Watches of Switzerland Group PLC: Global Business Environment Report

This report provides an analysis of the global business environment impacting Watches of Switzerland, a British retailer specializing in Swiss watches. The methodology used is secondary research, focusing on key issues such as low demand and political uncertainty. The report examines global macro environmental factors, including political and legal aspects like Brexit's impact, economic factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on luxury brand demand, technological advancements, and social forces related to changing customer preferences. The analysis emphasizes the importance of understanding these factors for competitive advantage and mitigating negative impacts on the company's sales and profitability. The report references various sources, including the Watches of Switzerland Group PLC FY21 Results, to support its findings.

GLOBAL BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT

Table of Contents
Contextual background....................................................................................................................3
Methodology....................................................................................................................................3
Key issues........................................................................................................................................3
Global macro environmental factors...............................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

Contextual background
It is a British retailer that make sell of Swiss watches. Its headquarter is in Braunstone,
England. It is listed on London Stock Exchange with a constituent of FTSE 250 watches. It is
one of the largest and prestigious Jewellers and timepiece specialist that operate its business in
US and UK. It operates its business through 120 showrooms along with 3 online platforms and
websites. This means along with physical stores it perform its business through online medium.
It was established in 2007. The company’s profit before tax in FY21 is £63.7 million (Watches
of Switzerland Group PLC FY21 Results, 2021). It operating profit is £81.9 million. The stock
price of the company is 1080.
Figure 1Share rate
Source: Watches of Switzerland Group PLC FY21 Results, 2021
Methodology
For this research secondary methodology is adopted.
Key issues
The key issues include:
 Low demand
 Uncertainty in political environment

Global macro environmental factors
Macro environment refers to the external environment that is usually outside the frontier of
an organization and have major impact towards the organization. It is uncontrollable
environment. Thus, it is very important that the company must make analysis of this environment
so that required steps in relation with dealing towards the impact of this environment would be
taken.
Political and legal factors:
This factors includes the aspect of political parties and changing laws and regulations
(Frue, 2020). This factor have a direct and major impact towards the Watches of Switzerland
firm. This is because with the aspect of Brexit and occurrence of restrictions between UK and
EU the sales and profitability of the company is affected to a higher scale. Likewise, with the
imposition and presence of different laws in various countries the sales of the company would
also affect.
Economic factors:
This environment is related with the economy and its associated aspects including the
inflation, pricing, demand, economic condition and various other factors (LEYVA and et.al.,
2018). This environment need to be studied and consider by every company so that they can
make survival in the country. With the occurrence of covid pandemic and economic slowdown
the demand of luxury brand has affected at an extensive scale. This has also impact the demand
and sales of Watches of Switzerland.
Technology factor:
This factor is related with the aspect of technological changes including its upgradation
and advancement. With the occurrence of rapid changes in technology the sales of the Watches
of Switzerland firm would affected in terms of raising of sales proportion with the compliance of
technological changes and introduction of innovation in its products.
Social force:
This is one of the major and important global environment factor that has direct impact
towards the company and its operation because it is associated with the customer and their
demand (Shtal and et.al., 2018). With respect to the occurrence of changes in customer demand
the sales and profits of the company may also affect. With regard to the raising of attraction
among customers in relation with smart and digital watches the companies including Watches of

Switzerland firm need to make production accordingly otherwise it would have severe impact
towards its sales.
Thus, it would be right to state that in order to gain competitive advantage and safeguard the
company from the negative impact of macro environment an analysis of these factors are quite
important so that precautionary action would be taken on time and thus, impact would be
mitigated.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Frue, K., 2020. PEST Analysis Ultimate Guide: Definition, Template, Examples. PESTLE
Analysis.
LEYVA, and et.al., 2018. A framework for PEST analysis based on fuzzy decision maps. Revista
espacios. 39(16).
Shtal, and et.al., 2018. Methods of analysis of the external environment of business activities.
Online references
Watches of Switzerland Group PLC FY21 Results., 2021. [Online]. Available through <
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/WOSG/fy21-results/15050014>
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