Business Environment Analysis of Merrill Lynch Investment Company

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of the business environment, focusing on Merrill Lynch Investment. It begins by exploring different types, sizes, and scopes of organizations, including sole proprietorships, partnerships, and public entities, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. The report then delves into organizational structures, such as hierarchical and matrix structures, and their impact on company operations and objectives. Furthermore, it conducts a PESTLE analysis to identify external factors influencing the business. The report also evaluates the internal strengths and weaknesses of the business and explains their relationship with external factors. Finally, it examines the interrelationship between various organizational functions, such as human resources, marketing, finance, and production, and how they contribute to achieving organizational goals. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and their implications for Merrill Lynch Investment.

Business environment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
Explaining the different types, size and scope of organisation...................................................1
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................5
Organizational Structure.............................................................................................................5
TASK 3 ...........................................................................................................................................7
PESTLE analysis.........................................................................................................................7
TASK 4 .........................................................................................................................................10
Internal strength and weakness of business..............................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Business environment is the combination of internal and external factors which can be
impact company and its operating functions. This includes factors such as competition,
technology advancement, laws and government activities, market, social and economic trends,
client and suppliers etc. The present study will base on “Merrill Lynch Investment” which has
around 4400 offices worldwide (Hillary, 2017). This company is provides the financial services
like commercial banking, investment, banking and other financial product and services to
customers. Study lays emphasis on the different types, size and scope of organisation and also
highlighted by advantage or disadvantage of organisations. Report will discuss about the
interrelationship of the various functions within the system and link with organisation structure.
Study will identify those factors which influence business in negative and positive ways for that
it will be highlighted by PESTEL analysis. It will also determine the strength and weakness of
business and explaining their interrelationship with external macro factors.
TASK 1
Explaining the different types, size and scope of organisation.
There are different types, size and scope of organisation which are describe below:
Legal structure associated with different form of business are underneath:
Sole trade organisation:
A sole trade is a business which are owned by one person. It may have one or more
employees. It is the most common form of business ownership and majority of this business are
generally operates in the services sector like restaurants, plumbers, electricians and hairdressers.
In the modern business world the scope of sole proprietor is very limited. This business is
required small amount of capital and also products are limited in market.
For example: Nathan outlaw, Cornwall is sole trade firm in UK.
Advantage Disadvantage
 It is only the form of organisation
which is easy to kind and simple to run.
There is no legal formalities are
required (Erasmus, Strydom and
 In this business have limited capital.
 In this, owner has unlimited liability for
performing task.
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Rudansky-Kloppers, 2016).
 Advantage is one person introduce any
changes according to requirement.
Partnership organisation:
A legal form of business operations between two or more individual who share
management and profit as per particular ratio. The relationship between the parties is governed
by a partnership deed. Partnership deed is agreement which is includes profit sharing ratio,
scope, structure of work.
For example: John lewis partnership is partnership firm which is establish at UK. Objective is to
make sufficient profit from its trading operations to sustain commercial vitality and continued
development of its finance.
Advantage Disadvantage
 The main advantage of this business is
two heads or more which are better
than one (Laudon and Traver, 2016).
 This business are easy to established
and start up cost.
 The liability of partners are limited.
 This is very risky in case of
disagreements among partners.
Private organisation (For profit):
Private organisation is profit making firm which is run by individual and companies
rather than the government. Fashion firm, retail sector is generally includes in private sector.
For example: Merrill Lynch Investment company is private company.
Advantage Disadvantage
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 The main advantage of private sector
firm is limited liability of its
shareholder.
 Another advantage of private
organisation is separate personality of
company.
 Registration process of private
organisation is takes longer period and
involve a process and cost.
 It is required to hold board meetings,
general meetings.
Public organisation:
Public sector is generally owned and operates by the government and also exist to
provide services for its citizens. This firms are usually similar to voluntary firm and not seeks to
profit. Main purpose is to provide public services includes public goods and governmental
services like military, police, public education, banking sector.
For example, British Petroleum in UK.
Advantage Disadvantage
 The main advantage of public company
is to provide essential facilities such as
education, health and reduced prices.
 Public company is provide best services
to whole country.
 Government must bear losses or could
lead higher taxation.
 Government and political interference
may reduce efficiency of operation.
Voluntary organisation (Not for profit):
A voluntary organisation is the group or an individuals who enter into an agreement,
usually as volunteers to form a body in order to accomplish a social issues (Hair Jr and et.al.,
2015). Those firms are generally includes in not for profit organisation.
For example: Cancer research is worlds largest independent cancer research charity firm.
Advantage Disadvantage
 This types of organisations are
generally not liable to pay taxes, so all
earnings can be cycled back in the
organisation in order to improve its
work.
 This organisations are required time
and money to start business.
 All voluntary firms required to submit
annual filings as per all laws of
incorporation.
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 This companies are free to create
formalized roles as per job description
and responsibility.
Difference between different types of organisation as per size, scope, objectives and legal
structure:
Basis Sole trader Partnership Private Public Voluntary
Size One individual
operates this
business and
the same is
done in
Nathan
Outlaw
(Employees in
Sole Trader,
2018).
Approx Two
or more than
two people
operates
business but
less than 10,
the same in is
John Lewis
The Merrill
Lynch
requires
around more
than 250
employees to
running the
business.
Public sector
firms i.e. BP
requires
around
minimum 50
or maximum
200 employees
Voluntary
organisation
that is Cancer
Research is
requires
around more
than 50
employees.
Scope The scope of
business is
very limited
because of
limited
products or
investment.
Partnership
firm has scope
which is little
high because
in this firm
problems are
handle by all
partners and
outcomes are
best.
The scope of
private sector
organisation is
too high
because in this
sector have
ample number
of products
which are
attract to
customers
(Teer and
Drawe, 2019).
Scope of
public sector
is limited
because this
provide one
particular
product and
services where
it operates.
In this sector
have limited
scope.
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Example Nathan outlaw
restaurant
John lewis
partnership
Merrill Lynch
Investment
British
Petroleum
Cancer
research
Objectives The main
objective of
sole trader
firm is to
become first
stable and earn
profit without
losing money.
Is to make
sufficient
profit form its
trading
operations to
sustain its
commercial
vitality.
Objective of
private firm is
to earn
maximum
profit by
selling product
and services of
firm to
customers.
Objective of
public
organisation is
to prevent
concentration
of economic
power and
growth of
private
monopolies.
Is to
encourage
healthcare
development
and health
promotion.
Legal
Structure
Its business
requires 1
director and
maximum 10
to 15
employees.
The company
work under
partnership is
not separate
from their
operators and
follow the tall
structure.
It has to
follow the
article of
association
and
Memorandum
of Association
as well
It has to
follow the
article of
Association.
The Cancer
Research
follow Trust as
a legal
structure and
also have a flat
structure.
Sector:
 Primary Sector: Farming and Forestry comes under primary sector
 Secondary Sector: British Petroleum fall under this.
 Territory Sector: Merrill Lynch falls under this sector.
TASK 2
Organizational Structure
Organizational structure is a way to define that how the activities like task allocation, supervision
and coordination are directed in company to achieve the goals of organization. Organization
structure also can be explained as visual diagram of company that describes how employees will
work in organization, whom they report to and how the decision will be made in organization.
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For example, two clients of Merrill Lynch Investment use two different organizational structure
are used that are matrix structure and Hierarchical structure (Van Wart and Denhardt, 2019).
These type of organizational structure are common in large size companies because these
structure are capable to maintain productivity of company.
Hierarchical Organizational Structure
Hierarchical structure is most popular organization structure around world. This structure uses a
direct chain command from top to bottom. In this structure senior management make critical
decision for organization which are further passed down to bottom level employee through
different level of management. It is an approach use by company where bottom level of
employee are connected to top management by different levels of supervisors. There is no direct
communication between leadership and ground level employee. There is high degree of control
and management is possible in this type of organizational structure. Hierarchical organizational
structure comes with different benefits which are control orientation, carrier path, clear reporting
and specialization.
Due to various level of management in Tesco top level have high control over ground level
employees and this control help the management to maintain performance and productivity of
every employee in organization. There a specific carrier path is defined for employee in
company (Different types of organisational structure, 2019). With better performance they can
shift upper management level. In this structure it is easy know who is authorised to make
decision for various action. In Hierarchical structure there is a huge communication gap between
employees and leader and it leads to demotivation in low level employees which is not good for
performance of company.
Matrix Structure
It is a structure that contains more than one line of manager for reporting. This structure is
considered for organization that are complex in production. For each production line there a
manager or boss is present whom the employees will report to. Matrix is a complex structure of
organization that is used to improve the goal conversion rate of Apple. For diverse and vast level
organization this is most effective way of management. Matrix organizational structure helps the
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Apple to maintain quality of work in process. Matrix structure provide different capabilities to
organization that can be considered as benefits for company (Ahmady, Mehrpour and
Nikooravesh, 2016). Communication within organization is better than other complex
organizational structure. Matrix structure is also good for the people who wants deep knowledge
of particular skills. By matrix structure better employee support and loyalty can be achieved in
Merrill Lynch Investment. Power allocation is also good in this type of structure. There only one
problem with this structure that occurs when a person assigned to two managers.
Relationship between the different organisational functions and link to organisational
objectives and structure
The functions of organisation is depends on different organisational departments like
Human resource, marketing, finance, research & development and production. Those
departments are plays an important role in organisation functional area. All those functions are
interrelated to each other which are as follows:
Human resource with production department
Human resource and production department are interrelated in organisation. Human
resource team is hire candidates for production team as per skills required and firm objectives.
Other hand, production department is make criteria for HR team for select candidates as per
skills, talent etc. through, that HR team hire candidates for production team for work and growth.
By this both department are interrelate with each other (Heider, 2017). This departments are
interrelated and other hand, related to objective of company which is provide proper and
manageable financial services to customers in proper manner. Like human resource department
is work to hire candidate for production department. Through, that customers improved through
production department which is hired by Human resource. Other hand, client satisfied by those
services.
Marketing with finance department
Marketing and finance department both are interrelate with each other in organisation.
Finance department is allocate fund to marketing department for payment of their expenses.
Other hand, marketing department is generate funds from there market by marketing activities
and hand over to finance team. Through, that finance department have proper funds for
allocating other departments. Both departments are interrelates but also fulfil the company
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objectives in proper manner. Marketing department promote services in marketing for that,
marketing department collect money from finance department. Through that process customers
get proper information about company and their services in proper manner or purchase this form
company.
Research & development with marketing department
Marketing and R&D department both are interrelate with each other in organisation.
Marketing team is responsible for satisfied needs and wants of customers. In this, marketing
team take help from R&D department (Hillary, 2017). Research and development department is
responsible for collecting data form market like needs and wants for customers as well as current
trends. Through, that process marketing team have proper data of market which is collected by
R&D. By this both department are interrelate to each other. R&D department is collect
information through market which are related to the customer need and wants. This will be
effective and valuable for company or their customers. Through, that customer are satisfied from
financial services. This will help to attract more customers towards company.
TASK 3
PESTLE analysis
Pestle analysis is the best strategic business framework or tool used by firms to identify,
organize, measure macro factors which could have impact on business or specific service
industry (Utami and Lantu, 2014). It is the procedure of assessing business environment and their
possible effect on company performance. It is the acronym which is based on six external factors
affecting current business performances. These external variables are- Social, economic,
political, technological, environmental and legal elements is considered in PESTLE. It is helpful
and effective framework, by examining all these components organization will gain valuable
benefits. In this section PESTLE analysis has been applied for analysing influence of these
factors on banking industry as well as Merrill Lynch investment company.
Political factor-
Trade restrictions, government policy, labour law, political instability and stability,
foreign trade policy and other elements is included in political factors. These components is all
about to what and how government interfere in banking industry or certain business (Widya
Yudha, Tjahjono and Kolios, 2018). Due to political stability and instability in New York
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because company operate their business in this nation, it impact on banking sector, due to
changes in their regulations banking sector suffer the most. They have to deal with many issues
which affect their business negatively (Vogl, 2014). Merrill Lynch investment company lead
repositories of public saving, due to instability (Pestel Analysis of Merrill Lynch Co, 2018) in
government policy related to banking directly affect growth of this sector. Positive impact- But
on the other hand government also make different types of laws and regulations in which they
decide to offer people the best saving policies that help organization to gain trust and build
strong relationships with public.
Economic factor-
Economic growth, exchange rates, interest rates, unemployment rates and disposal
income of people are the economic factors that impact banking sector negatively or positively
(PESTEL analysis, 2018). Due to low income of public in New york , they cannot be able to
save money in banks which decrease the performance of Merrill Lynch investment company and
impact on their financial performance negatively (Gross, Kok and Żochowski, 2016). Low
income is one of the biggest economic factor that influence on people living standards, mostly
women face many issues due to low income which holds poverty. Many people's in society will
not been able to earn good money and save within banks. It effect saving policies of company
and low down their market position. Positive impact- But on the other hand low income of
people in nation like New York, also impact positively on company. An individual invest money
on low budget schemes, they spend money in specific programs which has been cater by banks
that is beneficial for people as well as firm. Some People in New york how have low income
source in order to secure their life, they invest funds in reputed banks only hence, the good will
of the firm is that positive side it help them to attract more people's.
Social factor-
Changing family demographics, cultural trends, changes in lifestyles, eduction levels and
attitude change are some social factors that influence Merrill Lynch investment organization.
These elements centring on social environment and focus on determining emerging trends within
market. This analysis support marketers to understand consumers wants and needs for further
business growth and success (Social Factors Affecting Business, 2015). Cultural influences
such as necessities and buying behaviour, influence how people use and see banking options.
People drive towards banks like Merrill Lynch investment for assistance and advice for loans
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