Faculty of Design, Media & Management: Global Business Report

This report provides an overview of the global business environment, emphasizing the challenges and opportunities for businesses operating internationally. It uses Next Plc, a British multinational company, as a case study to illustrate key concepts. The report explores the importance of market research and adapting to changing consumer preferences in a global context. It highlights the significance of external factors, including political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal (PESTEL) influences. The PESTEL analysis of Next Plc examines how these factors impact its operations, from political stability to technological advancements and environmental sustainability. The report concludes that successful global business management requires thorough planning, execution, and a deep understanding of the external environment, as demonstrated through the analysis of Next Plc's strategies and challenges.

Global Business
Environment

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
Global business environment.......................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
In the era of globalization and liberalization, where the resources like technology, capital,
finance, labor, materials and etc are getting integrated among economies and also the trade and
exchange rules and regulation which countries have are also getting liberalized. With this the
large businesses are aiming to perform their business activities globally (Adekola and Sergi,
2016). For reference purpose this report has taken an example of a company, Next Plc. It is a
British multinational company which specializes in clothing apparel for men and women.
TASK
Global business environment
Global business environment refers to the organization or companies which operates
globally. To operate in a global business environment, an organization has to perform a proper
market research about the factors which can affect the business operations and activities.
Operating at a global level is not an easy task in this the company has to be very much strong in
its mission and visions. As in the case with Next Plc, the company deals with fashion industry
where the taste and preferences of the people gets change with the seasons so the company has to
come up with the new trend which is with accordance to taste and preferences of people
(Govindarajan and Gupta, 2001). Satisfying the people globally is a huge task as the company
has to perform manufacturing of products which can get sold to other countries also. Most of the
businesses analyze the external environment before setting up their future goals and objectives.
The external environment includes the factors which cannot get control by the business, these
factors can be political, economical, technological, social, environment and legal factors.
Therefore for this, the company, Next performs an external analysis knows as PESTEL analyses
which helps it in evaluating these external factors. The Pestel analysis of Next Plc is as follows:
Political factors: The company targets those countries which come under the category of
developed and developing states as the company’s product prices can be afford by the people
who have income of above average (Kalkan, 2008). As the company is a British company where
there is political stability which works as an advantage to the company as the company can focus
more upon their operations rather than political changes.
Economical factor: Economical factors are the factors from which the economic situation of the
country is known. Britain is a developed country where the people can afford to lead a high
lifestyle, so they can easily afford the prices of Next. Though the company did face some
financial issue at the time for Brexit.
Social factor: The company has to do market research for analyzing the taste and preferences of
their customers before coming up with any new fashion style (Kotabe, Helsen and Kotabe,
2004). After the proper analyzing, the designs are prepared and launched.

Technological factor: Next uses the advanced technology in producing their clothing apparel.
Apart from this, the company also has adopted the information management system where they
can save, store and share all the information which can help the company in making better
decisions.
Environmental factor: Next ensures its proper waste management system and has adopted
those activities or process which creates less harm to the environment (Moran and Stripp, 1991).
Legal factor: Next Plc follows all the legal obligation which it has perform to run its business
activities. It also on the other hand helps the business in gaining the trust of the government as
well as of customers.
CONCLUSION
From the report discuss above, the concept for global business management has been
explained. Managing the business globally is a hard task and a proper planning and execution
needs to get done. Pestel analysis is also very necessary from which the company can evaluate
about the external factors which affects the business.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Adekola, A. and Sergi, B. S., 2016. Global business management: A cross-cultural perspective.
Routledge.
Govindarajan, V. and Gupta, A. K., 2001. Building an effective global business team. MIT Sloan
Management Review. 42(4). p.63.
Kalkan, V. D., 2008. An overall view of knowledge management challenges for global
business. Business Process Management Journal.
Kotabe, M., Helsen, K. and Kotabe, M., 2004. Global marketing management. New York, NY:
Wiley.
Moran, R. T. and Stripp, W. G., 1991. Dynamics of successful international business
negotiations. Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Company.