Analysis of National Express Group's Business Environment Factors

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the National Express Group, a leading public transport operator. It begins by outlining the company's governance structure, including the board of directors and its hierarchical organization, as well as the company's history, key acquisitions, and strategic developments. The report then emphasizes the importance of PESTEL analysis, which encompasses political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors, in understanding the external environment and its impact on business performance. The core of the report applies the PESTEL framework to assess National Express Group's external environment, focusing on political and environmental factors. It examines how political stability, changes in regulations, and environmental concerns, such as pollution and the promotion of sustainable practices, affect the company's operations and strategic planning. The analysis also includes the importance of social factors, technological advancements, economic conditions, and legal policies. The report concludes by highlighting the impact of these factors on the company's operations and the importance of adapting to the changing business environment.

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Table of Contents
Introduction ...............................................................................................................................3
Task 1..........................................................................................................................................3
Determine how your chosen company is governed and structured........................................3
Task 2 .........................................................................................................................................4
Task 2 .........................................................................................................................................6
Determine the importance of carrying out PESTEL analysis for National Express Group........6
Task 3 .........................................................................................................................................7
Use the PESTEL framework to analyse the external environment of National express group .7
CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................12

National Express PLC
Introduction
“A common tool of analysis of the business environment is the PESTEL analysis.
PESTEL stands for political, economic, social-cultural, technological and
environmental dimensions. The dimensions of the environment are
interrelated. In so far as the PESTEL takes the dimensions separately, it is a
blunt tool for analysis” (Morrison, 2020).
Task 1
Determine how your chosen company is governed and
structured.
“National Express Group is a leading public transport operator with bus, coach
and rail services in the UK, Continental Europe, North Africa, North America
and the Middle East. Passengers made 938 million journeys on our services in
2019.”( nationalexpressgroup.com)
National Express Group started on London Stock Exchanged, back in 1992. In
1996, enters United Kingdom rail market with acquisition of Gatwick Express
and Midland Mainline after that, in 1995, the Acquisition of West Midlands
Travel became one of the UK’s largest bus companies. In 1998, National
express enters United States transport market with acquisition of Duhram
School Services. 2004, was the year when National Express enters on London
bus market with acquisition of Travel London after that in 2005 enters Spanish
coach and bus market with acquisition of Asla and not only, in 2007 they
acquest the Continental Auto. 2012, was the year when National Express
integrate Petermann into the North America business and launch of the
National Express foundation to support young people. In 2015, launch of joint
venture with Bahrain public Transport Company to operate bus service in
Bahrain, and, entered German rail market operating the Rhine-Munster
Express. In 2017, they decided to sale of the c2c rail franchise to Trenitalia.
2019, was a development of shuffle service across the USA through a strategic
investment in WeDriveU and on top of that they start of the bus operations in
Rabat and Casablanca. Last year, 2020, National Express, acquired the Lucketts
Travel Group across the South of England and launched National Express
Transport Solution bringing together the Kings Ferry anTask 2 d Lucketts
businesses.

National Express is governed by a board of directors and has a heretical
structure.
“The Board provides leadership of the Group and direction for management. It
is collectively responsible and accountable to the Company’s shareholders for
the long-term success of the Group and for ensuring the appropriate
management and operation of the Group in pursuit of its objectives. The Board
is responsible for setting the Group’s strategy, values and standards and
ensuring Task 2 that the necessary controls and resources are in place to
deliver these. “(nationalexpressgroup.com, National Express Group PLC Annual
Report, 2019, p.56)
National Express, operates under the delegated authority of the Board and
within formal terms and references.
Task 2
Chairman
1.Sir John Armitt CBE N SE
Appointed: January 2013 and as Chairman February 2013
Executive Directors:
Dean Finch
Group Chief Executive
Appointed: December Task 2 2005
Sara John
The CEO. Task 2
Appointed: 5 March 2017
2. Chris Davies
Group Finance Director
Appointed: May 2017
Matt Ashley Group Business
Development Director
Task 2 Appointed: May 2015 and to his current role August 2019

Jorge Cosmen N SExamine how your chosen company is governed and
structured.
(30 mark
Deputy Chairman
Appointed: December 2005
Lee Sander A N R SE I
Senior Independent Director
Appointed: June 2011
Non-Executives Directors
Dr Ashley Steel
Independent Non-Executive Director
Appointed: January 2Task 2 016
Chris Muntwyler
Non-Executive Director
Appointed: May 2011
Matthew Crummack
Non-Executive Director
Appointed: May 2015
Karen Geary R SE
Non-Executive Director
Appointed: October 2019
Ana de Pro Gonzalo
Non-Executive Director
Appointed: October 2019
Joaquín Ayuso N SE I
Non-Executive Director
Appointed: June 2011

Resigned: December 2019
Jane Kingston N R SE I
Non-Executive Director
Appointed: February 2014
Resigned: December 2019
The board of directors
Task 2
Determine the importance of carrying out PESTEL analysis for
National Express Group
Business world lives in a constant change. Therefore, every company has to
have PESTEL ( Politic, Economic, Social, Technology, Legal and Environmental)
analysis. Is a major factor in running a business. Every entrepreneur should be
aware on the external factors which are crucial to anticipate events that could
possibly expose their organisation.
Politic – Brexit, change of government, levels of unemployment, exchange
rates
Economic- high rate of inflation, stock market trends, price fluctuations,
interest rate
Social- level of immigration, lifestyle, average disposable income, life
expectancy rates
Technology- automation, technological change, life cycle of technology, access
to new technology
Environmental- air and weather pollution, environmental policies, recycling
standards, support for renewable energy
Legal – employment law, education law, consumer protection, health and
safety
Task 3
Use the PESTEL framework to analyse the external environment of
National express group
Apply 2 of the factors of your the choosing company !!!!
PESTLE analysis is an external environmental evaluation which
determines that how different external environmental factors affects the

business performance and decision making abilities. PESTLE analysis helps to
formulate strategic business planning and decision so that the business is able
to flexibly able to adopt the changes of the external business factors. Pestle
analysis is important as it helps to determine the business positioning in the
competitive environment. It helps the business to formulate strategic planning
and policy formulation in order to adapt to the changing market demand.
Pestle analysis defines a complete framework that the business have to adopt
in order to run and operate smooth businesses operation in external business
environment. It helps to achieve competitive advantages in the market place.
These have different factors like political, Environmental, Social, Technological,
legal and economic (Akhmetshin and et.al., 2017). These factors helps to
determine the impact of external factors on the business performances.
Factors of PESTLE are discussed below:
POLITICAL FACTORS
These factors are determined by the policies and restrictions framed by
the current political representative that the company have to comply with.
Businesses have to comply with these factors in order to ethical conduct
different business activities. When business complies with these political
factors it helps to develop a ethical brand image in the market. When business
do not comply with these business factors then the political parties can take
stringent actions for any unethical behaviour of the company. Political factors
can negatively and positively impact the business environment these involves
changes in the taxation policies, corruption, trade control, anti trust laws,
employment laws, bureaucracy, tariffs impacts the business environmental
decisions (Groşanu and et.al., 2015.). Moreover, the political stability and
mitigation risks also impacts the business performances. Due to the changes in
political factors it affects the performances of the business. In UK, due to
BREXIT, it affected the business activities of many businesses, leading to
restriction on import and export, high excise duty, difficult in availability of raw
materials and other negatively impacts. Some business faced huge drop in
sales and profit figures (Halbert and Ingulli, 2020). Some impacts of political
impacts on the business are discussed below:
Political stability: Political stability and instability might impact the business
operation. In countries where there is stable political conditions it positively
impacts the business performances.
Changes in regulations: Due to the changes in political framework and
regulation it affects the business performances.
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

Environment factors are defined by the all the climatic and
environmental changes in the external businesses environment. It is the social
responsibility of any business to maintain and develop the environmental
safety measures. The business should ensure that any business activities does
not harm the environmental factors. When government finds any of such
breach of environmental safety measures the government can come into
action and impose restrictions of such business activities. The business should
save the social cost in order to take different measures to save environment.
With the increase in the environmental pollution, many business come up with
the ideas of recycling waste products and producing bio degradable products,
promoting cashless transaction and other measures in order to promote
environmental safety and protection (Khajeheian, Friedrichsen and Mödinger,
2018). Some manufacturing industrial business also focusses on running
business operation with low emission of noise and harmful gasses in order to
fulfil social responsibility of the business. With high increase in the
environmental concerns in the minds of people, where people are more
focussed on consuming and using organic items.
SOCIAL FACTORS
Social factors involves different cultural factors and social beliefs of a
particular location. Social factors and cultural beliefs are been practices by
people of a particular location. Business should scrutinise these factors so that
the business satisfies the target customers needs and wants. Before launching
a product in the market it becomes important for an business to right evaluate
that what exactly customer desires of that particular locations. Moreover that
the business should also evaluate measures which does hurt the sentiments of
the target of the people. The business should closely scrutinise the social belief
of people and promote the goods and services which satisfies the social and
cultural beliefs of the people in a particular location (Moroni, Arruda and
Araujo, 2015).
TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS
These factors are defined by the modern technological advancement by
a business. Adopting modern technologies are important because it helps to
achieve efficiencies in business activities. Business needs to adopt current
techbol0ogies in accordance to the market demand. Before adopting
technologies in the business it becomes important to analyse the effectiveness
of the technology in the particular business. Some business adopt modern
technologies without considering the effectiveness of the technology in the
business environment, it render losses and huge cost and time incurred in
order to implement the particular technology in the business environment.

Current modern technologies in the market are artificial intelligence, augment
reality, cloud computing, internet of things and other advanced technologies
(Okeyo, Gathungu, and K’Obonyo, 2016).
ECONOMIC FACTORS
Economic factors involves the economic conditions of a particular
nation. When any nation have stable economic conditions it renders fair
business growth and profit goals. But when any nation does not have stable
economic conditions it leads to business failure, it is very important for any
business to work on the country which have good economic condition as it will
helps the business to achieve prosperity and growth. The nation with goods
economic conditions, the people in the particular location will mostly have high
income capacity and high purchasing power. So, the business operating on
such location will have high profit and sales margin.
LEGAL POLICIES
Legal policies are defined all the laws and legislation which any business
have to comply with. These are the basic norms to conduct different business
activities. It completely depends on the different nation where different laws
are been practised. Business laws and legislation are been formulated so that
different business runs in concordance of pre determined ethical manner.
When business dies not comply with these formulated laws, the government
can intervene and sue the particular business for breach of the law. The
business must ensure that it comply with all the legal laws of the particular
nation to maintain the legal and ethical image in the marketable (Prajogo,
2016).
PESTLE ANALYSIS ON National Express Group
National express group which deals in rendering transportation services.
In order to develop effective communication channels and better delivery
services it has the to develop effective market offerings which suits the market
demand. It becomes crucial to analyse the business environmental factors.
Different business environmental factors affects the business condition in
positive and negative ways. Some of these external business environmental
factors in the business are discussed below:
Technological factors
Technological factors are defined by different technological equipments
adopted by the company. National express company adopt cloud based
technologies in the business in order to maintain and develop the data and
information of the company. Cloud computing helps to store information of
the company which is crucial and relevant to evaluate different business

transaction at a particular period of time. The positive and negative impact of
the technological factors on businesses are discussed below:
Positive impact: It helps to smooth flow of different business functions and
brings efficiencies to different business functions. Through the technological
advancement in the business functions it helps to stay updated in the market
place.
Negative impact: With the increased used of technological forces it harms the
privacy of company. People with malicious content can break into the privacy
of the organisation which can negatively impact the business objectives
(Saleem, 2015).
Environmental factors
As the business deals in rendering transportation facilities to customers.
The business should implement all the important measures to protect the
environment. The increased emission from the vehicles it leads to high air
pollution in the environment. National express company has come up with
new ideas of implementation electronic engines in the vehicles which helps to
reduces the causes of air pollution and release of harmful gasses in the
environment. National express involves other environmental protection
measures like cutting down the long routes and easy routes to reduce fuel
consumption.
Positive impact: The positive impact of saving the environmental and social
cost helps to develop brand image of the company in the market. Where
customer reels more reliable about the offerings of the company.
Negative impact: the pollution emitted from the business activities of the
company might negatively impact the corporate image of the business in the
market.
CONCLUSION
It is important to analyse the business environment to run the smooth
flow of operations of a business. business environment is determined by booth
internals and external business environmental forces which impacts the
business in both negative and positive manner. The business should formulate
strategic planning and policies in order to adopt different business
environmental changes. It involves analysing all the factors which might impact
the business performance. Business environment plays an important role as
when the business successful adapts the the challenges of business
environment it helps to achieve business growth and success. Evaluating the
business environment is important to analyse the market positioning of the
business in the competitive environment.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Akhmetshin, E. and et.al., 2017. Analysis of innovation activity of enterprises in
modern business environment. J. Advanced Res. L. & Econ.. 8. p.2311.
Groşanu, A. and et.al., 2015. The influence of country-level governance on
business environment and entrepreneurship: A global
perspective. Amfiteatru Economic Journal. 17(38). pp.60-75.
Halbert, T. and Ingulli, E., 2020. Law and ethics in the business environment.
Cengage Learning.
Khajeheian, D., Friedrichsen, M. and Mödinger, W., 2018. An introduction to
competitiveness in fast changing business environment.
In Competitiveness in emerging markets (pp. 3-11). Springer, Cham.
Moroni, I., Arruda, A. and Araujo, K., 2015. The design and technological
innovation: how to understand the growth of startups companies in
competitive business environment. Procedia Manufacturing. 3.
pp.2199-2204.
Okeyo, W., Gathungu, J. M. and K’Obonyo, P., 2016. Entrepreneurial
orientation, business development services, Business environment, and
performance: A critical literature review.
Prajogo, D.I., 2016. The strategic fit between innovation strategies and
business environment in delivering business performance. International
journal of production Economics. 171. pp.241-249.
Saleem, S., 2015. BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT, 3/e. Pearson Education India.