Business Management: Analyzing Royal Mail's External Factors and CSR

This report provides a detailed analysis of the external influences affecting Royal Mail, a major postal service company in the UK, using the PEST framework (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological). It examines how these factors impact the company's strategic management and decision-making. Furthermore, the report delves into Royal Mail's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, evaluating their relevance, effectiveness, and areas for improvement. It discusses how CSR influences the company's policies and its commitment to sustainability, highlighting the importance of balancing business operations with societal responsibilities. The analysis aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by Royal Mail in a dynamic business environment, emphasizing the role of strategic adaptation and responsible corporate practices.

Contemporary Developments in Business
and Management

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................4
Give a brief overview of the primary external influences to which the organization is subject
and briefly explain the particular importance of each to the organization..................................4
Task 2.............................................................................................................................................10
Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability..................................................................10
1.Analyze its relevance to your chosen organization and how it influences policies and
decision-making within your chosen organization or industry-sector.......................................12
2. Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the organization’s response.....................................15
3. Demonstrate some areas for improvement in the response of the organization....................17
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................19
Appendix........................................................................................................................................22
Overview of the company..........................................................................................................22
..
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Introduction
Turning the small business into the large and wide business is not easy. It takes various changes
in the business and management. Change in business or business development can be explained
as the creation of the long-term values in terms of the customers, relationships and markets. In
simple terms, it can be summarized as the activities, initiatives and ideas that are aiming toward
to accomplish the goals and objectives of the company. It may include the growth in the terms of
the expansion of the business and the profitability, revenues by building up the marketing
strategic business decisions and strategic partnership. It is not easy in this competitive
environment to gain the customers, the company needs to develop various strategies and make
changes in the management according to the market trends. The report focuses on the
development of the management and business in the terms of strategic business decisions and
strategic partnerships such as CSR. In order to maintain the accuracy and reliability, the Royal
Mail Company is chosen. The Royal mail company works in the industry of the postal services
and courier. It is the largest industry that serves services ion global market.
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Task 1
Give a brief overview of the primary external influences to which the organization is
subject and briefly explain the particular importance of each to the organization.
Business plays a very crucial role in the individual life as it is the source of their livelihood. A
business can be explained as the organizational entity that provides various services to the
individual and develops a good relationship with the target customers. The management within
the organization is the important activity that is required for making the sustainability and
stability of the organization. It is considered as the key function of managing the things or
getting done the things through others.
The company required to perform its operations at the different level in the market. The main
purpose of changing the management in the organization is to accomplish the main aims and
objectives of the business effectively and efficiently. Change in management is considered the
main reason for the successful business environment. There are certain factors that influence the
business environment which might involve the evaluation of the internal and as well as external
factors. The proper inspection of the environment will help in developing the different strategies
to accomplish the desired goals and objectives (EP Minerals, 2015).
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(Source: Slideshare, 2010)
The external influences are the factors that are uncontrollable or the company could not measure
these factors but it can be minimized through proper analyzing of the external environment. The
external factors are considered as the rapid changing factors which are out of control but can be
controlled by the organization by developing the effective strategies and plans.
Royal mail is the public limited company in the UK which works in the industry of the postal
services and courier. The company provides various services that may include the parcel
services, letter post, freight forwarding and so on. In the UK it the sole provider of the universal
services that provide the courier and parcel services from all over the world. The Royal mail can
make changes in the management of the organization by inspecting and effectively analyzing the
external environment that will help in accomplishing the main aims and objectives of the
organizations. This work is the part of the managers of the Royal mail which plays an important
role in developing the policies and strategies by properly analyzing the external market and
makes the effective plans that will directly influence the decision-making process of the
company (Lang, et. al., 2012).
The Royal mail Company is the company that provides the courier and postal services by
addressing more than 29 million across the UK. The company would be able to gain the
competitive advantages by effectively analyzing the external environment of the organization as
these factors influence the productivity of the company. These factors will help in formulating
the strategic plans for effectively accomplishing the organizational goals and targets. The
external factors contribute to influencing the productivity and operation of the company to a
large extent. These factors are uncontrollable but besides that, it is considered as the priorities of
the companies.
As one of the leading supplier of the postal and courier services, the Royal mail company
dominates the large market of the energy for the long period of time since it has been established.
In the below paragraph the external factors that influence the operation and strategic
management are as follows:
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PEST analysis
PEST analysis can be explained as the analysis of the political, economic, social and
technological influences that are having a great impact on the strategic management of the
company (Laurent, et. al., 2012). As the Royal mail is the largest postal services company in the
UK and all over the world it needs to analyse the market by using the PEST analysis that is as
follows:
(Source: Slidemodel, 2014)
Political influences
 The operation of Royal Mail Company is influenced by the political factors of the
economy. If the political parties would not interfere in the operations of the organization
then it might be the biggest and largest postal provide services in the UK and all over the
world.
 The decisions made by the Royal mail company with regarding the tax policy, trading,
and so on are influenced by the political factors. Recently the company makes a great
contribution in the development of the economy by following the CSR activities and
listed in 2013 as the London stock exchange and in 2016 it has been marked as the 5000
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years of the Postal services. This great contribution is considered by the factors of the
political parties.
 The reason behind the successful business is the investment of the national grid that
makes the awareness to the government and the local economy by addressing the postal
services in all over the world. The political parties contribute to making the successful
organization by reducing the tariffs and GST charges so that the delivery can be
delivering in all over the world and affords by the middle-class people (Lucey, 2017).
Economic influences:
 The economic factors also influence the strategic management of the Royal mail
company. The company is affected by the economic conditions and situation of the
economy as a whole that is having a direct impact on the operations of the economy.
 The economic factors may involve the inflation rate, deflation rate, fluctuation in the
currency of the country and the several factors that might affect the decision-making
process of the company. The Royal mail is the postal services provider company that
postal services in all over the countries are influenced by the different currencies of the
country which is later on utilized by the country for developing the strategies and making
a change in management.
 The success of the country is affected by the inflation rate and fluctuation in monetary
aspects. Due to the economic aspects, the company would be able to earn the high profit
and able to make changes in the management to the high extent.
 As the Royal mail company is the large-scale operating business that contributes to the
development of the economy by providing job opportunities.
 The economic factors are considered as the important factors because it helps in
operating the company in most profitable respect and reduces the more concerned issues
to the economy (Mandip, 2012). Due to increase in the price the sales of the products of
Royal mail Company is decreased.
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Social factors:
 A business would be able to analyses the social economic environment by considering
the social; factors that may include different elements such as cultural limitations, change
in lifestyle, taste, preferences, lifestyle attitude, education and customers demographics.
 With these, the company would be able to understand the needs of the customers and
develop the desired products by considering the future trends in mind and what attracts
them to purchase the product and services of the company.
 The royal mail company is affected by the social factors such as positive attitude of the
company towards the corporate social responsibilities, gaining of the number of
customers and interest of the new arrivals towards the new launch of the products and
services of the company, increasing in the immigration and people are more interested in
using the postal service’s rather than traditional methods of seeing the important data or
the information.
 The company would be able to produce the product and services by analyzing the market
effectively it may include the different aspects of changing needs of the customers and
individual in the society.
 The behaviour of the society towards the business will contribute in increasing the
profitability of the organization as the company would able to deliver the services
through the fastest mode of delivering the product at very low prices which directly affect
the pricy policy of the company.
 The company considers the social factors as to operate its business functions by
considering the changing requirements and needs of the customers. This will help in
running the business monthly and company would be able to meet the expectations of the
customers (Ones & Dilchert, 2012).
Technological factors:
 The technological factors are having both the positive and negative impact on the
operations of the organization. The Royal mail increases its productivity by implying the
technological inputs that introduce new products and services in the marketplace.
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 The factors that contribute to enhancing the organizational operations are the role of the
internet, spending on technological research by the government, advancement in the
technology and lifecycle of the technologies (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016).
 The advancement in the technology may involve the introduction of new machinery such
as postal franking machine that cut down the cost of the organization by 20% in the
development; the company would be able to provide postal services through the modern
mean and so on. The company would be able to announce its plans through using the
internet infrastructure and install the new optic fibre cables and the introduction of new
techniques to deliver the parcel in worldwide within few hours.
 It is considered as the major and essential aspect of the organization that is necessary to
implement in order to develop and grow in the marketplace by adopting the continuous
speed.
 The Royal mail would able to deliver the product and services effectively and efficiently
by implementing the new and modern technology in entire organizations. It helps in
modifying the operation of the organizations and meets the expectation as per the needs
of the customers (Ramakrishnan, et. al., 2012).
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Task 2
Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability
Corporate social responsibility is a term that can be defined as the set of rules, procedures
policies that are to be adopted and implemented by the organization in order to fulfil the legal
and contractual obligations towards its internal as well as external stakeholders. Adoption and
implementation of corporate social responsibility are directly related to the sustainability of the
company for a longer period of time (Rangan, et. al., 2012).
(Source: Shayon, 2014)
Apart, corporate social responsibility acts as a tool of balance between the operations of the
company as well as the responsibility of the company towards the society. This will further
support the company in managing the changes and thereby ensure that the company can capture
a greater share of the market. Implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility will support the
company in having the following benefits:
 Maximum utilization of resources.
 Enlarged share in the market.
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 Supports in the process of growth and development.
 Ensures better supervision over the activities of the company.
 Ensures that the activities and operations are conducted in conforming to the laws and
regulations as may be implemented.
 Supports in satisfaction of the needs of all the parties that are associated with the
company.
 Supports in conducting the process of audit in a better way (Sharma, 2013).
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1.Analyze its relevance to your chosen organization and how it influences policies
and decision-making within your chosen organization or industry-sector.
Corporate social responsibility is the issue of major concern and every organization is required to
have a proper implementation of the aspect so as to achieve better and adequate sustainability
and growth for a longer duration of time. In brief of Royal Mail Company that is operating in the
postal services should ensure that the activities and aspects related to the corporate social
responsibility are accurately implemented so that the concerned company can achieve its goals
and objectives in the desired manner thereby leading to better sustainability and growth (Sharma,
2013). In addition, implementation of the Corporate Social Responsibility will ensure that the
Royal Mail Company can handle and carry its operations in more enhanced manner. Further,
corporate social responsibility will support the concerned company in making effective and
efficient decision with regards to the formulation of policies that can lead to better and optimum
utilization of resources. Apart, corporate social responsibility can assist the company in making
accurate decisions with regards to all the changes that are prevailing which will assist the Royal
mail company with the following benefits:
 Corporate social responsibility will support the concerned company in the generation of
new ideas that can support in bringing changes that are demanded by the external and
internal factors. This will further ensure that the concerned company is able to manage
the risk factors effectively and efficiently.
 Supports in ensuring that the concerned company is able to take core and strategic
decision in the relation to the unforeseen circumstances or the risk factors that can affect
the operations of the concerns in an adverse manner.
 Supports in coping up with the elements that emerged out of the internal and external
environment. Corporate social responsibility ensures that these factors do not affect the
operations and can be utilized in a positive manner.
 Corporate social responsibility will play a major role in enhancing the level of
performance of the employees of the royal mail company. This will further result in
better and appropriate results for the concerned company (Hasan, et. al., 2016).
 Supports in ensuring that the operations and the functions of the company are correctly
managed so as to avoid any kind of hindrances or barriers in the process of work.
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