Global Business Environment Report: SWOT, Functional Areas, and M&S

This report analyzes the global business environment, focusing on Marks & Spencer (M&S). It begins with an introduction to the global business environment and its impact on companies. The main body of the report includes a SWOT analysis of M&S, examining its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It then delves into the functional areas of the firm, specifically marketing and HRM, and discusses the impact of Brexit and economic factors on these areas. The report concludes by summarizing the importance of analyzing both internal and external environments for business success, emphasizing the need for competitive advantage. The report uses academic sources to support its findings, which can be useful for students studying business development.

Global Business
Environment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
SWOT analysis............................................................................................................................1
Functional areas of the firm........................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................1
References:.......................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Global business environment is defined as the external as well as internal environment of
the business which affects the working of the company either positively or negatively. There are
various frame works which helps the firm in analysing such internal or external factors if the
company (Hamilton and Webster, 2018). Organization chosen here is Marks & Spencer, it is one
of the leading internation retail company based in UK in 1884. It has a vast ranges of products
and prices which mainly includes clothing for men, women and kids. The following discussion is
based on the SWOT analysis and different managerial functions associated with the firm as per
the PESTLE analysis with a proper findings and conclusion.
MAIN BODY
SWOT analysis
SWOT model is defined as the analysis of an organization internally that how the
company is performing as per their internal resources and it helps to observe the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the firm. The following analysis is based on the
company M&S.
Strengths
Strengths of M&S includes that they are establish firm and are well experienced in
management and in running the business, it is known as the recognised brand in retail industry
all over the world, it is multinational company which means it is operating in different parts of
the world widely and has expanded it's business across the world, they offer wide variety of
product ranges for men, women and kids in affordable costa and pricing and moreover they are
well known for it's famous designers brands whom products they provide to their customers and
has a good loyalty in the market (Hanaysha, 2018).
Weaknesses
Weaknesses of M&S includes that they are facing the decrement in sales and thereby
facing the declining in revenue generation because of the perception of public has wrongly
impacted the image of the brand, this has lost most of the customers and because of such reasons
they have now increased their prices of the products and another reason behind such increment
of pricing is that their most of the manufacturing are done manually which costs so as to bear
those cost they have increased the prices which is resulting in declining of the customers.
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Opportunities
Opportunities of M&S includes that the firm can expand it's business more across various
countries around the world for more sales and revenue generation, this can easily work because
M&S is already an established brand so if they expand even in more places, they can get benefit
because of the goodwill of the firm, company must also look for the digital servicing to their
customers in the form of online stores, this can be more convenient for the customers as well as
for the firm also, moreover, market segmentation is another important process that the firm must
adopt because target customers are not in wide range for the company so it is essential for the
firm to look for the more target customers in it's market segmentation process.
Threats
Threats of M&S includes that it has a very tough competition in the retail industry
because of the low threats of entry is available for the new firms and existing firms are taking the
advantages of the weaknesses and threats of other firms. Therefore, company is facing high
competition in the market which is considered as the major threat for the firm and it is essential
for an organization to cope up with by gaining the competitive advantage for the firm for better
growth and development in the market (Kotabe and Helsen, 2020).
Functional areas of the firm
Marketing
Brexit
This factor affect the marketing of M&S , because of Brexit war of UK and European
country, they had changed their trade policies and tax policies , it impacts in negative way to
firm. They had faced fiscal issue, unemployment difficulties and development also. This war
impacts the company value because company has many allegiant customers from various areas
but because of the company could not reach out other global consumers and they has restricted
area to render their product and services.
Economical factor
This factor affect the marketing of M&S, during pandemic because of lock down
situation, the unemployment pace is very huge and availability of resources are also very low.
Customers could not spend high priced products and also they has fearfulness of virus, therefore
customers don't go out much to buy something to wear. During lock down, people could not visit
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stores and showrooms as well so they has no choice to scope out people (Lukiyanchuk,
Panasenko, Kazantseva, Lebedev and Lebedeva, 2020).
HRM
Brexit
This factor affect on human resource management of M&S, because of Brexit war
countries altered their policies and their social relations are not proper. Citizens also has to
precede countries rules and regulations, because of this peoples are circumscribed to doing
business in other nation. HRM didn't has range to cover broad area they has restricted locations.
Economic factor
This factor affect on human resources management of M&S, during this pandemic,
country has high pace of unemployment and in commercial enterprise worker didn't has piece of
work to do and they thought many strategies for development but all schemes not as much useful
as they are expecting. It impacts the execution and growth of company because of virus, they has
to lower HR tactics and they are not at operational level as they have planned it could be
(Tallman, Luo and Buckley, 2018).
CONCLUSION
It is concluded that analysis of the internal and external environment of the business is an
important study for every organization in order to maintain it's operational working of the
company. It is necessary to find out competitive advantage of the firm so that it can gain stability
in the market by knowing about it's positive and negative points and hence it is significant to
study to run the business smoothly. Therefore, this report covers the examination of the SWOT
analysis according to the PESTLE analysis of a firm and various organizational functions which
are related to it for better understanding the concept of global business environment.
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References:
Books and Journals
Hamilton and Webster, 2018. The international business environment. Oxford University Press.
Hanaysha, 2018. Customer retention and the mediating role of perceived value in retail
industry. World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable
Development.
Kotabe and Helsen, 2020. Global marketing management. John Wiley & Sons.
Lukiyanchuk, Panasenko, Kazantseva, Lebedev and Lebedeva, 2020. Development of online
retailing logistics flows in a globalized digital economy. Revista Inclusiones, pp.407-
416.
Tallman, Luo and Buckley, 2018. Business models in global competition. Global Strategy
Journal, 8(4), pp.517-535.
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