Business and Business Environment: An Analysis of Waitrose

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BUSINESS AND BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction..................................................................................................................................................1
LO1..............................................................................................................................................................2
P1 Explain different types and purposes of organizations; public, private and voluntary sectors and
legal structures.........................................................................................................................................2
P2 Explain the size and scope of a range of different types of organizations.........................................3
M1 Analyze how the structure, size and scope of different organizations link to the business
objectives and product and services offered by the organization............................................................4
LO2..............................................................................................................................................................6
P3 Explain the relationship between different organizational functions and how they link to
organizational objectives and structure...................................................................................................6
M2 Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of interrelationships between organizational functions
and the impact that can have upon organizational structure....................................................................7
D1 Provide a critical analysis of the complexities of different types of business structures and the
interrelationships of the different organizational functions.....................................................................8
LO3..............................................................................................................................................................9
P4, M3 Identify the positive and negative impacts the macro environment has upon business
operations, supported by specific examples............................................................................................9
LO 4...........................................................................................................................................................13
P5, M4 Conduct internal and external analysis of specific organisations in order to identify strengths
and weaknesses......................................................................................................................................13
P6 Explain how strengths and weaknesses interrelate with external macro factors..............................15
D2 critically evaluate the impacts that both macro and micro factors have upon business objectives
and decision-making..............................................................................................................................16
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................17
References..................................................................................................................................................18

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Hierarchical structure of Waitrose...............................................................................................7
Figure 2: Pestle analysis..............................................................................................................................9

Introduction
Business environment of the organization places the positive and negative influences on the organization
products and services. The factors impact the firm ability and also help in managing the customer
relationship that is the main purpose of the business. In this concern, the study will take the Waitrose
supermarket operating in UK dealing in food products and supermarket online shopping services. The
study will give different types of organizations like public, private and voluntary. The size and scope of
the businesses will be analyzed in the report.
The interrelationship of various functions within the organization and its linking with organizational
structure will be shown in the study. The negative and positive influences of the macro environment in
the business will be influenced on Waitrose by giving relevant examples. The study will highlight the
internal weaknesses and strengths of the business and their connection with the business objectives of
the Waitrose by giving the SWOT analysis.
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LO1
P1 Explain different types and purposes of organizations; public, private and voluntary sectors and legal
structures
The types and purposes of the organizations are presented below:-
Public sector organization: The public enterprises are mainly controlled and managed through the
government. The organization major purpose is to provide the goods and services at the reasonable price
or at free cost instead of making profits. For running the enterprises, the government provides the funds
which they receive through taxes and financial transfers of several levels of government (Bouckaert
et.al. 2016). For instance: ASDA is the public organization that functions under UK government and has
major purpose of offering services to the common public at low prices.
Legal structure: The structure is generally of limited organization in which ownership of the firm is
offered to public. Similarly ASDA is the limited organization of public that functions as profit earning
organization and can issues unlimited stock to the public.
Private sector organization: These organizations are managed through the private owners for running
the business. The owners appoint the director to make the decision on behalf of them for the business
betterment. Its main purpose is to gain the high profits and market share but by offering effective
customer satisfaction with respect to products and service quality offering (Alexander, 2014). In this
example Waitrose is considered which private retail organization in UK.
Legal structure: Its legal structure involves sole trader, public and private limited organization,
partnership and cooperatives.
 Sole trader: It is the business type that is controlled by the individual and main objective is to
generate the high profits. It has generally the small business like plumber, hair salon are
examples of this type.
 Partnership: It includes two or more than two owners to run the business. Profits and losses are
shared equally or on the pre-decided ratio between the partners. The example is Uber and specify
is large scale partnership.
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 Companies: It involves private and public sector organization that functions with the particular
number given through government and has the duty to use various employment laws. Private
limited firms functions with board members who has the duty to consider the stakeholders needs
(Besley, 2015). On the other side, public limited firms are on stock exchange and no particular
members are specified in it.
 Franchises: It is majorly functions under reputed brand at several places by meeting the legal
requirements. For example: Starbucks operates under large number of franchises stores across
the world.
 Co-operatives: It is created by individuals with some expertise and carried out the activities of
the business so as to earn the high profits. One of the common British cooperative is Co-
operative Press whose main activity is to print the news.
Voluntary sector organization: These are organizations which are not entirely governed through
government of the particular country. It is owned through groups of individual or by individual that is
basically referred as community firm for offering the public for meeting their different health or social
needs (Butler and Wilson, 2015). The famous voluntary organization is Cancer Research, UK who cures
cancer and offers other services related to it.
Legal structure: its structure can be Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Non Profit
Organization (NPOs). NGOs have the duty to spread the awareness in society in relation to health and
education. On the other side, NPOs has the duty to raise the standard of living irrespective of earning
revenues.
P2 Explain the size and scope of a range of different types of organizations
Public organization: the scope of the public sector business is to serve the individuals with respect to
offering the products at reasonable pricing (Ramanadham, 2019). For example: ASDA functions with
several opportunities present in the market to expand the business.
The organization market share is 15.3% in the UK retail market in the year 2017. The organization got
the success through new stores opening at the UK market. ASDA Limited is headquartered in England
and functions in 630 locations till 2017. Its income is around 1 billion pound and the big workforce is
180,000 people. Stakeholders of the organization are members, investors, community, government and
customers who need big return on the investment.
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Private organization: The private sector organization scope is different for its various legal structures.
For example: Waitrose functions as the private entity business and is governed through several laws and
regulations. It functions with several opportunities of business expansion at different locations and
sectors (Means, 2017).
The market share of the Waitrose is 5.1% in the year 2017 in the UK. The firm operates with 352
locations with 52, 590 employees. The revenue of the business is 5400.4 million pound with operating
income of 173.5 million pound. The major stakeholders of the Waitrose are customers, employees,
investors and suppliers.
Voluntary organization: This sector is significant part of creating the society strong enough. Number of
the outlets is rising across UK that shows more offering to the society for betterment (Ridley-Duff and
Bull, 2015). The voluntary organization, Cancer Research UK functions as NPO and their scope is to
serve the patients suffering from cancer by taking several researches.
The organization stands at top position in charity band index with respect to public awareness. The
business spends £644m in the recent years that includes around £393m on account of cancer patient
research and for spreading awareness approx £30m. Presently, it has around 40, 000 volunteers.
Charitable organization stakeholders are volunteers, government, employees, doctors, corporate
partners, fundraisers etc.
M1 Analyze how the structure, size and scope of different organizations link to the business objectives
and product and services offered by the organization
Different organizations functions with different structure, size and scope linked with the business
objectives, services and products it offers. The business structure shall be strong enough so that
organization can put the higher targets and professional objectives in competitive scenario. Taking the
example of ASDA and Waitrose both has specified objectives depending on the business size and
structure. But on the other side, like sole traders set the small objectives as single controlling is done by
owner only.
Furthermore, the objectives that the organization places based on the scope the business has. For
instance: Cancer Research helps the needy public for the treatment of cancer across UK and on this basis
the objectives of the business is decided. Offerings of the business are also based on scope, size and
structure of the business and they accordingly the products and services are provided to the public
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(Macmillan and Rees, 2019). For instance: Waitrose functions in wider structure of business and due to
this it has captured a better market share with serving enhanced variety of goods and services.
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LO2
P3 Explain the relationship between different organizational functions and how they link to
organizational objectives and structure
It has been determined that the Waitrose objectives are based on the functions of the business such as
marketing, human resource or financing. The most significant department is marketing in retail segment
for developing the strong customer relationships for gaining high competitive position in the market
parlance. The staff is aware for the responsibilities and roles for creating the marketing plan so that
consumers can be aware for the services and products. Marketing plan development requires functions
coordination such as human resource department with skilled resources.
Human resource department of the Waitrose has the duty to recruit the skilled candidates so as to meet
the business objectives and filling the vacant position in appropriate way. The HR manager has the duty
to communicate with the manager of industrial relations for managing the brand reputation with supplies
and customers (Noe et.al. 2017). Furthermore, HR manager has the duty to translate the policies of the
business among the employees for having effective business performance. HR manager also determines
the need of development and training sessions to bring the expertise in the employees to serve useful
customer services.
Finance department has the duty for presenting the budget to match the business objectives of every
department functioning in the Waitrose. The finance department is to be aligned with the HR department
and inventory department for carrying out several tasks for meeting the sales and purchases functions.
For example: inventory management is the significant function as it is connected with the customers
demand for the product in the market. Due to this, the store manager has to prepare the stock record to
store the inventory accordingly the budget given to them by the finance department.
Waitrose functions on the big scale and hence it applies it mix structure to carry out the business
activities. It helps the business to carry out the business operations according to change in the conditions
(Brunsson and Olsen, 2018). For example: when there is requirement of detailing for the distinct
departments the use of flat structure has been done in Waitrose. But in general context, the hierarchical
structure is taken in which high authorities have the duty to distribute the tasks of the particular
department. It also takes flexible structure when to introduce the new product in the market that supports
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in meeting the objectives. This type of structure is useful in exploring the functional operations of
several departments by meeting the market requirements.
Figure 1: Hierarchical structure of Waitrose
M2 Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of interrelationships between organizational functions
and the impact that can have upon organizational structure
Interconnection among functions of the organization places positive and negative influences both on the
organization structure. It has been determined that interconnections among the organization functions
will reduce the communication gap with the employees and it support to meet the business purposes in
useful way. For example: interlink in finance and marketing will support the Waitrose to develop the
marketing plan according to the allocation of budget done by finance department. Communicating the
information in several departments can help in getting high revenues in comparison with market
competitors.
Thus, interlink supports the staffs to examine the secure information of distinct departments and it shall
resist the organization to meet the objectives as it will place negative impact on business structure
(Bolman and Deal, 2017). Furthermore, it will raise the competition within the departments and this
shall force the staffs to communicate the wrong information also.
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D1 Provide a critical analysis of the complexities of different types of business structures and the
interrelationships of the different organizational functions
Waitrose functions as private organization and has the benefits for owner to involve in business
management. This type of organization has to give the taxes from the profits and investment they
generate. Hence, this business structure type needs legal supports for business set up. Furthermore, there
is presence of high complexities with different business structure in use. For instance: Waitrose
functions on global basis with central making of decision. It faces issues in relation to legal rules for
trading in UK and rest of the UK.
Interlinks among the functions of the business comes with the advantages and disadvantages for meeting
the business objectives. Interconnection increases the communication within the employees and due to
this it is easy for the business to increase the customer satisfaction which is the main purpose of
Waitrose (Belias and Koustelios, 2014). Hence, relationship internally raises the competition in the
employees of all the departments but it can raise the spread of wrong information that can impact
negative on the business.
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LO3
P4, M3 Identify the positive and negative impacts the macro environment has upon business
operations, supported by specific examples
The macro environmental factors can be determined with the support of external analysis that is
PESTLE that shows positive and negative impacts on Waitrose business operations.
Figure 2: Pestle analysis
(Source: Author, 2019)
Political: Waitrose is impacted through Brexit movement. The political factor influenced
through Brexit which creates uncertainties in retail segment by changing the regulations and
policies (Cadle et.al. 2014). Furthermore, the policies and laws influence the business functions
of Waitrose in both positive and negative manner.
Positive: due to Brexit movement, it is important for the UK government to overcome the risk
by formulating the laws and regulations. It will support the business to do the free trade business
across internationally and it has allowed Waitrose and other businesses to have the new
opportunities that contribute in getting higher profits and growth.
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