Reflective Report: Business Environment Analysis and Learning

This reflective report explores the business environment and its impact on organizational operations. It emphasizes the significance of understanding both internal and external factors, along with the effective utilization of tools like SWOT analysis, resource audits, and stakeholder mapping. The report details the importance of analyzing micro and macro factors, including competitors, suppliers, political, social, economic, and technological influences. It further discusses the role of stakeholders and the importance of communication skills and time management in achieving organizational goals. The learning experience has helped in understanding various management concepts and developing skills crucial for professional growth. Desklib provides a platform where students can access similar solved assignments and past papers.

REFLECTIVE REPORT
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
This report reflects on the learning of the business environment and different factors
associated with it. Business environment reflects significantly on the business operations of
a company, therefore, it is imperative to respond effectively to all the environmental factors
for the smooth operation of the company. It is very important for professionals or students
to have the deep knowledge of the business environment and its impact on the business of
the company. This report demonstrates the utilization of the different tools such as SWOT
analysis, resources audit, stakeholder mapping framework to understand the impact of
different internal and external factors that can influence the business operations of a
company. This reflective report also demonstrates the application of the different tools to
respond effectively to the impact of the business environment. It further covers the
influence of this assignment on my learning objectives.
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MAIN BODY
The business environment is one of the most important and interesting topics. Business
environment refers to all the internal and external factors that influence the organizational
operations. It reflects significantly on the growth and development of the organization. I
have learned many new and important things associated with the topic. My objective
behind this learning was to make a deep and clear understanding of this topic. I have
achieved success in achieving my learning objectives to a great extent ( Botha, 2014).
This experience has allowed me to explore the multi-dimensions of the topic. My focus was
on understanding the topic thoroughly so that it can be implemented appropriately in
practical life. I have learned about the many theoretical concepts associated with the
business and business environment. I have adopted different books, research papers,
articles, and journals to understand and analyse the topic deeply. I further discussed the
topic with my teachers, friends and seniors to understand their perspective on this topic. It
helped me a lot to investigate the different dimensions of the topic. I have learned about
the different internal and external factors that affect the business activities of a company.
The internal business environment includes company's plans and policies, employees,
resources, strategy etc. External environment comprises of micro and macro factors.
Competitors, suppliers, customers, distributor and dealer are the key micro factor which can
influence the business operation of a company to a great extent (Klapper and Love, 2010).
Political, social, economic, technological, legal and environmental factors influence the
business operations of a company to a great extent. These macro factors can't be controlled
by an organization, therefore, it is imperative to respond them effectively (Keiningham, et
al. 2013).
I have gathered information about the different tools and techniques to understand and
analyse the impact of these factors on the businesses activities of an organization. There are
various tools which can be applied by a company to understand the different dimensions of
the topic. SWOT and PESTLE analysis are the effective tools to evaluate the impact of
business environment on the business of the company (Bull, et al. 2016).SWOT analysis
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helps in identifying the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of an organization
and its impact on the business activities. A company should consider all these elements in
order to develop effective strategies to overcome the issues and to develop effective
strategies. PESTLE analysis also helps in understanding impact of macro factors. It helps in
analysing the impact of political, social, technological, economic, environmental and legal
factors on the business operations of a company/ The evaluation of these factors helps in
identifying the different areas which can be improved to enhance the profitability of the
company (Bull, et al. 2016).
While searching for different tools for analysis in business I came through may effective
analysis tools. One of the most effective tools to understand the strength and weakness of
the resources of a company is resource audit. Resource audit includes the analysis of the
different resources such as physical resources, human resources, financial resources and
Intangibles. Physical resources of a company include the listing of different physical
resources such as equipment, building, machines, equipment etc. The age, lifespan, working
condition, location and capabilities is analysed which is important to enhance the efficiency
of the products. Employees are the key stakeholders of a company, therefore it is
imperative to understand a different kind of the factors such as a number of employees, age
inventory, skill inventory, knowledge-wise inventory and capital-wise inventory. Financial
resource audit is essential to understand the sources and uses of financial resources,
working capital, capital structure, and account receivables, control of debtors and creditors,
etc. (Kang, et al. 2013).Intangible is also important element as it has value like goodwill.
Goodwill can be represented by the customer loyalty, brand image, public image about
work, quality and reliable service etc. An organization should focus on the improvement of
all these resources in order to achieve its organizational objectives. The proper utilization of
these resources is necessary to accomplish the different organizational task efficiently.
Company should conduct the regular audits of all these resources in order to avoid any kind
of issue ao mismanagement. There are various factors which influence the business of an
organization but a company with the strong financial resource, physical resource, human
resource and intangible can respond the various internal as well as external factors in an
efficient manner.
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Growth and development of an organization depends significantly on its stakeholders.
Stakeholders may be defined as an individual or a group which have interest in the activities
of an organization. Decisions of an organization can possess a great impact on its
stakeholders, therefore, it is important for a company to focus on the impact of its decisions
or business strategies on the stakeholders (Binam, et al. 2016). I have learned about the
importance of the role of the stakeholders in the success of an organization. There are
various stakeholders of a company such as customers, employees, supplier, shareholders,
distributors and government. It is imperative for an organization to consider the impact of
its business strategies on the stakeholders. It is imperative for a company to understand the
need and demand of the stakeholders. There are different approaches which can be
adopted to understand the different factors associated with the stakeholders. Stakeholders
mapping is an effective approach to understand the key stakeholders and what they wish
from the company. The stakeholder map can be broken into four different phases that are
identifying, analysing, mapping and prioritizing (Ferretti, 2016).
There are various regional and global factors which shape business activities. It is very
important for a company to consider all the different local and global factors associated with
the business. A company should understand and analyse the impact of different factors local
factors such as political, economic, social, legal, environmental and technological factors.
These factors possess positive as well as negative factors on the business operations of the
company. Company should adopt the effective strategies to overcome the different
problems and to take the advantage of the favourable factors. Company can use the
different strategies to convert these factors into a competitive advantage (Cavusgil, et al.
2014).
I have also learned about the impact of these factors on the national as well as the global
company. There are different factors which possess different impact on the local and
international factors. An organization should adopt the different tactics to resolve the
issues.
All the above-mentioned tools are beneficial to understanding the impact of business
environment on the business of an organization. Understanding of the utilization of these
tools helps me in understanding the different concept associated with the business
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environment. After learning about different factor tools I am able to analyse the impact of
the different internal and external factors on the business operations of a company.
This learning experience has helped me in understanding the other different concept of
management associated with the business environment. It has also helped me in exploring
the new technique and trends which are helpful in responding effectively to impact of the
business environment. There are various factors that can influence the operation of a
company, therefore, it is imperative to develop effective techniques to overcome the
different issues to take the advantage of the different favourable factors (Wheelen, et al.
2017).
It is always a good thing to learn about the new and important dimensions of the
management but it was a great experience as I have explored all the different aspects of
business and business environment. The exploration of new dimensions helped me
developing the different skills which are crucial to garnish my professional career. During
this learning, I recognised that it is very important to develop the skills in order to achieve
success on personal as well as professional life. Communication skills are the most
important skill which I have learned throughout this learning. It plays an important role in
the professional life. I have learned about the appropriate ways to communicate with the
different people. I have developed this skill by communicating with my friends, seniors and
teachers. I have also learned to manage the time as it is very important to manage the time
to become a successful person. Time management plays an important role in achieving the
different organisational goals in time. I have kept my all task organized to accomplish them
on time.
The outcome of this learning was desirable. I have succeeded in achieving my learning goals.
My aim behind this learning was to gain the deep knowledge about the different aspect of
the business environment and its impact on the operations of an organization. I have
probed the different dimensions of the business and its environment. I have investigated
the topic from different angles to understand and analyse its impact. I came to know about
the various tools and techniques which can adopted to understand and analyse the impact
of the different internal and external factors. I have also learned the proper utilization of the
tools and techniques so that desired result can be achieved. This learning also helped me in
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understanding my own strength and weakness. I have analysed my strength and weakness
so that I can improve my skills. I have worked on my weak areas to convert them into my
strengths. I have developed my strength to grab the opportunities. I have made the plan to
use this learning in achieving my future goals. Although it was a good experience I also need
to develop better planning for the next time to achieve better results.
The experience of this learning has helped me in identifying and overcoming my different
weakness. I am planning to use the knowledge of this learning to develop my skill and
strengths. These would be helpful for me to make a significant progress in my career.
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CONCLUSION
It may be concluded that an organization should focus on the impact of the business
environment on its business operation. It can reflect significantly on the growth and
development of an organization. There are different internal as well as external factors
which can reflect significantly on the business operations of an organization. There are
various tools which can be applied by a company to understand the different dimensions of
the topic. SWOT and PESTLE analysis are the effective tools to evaluate the impact of
business environment on the business of the company. Resource audit is also an effective
tool which includes the analysis of the different resources such as physical resources, human
resources, financial resources and Intangibles. Growth and development of an organization
depend significantly on its stakeholders. Decisions of an organization can possess a great
impact on its stakeholders, therefore, it is important for a company to focus on the impact
of its decisions or business strategies on the stakeholders. An organization should make a
deep investigation of the various factors in order to respond the various environmental
factors.
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REFERENCES
 Binam, J.N., Sogoba, B., Zemadim, B., Dembele, C., Bayoko, A. and Diakite, A., 2016.
Stakeholders mapping, analysis and engagement in southern Mali
 Botha, A., Kourie, D. and Snyman, R., 2014. Coping with continuous change in the
business environment: Knowledge management and knowledge management
technology. Elsevier
 Bull, J.W., Jobstvogt, N., Böhnke-Henrichs, A., Mascarenhas, A., Sitas, N., Baulcomb,
C., Lambini, C.K., Rawlins, M., Baral, H., Zähringer, J. and Carter-Silk, E., 2016.
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats: A SWOT analysis of the ecosystem
services framework. Ecosystem services, 17, pp.99-111
 Cavusgil, S.T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J.R., Rammal, H.G. and Rose, E.L., 2014.
International business. Pearson Australia
 Ferretti, V., 2016. From stakeholders analysis to cognitive mapping and Multi-
Attribute Value Theory: An integrated approach for policy support. European Journal
of Operational Research, 253(2), pp.524-541
 Kang, M., Lee, H.Y., Son, M. and Stein, M., 2017. The association between human
resource investment by audit firms and their audit quality. Asia-Pacific Journal of
Accounting & Economics, 24(3-4), pp.249-271
 Keiningham, T.L., Perkins-Munn, T. and Evans, H., 2013. The impact of customer
satisfaction on share-of-wallet in a business-to-business environment. Journal of
Service Research, 6(1), pp.37-50
 Klapper, L. and Love, I., 2010. The impact of business environment reforms on new
firm registration.
 Wheelen, T.L. and Hunger, J.D., 2017. Strategic management and business policy.
Pearson
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