FE4055 Coursework: Pearson PLC and STEEPLE Analysis of UK Industry

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of Pearson PLC, a UK-based public limited company operating in the publishing and education industry. The essay begins with an introduction to the importance of understanding the business environment and its external factors. It then discusses the structure of the industry and the nature of Pearson PLC, highlighting its focus on educational materials and digital services. The core of the essay is a detailed STEEPLE analysis, examining the social, technological, economic, environmental, political, legal, and ethical factors influencing Pearson PLC's performance over the past 5-10 years. The analysis covers how social trends, technological advancements, economic fluctuations, environmental concerns, political changes, legal regulations, and ethical considerations have impacted the company's strategies and operations. The essay concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the influential elements of Pearson PLC within its industry, including the microeconomic factors affecting demand and supply of its consumer goods. The essay references various academic sources to support its analysis, including books and journals.

Identify one industry
from the UK Standard
Industrial Classification
SIC 2007 and choose a
UK public limited
company PLC from the
industry

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERNCES...................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION
Understanding the business environment is important in order to operate business activities
and achieve organizational goals effectively and efficiently. The external environment consists of
various external factors which need to be better understand as they causes impact on the
performance of the business. The company must formulate strategies and policies keeping in
view the changing business environment. The essay has chosen the Pearson Company and even
highlights the external factors through STEPLEE analysis to better understand the business
environment.
MAIN BODY
Pearson Plc. is the British Multinational Company, headquartered in London, England
which deals in publishing and education. The company switched to the publishing industry in
1920 and comes under the list of world’s top publishers of textbooks and other relevant material.
The company also provides with the effective and accurate learning materials accompanied by
the assessment and other digital services to many schools, colleges, universities. Pearson Plc.
deals with two main stream, firstly, it focuses on the areas related to school, higher education and
professional developments and secondly, it focuses on North American Market and other core
markets. Furthermore, it manages as well as devise intellectual property which aims to promote
and sell under the recognized brand names in order to educate and entertain (Fang and et. al.,
2018). The company operates under the education and mass media industry.
The STEEPLE is an abbreviation for the external factors which exists in the business
environment. According the analysis of business external factors are conducted in order to
update strategies or policies keeping in mind the changing environment. The model helps to
better understand the external factors which are causing impact on the performance of the
business. Thus, the Pearson PLC. is chosen to better understand the analysis of external factors
present in the environment influencing business activities and performance. These external
factors are discussed below.
Social Factors are considered as the culture of the company provides the consumer with
strong societal norms, values and trends. The company need to formulate effective strategies in
respect of the social factors in order to target potential consumers and potential buyers. Pearson
Plc. through its strategies attract younger population to derive desired goals. Furthermore, high

education population benefits the company. In the pandemic situation the Pearson Plc.
introduced the features related to health in their products, as the consumers became more health
conscious amid COVID- 19 pandemic. The company is formulating effective CSR initiatives for
the well-being of its consumers. The Technological Factors provides that, in the pace of
technology it is important for the Pearson Plc. to adapt the technological advancements while
devising strategies. A detailed analysis of this factors can help the company to reach and create
wide range of network between the brand and consumers (Babatunde, 2018). The company
through social media marketing is attracting young educated population so as to achieve its
desired goals in cost effective manner. The company amid pandemic used the social media and
digital marketing to promote its products and services widely. The company promoted the online
shopping as the young audience is using technologies more and even they are available on social
media sites.
The Environmental Factors, is also the vital piece of the STEPLEE analysis which helps
the company to adhere with environmental factors in order to gain sustainability and competitive
advantage in the changing business environment. Pearson Plc. aims to reduce environmental
pollution by adopting recycle and waste management practices. Even the company has launched
specific sites to dispose of the products which later is recycled. Furthermore, the company is also
establishing novice product line in order to recycle consumers’ products along with certain
benefits. The company raised the awareness and promotes green lifestyle. The company
launched green products to appeal and attract its consumers. Pearson formulates and even
monitors its CSR activities related to environmental so as to achieve sustainability in the
marketplace. Whereas, the Ethical Factors are vital for the company to create positive image of
the brand in the minds of the consumers. The business ethics refers to the values, standards and
principles which the organization inherit to conduct its business activities. The company aims to
promote its moral values to its consumers in order to gain their trust and loyalty towards the
brand. Pearson Plc. initiates various CSR initiatives not only for the consumers but even for its
employees so as to show positive message in the marketplace (Manu and Sarkar, 2018). The
company discourages the discrimination, bribery and other unethical practices and further
encourages its employees to speak up if they are facing any unethical behaviour in the
organization.

The Political Factors causes strong effect on the profitability as well as long term
sustainability of the Pearson Plc. As company operates in a dynamic environment, require to
diversify risk factors. Frequent changing policies of the government can cause an impact on the
business performance. Furthermore, the political stability may cause positive trade relations for
businesses like Pearson Plc. to operate effectively and efficiently. The Brexit affected inevitably
the companies of different sectors. The company has strong ties and even updates its strategies to
achieve organizational goals effectively and efficiently. Even the pandemic caused a havoc in
this sector. Whereas, Legal Factors, on the other hand requires business to adhere with the legal
environment and regulations formulated in order to avoid conflicts and other trouble. The
company due to the pandemic situation has focused more on the Health and Safety Law and even
adhering the social norms. The Pearson Plc. has placed high importance in the law related to
health and safety so as to maintain good employment relations at the workplace. Even the
company strictly follows the Employment Legislation of UK in order to promote equality and
diversity in the work environment. The company ensures the regulations are followed strictly in
order to attain growth and success for long term in the marketplace.
The Economic Factors, is important for the company to know the changing factors such as
currency fluctuations, foreign exchange rate, inflation and so forth. As the development of
economy causes direct impact on the business performance (Adegboye, 2020). The pandemic hit
hard and caused inflation in the country which caused an adverse effect on the company. The
higher inflation rate cause lower disposable income. The Pearson Company needs a moderate
inflation in order to sustain in the marketplace. Furthermore, the unemployment trend affected
the overall income in the economy which in turn affecting the performance of the company.
One of the main factors which lead to the influence of the consumer demand goods is the
employment level. More the income led to more the discretionary spending purchases. The
unemployment trends is also a vital economic indicator which allows the picture showing the
demands for the consumer goods. Unemployment led to the higher prices of product because of
the increased cost in doing the business activities and thus, may affect the demand of the
consumers through such high prices of the products. The pandemic and Brexit effect has caused
unemployment trend which in turn directly affected the performance of the company. Further the
purchase power itself decreased with the inflation and high interest rates in the nation. Thus, high
price has deter the consumer to spend on goods (Dhingra and Kapil, 2021).

On the other hand, the supply refers to as the quantity of the product which they require by
the company or producer to sell in the marketplace. The supply is generally determined by the
factors such as government subsidiaries, weather conditions, and availability of suppliers, price
and so forth. The cost of production arises due to rising wages, interest rates, prices or any other
rise in input prices. Even the government subsidiaries amid pandemic was lowered and thus,
overall resulted into less profits.
Figure 1: Impact and Adverse Demand and Supply Shift, 2021
In addition, the random shocks and the unpredictable events such as Brexit effect, COVID-
29 Pandemic situation, etc., are also the determinants of supply. Tax and fiscal policy was
affected in response to the coronavirus crisis. The company focused to maintain cash flow and it
was only core goal of its measures in respect to fiscal policy (Zhang, 2021). The company
followed the fiscal policy measures in order to achieve sustainability in the crisis. The United
Kingdom tended to create good competition in the market in almost all the industries including
the publishing industry. The main competitive advantage of the UK is its expertise in all industry
as well as the nation efficiently accumulate the knowledge of every sector. Time management in

producing goods or services, innovation production and effective distribution represent the new
sources of competitive advantage.
CONCLUSION
The above essay concludes the influential elements of the Pearson Plc. and its structure. The
essay examined the nature and structure of the company chosen. Furthermore, the essay briefly
discussed the external factors exist in the changing environment which are causing impact on its
performance. The essay has discussed the economical factor briefly through microeconomic
factors affecting the demand and supply of its consumer goods.

REFERNCES
Books and Journals
Adegboye, A.C., 2020. Macroeconomic policies and sustainable employment yields in sub‐
Saharan Africa. African Development Review. 32(4). pp.515-527.
Babatunde, O.A., 2018. Macroeconomic Dynamics and the Manufacturing Output in
Nigeria. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences. 9(2). pp.43-54.
Dhingra, K. and Kapil, S., 2021. Impact of Macroeconomic Variables on Stock Market—An
Empirical Study. Trade, Investment and Economic Growth: Issues for India and
Emerging Economies. p.177.
Fang and et. al., 2018. Forecasting gold futures market volatility using macroeconomic variables
in the United States. Economic Modelling. 72. pp.249-259.
Manu, K.S. and Sarkar, A., 2018. Dynamic Relationship between Macroeconomic Determinants
and Corporate Bonds Performance: The Case of India. Asian Journal of Research in
Banking and Finance. 8(4). pp.61-70.
Zhang, X., 2021. Modeling Effects of Macroeconomic and Fundamental Factors in Equity
Returns with Machine Learning.