Assessing Global Business Environment: A P&G Case Study Report

This research project examines the multifaceted impact of globalization on Procter & Gamble (P&G), a multinational consumer goods company. The study investigates both the benefits and drawbacks of operating in a global business environment, exploring how factors like technological advancements, reduced trade barriers, and increased market access have influenced P&G's operations and growth. The research employs a mixed-methods approach, including a literature review to assess existing research on globalization's impact on corporations and primary research through a questionnaire administered to P&G employees to gather their perspectives on the topic. The objectives include assessing global factors affecting the company, analyzing the advantages of global business, identifying challenges faced, and recommending strategies for P&G to overcome these challenges. The report delves into the research methodology, including the research philosophy, design, approach, data collection methods, and sampling techniques, to ensure the validity and reliability of the findings. The project aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how P&G navigates the complexities of globalization and maintains its market leadership.

RESEARCH PROJECT

Table of Contents
TASK 1.................................................................................................................... 3
Research Proposal.................................................................................................... 3
Research ethics form................................................................................................. 3
TASK 2.................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction & background......................................................................................... 3
Literature review..................................................................................................... 4
Research methodology.............................................................................................. 6
Time scale............................................................................................................. 9
Data analysis & interpretation..................................................................................... 9
Research Outcomes & Recommendations.....................................................................15
Reflection............................................................................................................ 16
Conclusion........................................................................................................... 17
REFERENCES......................................................................................................... 18
APPENDIX............................................................................................................. 20

TASK 1
Research Proposal
Research ethics form
(Enclosed in appendix)
TASK 2
Introduction & background
Globalisation:
Globalisation is a term which can best described as the integration and interaction of
business, corporations, governments and people around the world. In simpler language, it is
the integration of economies of the world. The rise of globalisation concept has impacted the
trade, business and commerce tremendously throughout the globe in the form of large market,
more number of customers, higher profitability (Berend, 2016). However, the evolvement of
this phenomenon has led to rapid decline in the scarce resources of the communities and
businesses and has unnecessarily increased cut throat competition in international market.
Research Overview:
The research project will focus on Procter and Gamble which is a consumer goods
American multinational company headquartered in Cincinnati. It will include how the
opening up of the economies of world has benefited the business of P&G and how it has
adversely impacted the operations and growth of this corporation. The research will include
secondary research and primary research in which a questionnaire will be prepared where 20
employees of Procter & Gamble would be asked questions relating to impact of globalisation
on their organisation.
Aim: “ To understand the benefits and drawbacks of global business environment – A study
on Procter & Gamble”
Research objective:
 To assess the global factors impacting the corporation
 To analyse the benefits of global business environment
 To understand challenges or drawbacks faced by global companies

 To recommend the means and strategies through P &G can overcome the challenges
imposed by globalisation
Rationale:
The topic of assessing the benefits and drawbacks of global business environment is
selected because the study will examine the factors which are affecting the business of
P&G, how the company is benefitting from the increased globalisation and what
challenges it faces due to integration of worlds’ economies. It will help in understanding
the concept of global business environment and how the company operates in such a
dynamic environment. Also, undertaking this study would help in finding out the
strategies and means through which the organisation can face the challenges posed by the
global business environment more effectively so that it maintains its position of market
leader at global level.
Literature review
Theme: Assessment of global factors impacting the corporations
As per the view of Meyer (2017), globalisation has impacted all kinds of
organizations around the world in some way or the other. There are many factors that have
had its effects on Procter and Gamble. The author says that technological factor such as
evolvement of internet, more enhanced communication and transport infrastructure have
changed the way organisations are conducting their business. Artificial Intelligence is one of
the technological revolutions that has completely revolutionised the functioning of P & G in
terms of its customer support system, new innovative products and services, internal control
system etc. Other factors have also been highlighted by the author such as reduced national
protectism policies of countries around the world, economies of scale etc., have impacted the
company in expanding its business in every corner of the world.
However, Hamilton and Webster (2018) have argued that technological evolvement
has not on so fruitful impacts on the company. The very first thing argued by the author was
that increased use of technology in the business operations has reduced the requirement of
workers in the company. They are basically increasing the rate of unemployment globally.
Moreover, there is a high risk of fluctuations in the currency exchange which makes the

economies of scale factor in cheaper and less developed countries a less impact factor that
can contribute significantly to the profitability of P & G with minimum risk.
Theme: Benefits of global business environment on P&G
According to Wei (2018), globalisation has benefitted the organisation in number of
ways. The very first advantage that P&G has taken is large market share. Opening of global
economies has led the companies to sell its products and services to large number of people
in different countries. Global business environment has facilitated the company with ample
opportunities related to its growth and expansion in the most emerging countries of the world.
All these factors have direct impact on the sales and profitability of the firm. This has
resulted into the decrease in the dependency of P&G on the national and domestic economies.
This decreased dependency provides the benefit of diversification to the business
organisation. Business risk is reduced because of such diversification in which company has
spread its operations in different parts of the world. The author also highlighted the point that
company is also able to get highly specialised talent which is called as the biggest asset of
any organisation. P &G because of globalisation could also establish a competitive advantage
over its rivals. The foremost reason of going international of any firm is to take the initial
advantage of the markets where its rivals are not yet operating. Foreign direct investments are
another benefit of global business environment which has provided great opportunities for the
company to grow and nurture in international markets.
Bozyk (2019) claims that global business environment has created number of
complexities for the business enterprise. The author said that various trade and commerce
regulations of the different nations are posing challenge for the P & G to operate and expand
freely in the global market. For example, restrictive trade laws such as high tariff rates for
foreign brand, high rates of corporate taxes etc., results in the reduced profitability of the
company. The author also argued that global business environment has increased the rate of
inflation. For example due to greater demand for products and services, it has resulted in rise
in the prices of the commodities throughout the world. This scenario from macro level is
highly unhealthy for the world economy. Also, globalisation has made customers to change
their preferences more frequently. Coping up with such rapid changes in customer
preferences is posing difficulties for P&G.
Theme: Challenges faced by organisation due to global business environment

Najam, Runnalls and Halle (2016) articulated that global business has served the
business organisations with various challenges. One of the challenges which the company is
facing is stiff competition from big brands around the world. Unnecessary competition in the
international market has disturbed the harmony of business and trade around the world. This
forces companies to indulge in unfair trade practises which eventually harm the customers in
terms of high prices, low quality and high dissatisfaction. An unfamiliar culture of different
nations is another challenge which the company has to deal with for being successful in the
international market. Taxation policies and high fluctuations in foreign exchange are some
other challenges which P&G is facing lately. Risks associated with the labour exploitation,
political risks are some major challenges while working in the global business environment.
Political stability has large impact on the profitability of the business enterprise. For example,
highly emerging countries although provides ample business opportunities but it also poses
some serious challenges in the form of unstable political conditions, high corrupt practises,
interest rates and policies relating to foreign direct investment. If all these things are
unfavourable then it can prove a matter of destruction of business of P&G in the international
markets.
However, Lasserre (2017) has argued that challenges which are posed by global
business environment could be overcome. The author says that these challenges might prove
detrimental to the success and growth of company but the benefits it provides to corporation
is way higher than the risk of conducting business in international market. For example, due
to globalisation company gets new and unexplored foreign markets which provides large
customer base through which company can increase its sales and profitability. Also, a
business enterprise gets the chance of producing its products and services at large scale in the
countries where the labour and raw materials rates are cheaper than its own company. This
would result into low cost of production which would in turn assist the organisation in selling
the goods at the most competitive prices in the market. This attracts the customers at global
level and producing cost effective goods also serves as a competitive advantage which further
helps in accelerating the growth and expansion objective of the business entity.
Research methodology
Research Philosophy:
This term refers to the way or manner in which the data about the impact of
globalization has to be gathered, analyzed and used in order to interpret meaningful
information for assisting research. There are two types of research philosophies that are

interpretivism and positivism (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016). For the present research study,
interpretivism research philosophy is been applied which complements the qualitative data
analysis in the best way possible. This philosophy has assisted in analysing the challenges
faced by P&G due to increasing globalisation in the business world.
Research Design:
It refers to building up the framework of research considering the approach, causes,
factors and result of globalization on company. It provides many insights to company about
“how” to use a particular methodology. Under this research design, it basically involves three
major sections: Data collection, measurement and analysis. The essential elements of
research design are: Accurate purpose statement of effect of globalization on company,
techniques to be implemented for collecting details, method applied for analyzing details,
type of research methodology used for analysis, probable objections caused by
research ,settings for research study, setting up the timeline and measurement of analysis (
Lacey and et.al.,2015). In order to setup design for study of globalization on
company, descriptive approach is used.
Research Approach:
It is defined as the plan or process that consist of stepwise implementation of data
collection of entire company, its analysis based on information provided as well as factors
considered and interpretation on entire process (Palinkas and et.al., 2015). Approach is
generally classified into two categories: qualitative and quantitative research. This research of
P&G is entirely based on qualitative approach which is description based in which
observation of people or event is recorded and is analyzed with respect to company’s info
through qualitative methods. It observes trends of company with respect to statistics not the
numbers.
Data collection:
For the current study which is on analyzing the impact of globalization on P&G in
terms of managing global competition both methods of data collection has been used such as
primary and secondary (McNely, Spinuzzi and Teston, 2015). Here with an aim to collect the
primary data for the given study, tool like questionnaire is used for better interpretation. It is
an effective tool because by taking assistance from the given methods views points of P&G

employees regarding the impact of globalization on company’s business on international
market will be analyzed.
Data analysis:
For this study which is on analyzing the impact, of globalization on P&G, what are
the benefits of global business environment on the company and what are the challenges
which globalisation has thrown on the face of organisation, data has been analyzed by using
the qualitative approach. In the given methods different tests of descriptive statistics has been
applied. It consists of following such as cross tabulation, frequency table, time scale table etc
(Knudsen and Stage, 2015).
Sampling:
It is term which is defined as the procedure of determining the number of observations
in advance which is drawn out from large population. There are different kinds of sampling
such as probability sampling and non probability sampling. Probability sampling further
consist of different types of sapling techniques such as random sampling (Knudsen and Stage,
2015).
Random sampling is used for the purpose of assessing the benefits and drawbacks of
global business environment on P&G. 20 employees are chosen as sample for the qualitative
research for understanding the positive and negative impact of global business environment
on P&G.
Ethical considerations:
Number of ethical issues exists which a researcher confronts while undertaking a
research such as keeping the confidentiality of the information through the employees of the
company and maintaining the privacy of the sample taken. If the confidentiality is not taken
care of, then it can result into various difficulties in the future studies (Croucher, 2018).
Research Limitation:
Time and money are the two constraints which restricted the research up-to a specific
level. A researcher requires money and adequate time for undertaking proper research on the
benefits and drawbacks of global business environment. If more time was provided, the
quality of the research project would have been more effective.

Time scale
Activities 1 week 2 weeks 3 weeks 4 weeks 5 weeks 6 weeks 7 weeks
Developing
Research
proposal
Literature
review
Developing
research
questions for
data collection
Pilot study
Data collection
Data analysis
Conclusion and
recommendatio
n
Data analysis & interpretation
Questionnaire
(Provided in Appendix)
Theme 1: Impact of global business environment on organisation
Particulars Respondents
Yes 14
No 6

Yes No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Respondents
Respondents
Interpretation : From the survey conducted on 20 employees of P&G, it was observed that
large number of people responded in favour of situation, according to them globalization had
deep impact on their business growth while few of them denied with respect to any change.
Theme 2: Factors of global business environment which effects organization
Particulars Respondents
Technological evolution 9
Communication infrastructure 5
Demographic and social changes 4
All of the above 2

0
3
6
9
Respondents
Respondents
Interpretation:
From the survey conducted on 20 employees of P&G, it was recorded that 45% of
people responded technological evolution as the major factor corresponding to globalization,
25% people stated communication infrastructure as reason for global changes in business,
20% responded demographic and social changes as a factor while only 10% of people are in
favour of all factors. Majority of the sample population were view that evolvement of
technology has largely impacted the consumer goods producing multinational company P&G.
Rapid growth in the internet has made it possible for the company to target large market
around the world by the medium of social media, online business & commerce platforms etc.
Such an impact has widen the opportunities for enhancing its number of customers, sales and
its profitability.
Theme 3: Benefits of global business environment
Particulars Respondents
Economies of scale 4
Larger market share 6
Foreign direct investment 3
Innovation 2
Higher sales and profitability 2
Greater access to skilled 3

personnel
0
2
4
6
Respondents
Respondents
Interpretation:
From the above graph and survey which was conducted on 20 employees of P&G, it
was observed that majority of the respondents thinks that global business environment has
benefited the company significantly in the form of large market share through which it has
increased its customer base, sales and profitability. Secondary research also supports this. 4
respondents said that opening up of world economies has facilitated the company to
undertake its production at large level at cheaper rates which in turn has assisted it in
producing cost effective goods.
Theme 4: Drawbacks of global business environment on organization
Particulars Respondents
Rapid depletion of scared
resources
9
Intense competition 4
Rise and inflation 4
Job insecurity 2
All of the above 1