to ask questions in these areas (Barkeeper and Tsang, 2014).
CONCLUSION
Business environment have different force that shape the business segment as well as
product line. In this project report, business environment of RSPCA and with respect to some
factors such as market structure, key responsibility etc. The report also tells the impact of
monetary and fiscal on the environment and decision of the companies.
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