Analyzing the Global Business Environment: Watches of Switzerland PLC

This report provides an analysis of the global business environment impacting Watches of Switzerland, a British retailer specializing in luxury watches. It identifies key issues such as inflation, global economic growth (GDP), currency exchange rates, and supply and demand elasticity. The report includes a PESTEL analysis, examining the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors affecting the company's operations. It highlights the importance of economic policies, technological advancements, and environmental responsibility for Watches of Switzerland's performance and strategic planning. The analysis considers factors like unemployment rates, GDP growth, and evolving technology in luxury watches, emphasizing the need for adapting to new technologies and reducing carbon footprint. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wide range of study resources including past papers and solved assignments for students.

Global Business
Environment

Contents
Contextual Background..............................................................................................................3
Key issues...................................................................................................................................3
Global macro Environment........................................................................................................3
References..................................................................................................................................4

Contextual Background
Watches of Switzerland is a British retailer public limited company which serves customers
in United Kingdom.The company offers men’s and women’s watches with servicing,
restoration, reproofing, battery change and other services too. It’s headquarter is in
Braunstone England. It was founded in 1924.It is listed on the London stock exchange and is
a constituent of the FTSE 250 index. It is a multi-channel that offers classic watches, fashion
and jewellery in a partnership with OMEGA, Rolex, Heuer, Piguet and Audemars.It has
stores all over the United Kingdom.
If any luxury watch business wants to enhance its brand performance then it’s very
important to be consistent on top of industry with applying all the changes.
Key issues list
 Inflation –It is one of the main problem because it is directly connected to economic
growth and prices.
 Global economic growth (GDP)-it is a key- tool which helps to guide policy-makers
and investors in final decision making .It is the total market value of all the finalised
products and services for a particular period of time .It is ascertained annually and
quarterly.
 Major currency exchange rates-A company can avoid the risk by quoting price in U.S
dollars because the burden will be shifted on the end buyer .It has disadvantages too
like company can lose export opportunities by selling in the counterparties’ local
currency.
 Supply and Demand Elasticity of demand-These two shows the relationship between
price and the number of units demanded or supplied. It is affected by different factors
like time period ,price levels and nature of goods.
 Share price , dividend performance, Price earnings ratio, market capitalization, cash
on hand and reserves –these factors also focuses on shifting the supply and demand.
There are several factors that causes rise and fall for example if so many people want
to buy the company’s shares then the price will increase while supply is greater than
demand then the price will fall(Reid and Lee, 2018).
 Firm performance benchmarking- it is an essential role for many companies as it
provides way to tackle the problems and form a plan according to that for better

decision making and improving the existing opportunities. It includes different tasks
like gaining a new prespective,setting new goals ,improving performance and
productivity.
PESTEL ANALYSIS of Watches of Switzerland:
Political factor
There are several factors which affect the operations of Watches of Switzerland as the
products are sold all over the world but its manufacturing is mainly done is Switzerland so,
the policies which are being followed here, matters a lot. Policies of that particular country is
very important for its smooth operations.
Economical factor- higher unemployment will affects the income in the economy which
will directly affect the performance of Watches of Switzerland.
Social factor-It is also important to look after the economic system of that particular country
which means the country where the main operations are being done should have a growing
GDP so that Watches of Switzerland also grows at a better rate.
Technological factor –in case of luxuary watches the technology is ever evolving like earlier
it used to be an analog phase but now it has shifted to digital ones.Now a days it shows each
and every thing like date ,directions,hearbeat,steps and so on.Company also find new ways to
retain existing customers and attract new ones. The advancement in technology improved the
quality,operations and services. Therefore, technology plays a vital role in organisation. (Xie
and Redding, 2018).
Environmental factor
In this environmentally endangered era of technology the best thing a company do is to
reduce its carbon footprint. Therefore ,Watches of Swizerland has to follow or has to
upgrade in opting the new technology which will less impact the environment.
Legal factor
being a bigger brand,it has to follow legal norms realted to taxes,labour,environment and
many more which bends the company towards the legal formalities, it leads to increases
expenses and pressure in its daily operations.

References
Books and Journals
Xie, E. and Redding, K.S., 2018. State-owned enterprises in the
contemporary global business scenario: Introduction. International Journal
of Public Sector Management.
Reid, D. and Lee, K.H., 2018. Strategic planning practices in Hong Kong: a
cultural dimension. In Global Business (pp. 238-258). Routledge.