Table of Contents
TASK 1: Addressing and exhibiting an understanding to the Organizational purposes of the business.......2 1.1 Explain briefly the following types of organisaitons and their purposes:.............................................2 a)
Virgin Group LTD........................................................................................................................2
b)
Sainsbury PLC.............................................................................................................................2
c)
MC Donalds.................................................................................................................................3
d)
National Health services (NHS) England.....................................................................................3
e)
A corner shop near were I live......................................................................................................3
1.2 Considering Sainsbury PLC, describe the extent to which it meets the objectives of its different stakeholders.............................................................................................................................................4 1.3 Considering Sainsbury PLC, explain its various responsibilites as an organisaiton and the strategies it employs to meet them.............................................................................................................................5 TASK 2: Understanding the nature of the national environment in which businesses operate...................7 2.1 Giving relevant examples, briefly explain how different economic systems attempt to allocate resources effectively.................................................................................................................................7 2.2 Considering Sainsbury PLC UK, assess the impact of fiscal and monetary policy on their activities.....8 2.3 Explain the impact of competititon policy and other regulatory mechansism on the activities of Sainsbury PLC UK......................................................................................................................................9 TASK 3: Understanding the behaviour of organizations in their marketing environment..........................11 3.1 Explain how market structures determine the pricing and output deicisons of Sainsbury PLC UK......11 3.2 Illustrate how market forces shape Sainsbury PLC UK responses using a range of examples..............11 3.3 Explain how the business and cultural envoronments shape the behaviour of Sainsbury PLC UK.....12 Task 4: understanding the global factors and assess the significance of the global factors that shape national business activities........................................................................................................................14 4.1 Discuss the significance of international trade to Sainsbury PLC UK..................................................14 4.2 Analyse the impact of global factors on Sainsbury PLC UK.................................................................14 4.3 Evaluate the impact of polciies of the European Union on Sainsbury PLC UK....................................16 Bibliography..............................................................................................................................................18
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TASK 1: Addressing and exhibiting an understanding to the Organizational purposes of the business 1.1 Explain briefly the following types of organisaitons and their purposes: a) Virgin Group LTD Respected brand world-wide, Virgin is business that has successfully ventured in many businesses suchas investment and financial services, travel, holidays, health and well being, Mobile services etc to nasme a few.Richard Branson is the founder of the group. This company has work force of over more than 50,000 and is a business globaly functioning in more than 50 countries of the world. (Virgin, 2014) Purpose: Richard Branson adsvocates against restricting your business by having a defined and bounded purpose. Branson says that the common purpose of all Virgin’s business is to enhance life of the people by offering economical prices, products that are improved, services of great quality. (Branson, 2014)
However, being a publice limited company the purpose would be growth of the company
by issuing shares. Restricting takeovers of the business and maintaining profitability at all times.
b) Sainsbury PLC Founded in the year 1869 Sainsbury operated by a chaion of supermarkets and convienence stores. It has a workforce of over 160,000 employees. Purpose:
To establish itself as a market leader in providing best food at best prices. To source the raw materials helping and benefiting the environment Affecting the environment positively and be a great working place for all its employees (J Sainsbury plc, 2014)
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c) MC Donalds It is the world leader in the fast food hamburger chain of restaurents. It serves more than over 70 million customers on daily basis. It is a global company operating in about 190 countries. It has its headquaters in the United States. The company was founded by Richard and Maurice McDonald in the year 1940.(Burger Business, 2014) Purpose: Being a public limited company apart from the purpose of serving the community and adding value McDonalds
has
the
purpose
to
provide
constant
profitable
growths
to
all
its
shareholders.McDonalds funda of growth is by providing franchise of the company and letting people open McDonalds outlet.This has led to the expansion of company at such a high level globaly. (McDonalds, 2014) d) National Health services (NHS) England Launched in 1948, NHS is the world’s largest health service provider which is funded publicaly. Right from the time of its inception NHS had the principle of ; Meeting the need of all, provide free healthcare services based on the needs of the patient medicaly. Purpose:
Providing good health services to all Being free service at the point of delivery Providing services considering medical needs irrespective of the paying capacity of individuals
e) A corner shop near were I live Flower Shower is a corner shop near the place I live.Entrepreneurial venture of two friends this floral boutique has an element of innovation in them. They sell fresh flowers and dried flowers arranged in unique fashion.They also sell fruit bouquet. 3
Purpose:
Profit making Acquiring customers Having the first movers advantage as they are the only business in the locality offering the service
1.2 Considering Sainsbury PLC, describe the extent to which it meets the objectives of its different stakeholders Objectives of the shareholders
Extent of Sainsbury meeting the objectives
To get return on their investments in a short Annul report of Sainsbury shows improving span of time these shareholders seek short term profits every year. For shareholders investing profits.
less than a year it is a return on investment.
It can also be growths that is long termed and It has a long term strategy to deliver its not quick. These shareholders aim for the value shareholders having the highest market share increasement of the firm.
for a year,meeting the long term objectives.
To get dividends at regular intervals.
Financial stabliliy enables them to meet this
Shareholders
also
aim
to
influence
the
objective too.
management of the organisation in favour of the Sainsbuy indulges in regular board meetings achievement of their personal goals and targets.
and information exchange with its shareholders to understand their requirements and act in the benefit of the firm
They have the objective to minimise the risks It is trusted brand one of the Big Four grocery on their investnments by investing on a trusted chain of UK. brand that has low possibilities of losses
(J Sainsbury Plc, 2014)
(Kessler, 2014) Siansbury keeps its shareholders informed its website has a share holder center oriented to deliver the shareholders all the necessary information. It gives information about the company’s ordinary share and answers to all doubts of the shareholders by directing them to relevant links. Ordinary 4
shares of the company are listed on the LSE in the form this web page enables the shareholders to check the number of shares they posses, the value of the shares etc. It also informs the share holders abou the financial performances of the firm and informs them about the constitution of the board members at Siansbury’s and the management. (J Sainsbury plc, 2014) Conclusion: Sainsbury is very efficient in meeting the objectives of the shareholders.
1.3 Considering Sainsbury PLC, explain its various responsibilites as an organisaiton and the strategies it employs to meet them Sainsbury as an organisation has responsibilites to the elements of its internal as well as external environment.
They keep consulting with NGO’s and their stakeholders and have set various
responsibiltiesit has as an organisation. They have the responsibility dealing in the food business to deliver their customers
healthier and ethical products. They provide their customers with a wide rang eof food at economical pricing. The
suppliers are also paid adequate prices in Sainsbury’s. It is a huge employment provider and enriches the community byh creating and providing
many jobs. It makes decent and controlled usage of the non- renewable resources suchas electricity ,
water etc. It follows proper methods and treatments of discarding waste in a manner that does not
harm the society and the environment. Sainsbury takes the responsibility of being an ethical business. It is honest in providing information and meeting its responsibilities towards its shareholders and customers. (J Sainsbury plc, 2014)
TASK 2: Understanding the nature of the national environment in which businesses operate 2.1 Giving relevant examples, briefly explain how different economic systems attempt to allocate resources effectively
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Evey nation requires to deal with the proble of allocation of resources.This allocation is about;
What goods and services needs to be produced? How willthe process of production carried out And at whom will the production targeted to?
To answer these questions the Free and the Command System exists. Free Market Model
There is limimted involvement of the governemet in this system. The means of production show private ownership There is no or little constraints imposed by the governemet in the operation of the
businesses Individuals in a free market economy work for attaining their personal goals and motives. This is a decentralised system. Free enterprise exists in the free market system.This means there is no control of the
governemt for the allocation of resources to the businesses, individual businesses and suppliers can obtain resources and sell them as a araw material of the product of the choice
of the businesses. There is no external hinderance in obtaining and selling products. All there is no barrier of choosing up services by the people in the free market economy. Workers are free in the choice of their profession and the consumers can choose the product and the services they buy At their will.
Command Market Model
It is dominated by the government. The central planning authority act as price mechanism and allocates different resources. It focuses in equal allocation of resources. The governemt decides what goods and services are required to be produced in this system. Alllocation of resources is also at the discretion of the government Factor rewards are also determined by the governemt.(Eckstein, 1970)
Example: At times of the Second World War US government was controlling the economy of America when it concentrated in building arms and ammunition for the war. As supply was limited people had to return empty tubes of toothpastes to get a new one.(Notes, (n.d)) Mixed Market Model 6
It is not possible for a country to posses pure form of resource allocation by either the command or the free market systems. A mixture of the above two known as the mixed economic system exist in real life scenario.The resources are allocatede effectively by both the private bodies as well as the governemet. [ CITATION ebo \l 1033 ]
2.2 Considering Sainsbury PLC UK, assess the impact of fiscal and monetary policy on their activities Fiscal and monetary policy of the UK aims to stimulate functyioning of the business. Fiscal Policy: These constitue the programs devised for spending money and taxation policies formulated by the President and the Congress. Sainsbury is qaffected by the legislations governing and stimulating the econonmy and the specific legislation targetted at t he grocery business of UK. If the governemet passes tax cutting legislations it results in Sainsbury’s increase in spending a it has more money.The governemet tries to regulate the ecoinomic conditions by imposing regulations in the fiscal policies.Governement tries to give the people in the economy more disposable income at times of slowdown so that they have the capacity to purchaseFMCG goods leading to profitalbility in Sainsbury’s business. All the stages of the business cycle of Sainsbury is affected by the policies of the government including the prosperity, recession, depression stage and the stage of recovery. Monetary Policy: The Fedral Reserve system is responsible to for the expansion of the suplly of money by its moetary policies aiming to keep the inflation in control.An expansion monetary policy leads to an increqased money suipplykeeping the rate of interest low. As a result of this Sainsbury can also expand business operations as it will be easier for businesses to borry money at low rates of interest. Federal reserves also controls and decreases the money supply at times making interest rates go higher and making it difficult for businesses like Sainsbury to borrow money from the bank for expansion and other purposes.Sainsbury has the options to take advantages of the fiscal and the monetary policies of the government.(Metcalf, 2014)
2.3 Explain the impact of competititon policy and other regulatory mechansism on the activities of Sainsbury PLC UK 7
The Competition Commission enforces many policies that are oriented to foster healthy and better competition strategies amonst the various companies in the similar industry. The 1999 Competition Commision investigated the supermarkets in UK. The competititon policy prohibits below cost selling strategies of all the grocery chain of UK including Sainsbury, Asda and Tesco. It prohibits these market players from practicing those strategies that can affect the interst of suppliers and the interest of public.It recommends codes of practice that the Sainsbvury has accepted and follows it. Sainsbury’s has many competitors including Asda,, Tesco that are the local leading grocery chain competing with each other and the global grocery chains entering the grocery market of UK. The government formulates certain policies to ensure that completion is limited and functioning product markets are well ensured. For this purpose the government monitors;
Competition restricting agreements between companies Companies abusing their position of being a market leader by being the formulate and
regulator of prices It controls mergers and acquisition processes and provides state aids to companies that need help to expand its operations and grow. (Economics Network, (n.d))
Sainsbury along with two of its rivals Tesco and Asda offers their customers a guarentee of prices.Sainsbury tries to match the prices offered by Tesco and Asda by adopting various strategy inorder to thrive in the competitive market.
TASK 3: Understanding the behaviour of organizations in their marketing environment 3.1 Explain how market structures determine the pricing and output deicisons of Sainsbury PLC UK.
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The srtucture of the market in which businesses operates influences the way they behave and how efficient is the business in terms of matters of the economy and also how much is the business concerned about the well being of the customers it has. The market structure can be monopolistic, perfect competitve, oligopolistic and momopolictic competition. Analysis of the grocery market of the United Kingdom shows that this market has more than 93,000 grocery stores. They are operating in the forms of traditional retail stores, hypermarkets, convenience stores etc. The grocery market in UK has four, market leaders Asda, Morrison, Sainsbury and Tesco. These four firms share the larger portion of the grocery industry in UK. They compete with each other on several factors such as decisions related to pricing and promotion etc. These grocery giants of the UK create entry barriers to small firms like traditional grocery stores. So we can say that Sainsbury operates in the oligopolistic marketing structure.
3.2 Illustrate how market forces shape Sainsbury PLC UK responses using a range of examples. Market forces can be defined as the sum total of the demand ans supply in the marketing environmemntaffecting the prices of the goods and the services. Market ofrces regulate the price mechanisms leading to an increase in the price at the time of a decrease in the supply of goods or an increase in the demand of goods and the services at the time of decrease in the prices. Market forces affect the way a business functions. Any fluctuations in the demand and the supply affects the pricing systems and the availibility of the products in the market and also its quality.Forces in the market determine which goods and services needs to be produced at a particular time. However the food retailing business of UK being oligopolistic in nature is accused of controlling the market forces rather being controlled by it. The market leaders in the industry THE Big Four Asda, Morrison, Tesco and Sainsbury dictated the supply and demand leading small companies to file complaint against this to the Office of Faire Trade in the year 2000. A voluntary practice code
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established as a result of this control the market forces now.The suppliers can sell their products to only few organisations in the food retailing business. Sainsbury’s products were once premium priced as all the other market leaders sell their products at cheaper rates the premium pricing technique of products such as extra virgin oil and pasta sauce worked against Sainsbury and has become the reason of working against Sainsbury as it is stuck in between trying to work against the threat of rivals. (Cencage Publishing, (n.d))
3.3 Explain how the business and cultural envoronments shape the behaviour of Sainsbury PLC UK. The behaviour of organizations depends on the shape of the business and cultural environment they function. Sainsbury is also influenced by them. The business environment and culture gives the organization the rules and shape the strategies according to which organizations behave. The aim, mission and objective of Sainsbury are framed keeping in mind the business and cultural environment. Sainsbury operates in a business environment where there are few players that are the market leaders of the grocery business of UK Sainsbury being one of them takes major decisions and influence the entire business environment. The external environment of Sainsbury’s is shaped by the political, economic, social and technological factors. The UK government encourages trade and globalization favouring Sainsbury’s growth as well. BBC, 2014 says The UK economy will grow faster in 2014 than any other G7 state, while low wage rises will keep interest rates at 0.5% until next year. This means the economic conditions are growing further stronger leading to the increase in trade relations and growth of Sainsbury’s. With new technological advancements in the global economy, Sainsbury is adopting technological revolution to influence its environment furthermore. Business and organization’s culture has an important role to play. Sainsbury’s aspect of culture that are visible are the dress code followed in the organization, the way shelves were displayed, the ambience, colour themes they use, the store layout etc. The 10
cultural aspects hidden to the eyes are the values, beliefs, vision and the passion and ethics making the organization. Sainsbury stresses having employees that understand the role of positive attitude and have passionate behaviour, which is a must being a part of a customer facing organization. They recruit employees having the attitude for customer service. Sainsbury right from the point of its inception has proved to be a responsible business being considerate and ethical about the way they do things. (Sunny, 2010) Sainsbury operates with a strong cultural environment that pledgers to source with integrity and respects the environment. Sainsbury also takes part in various initiatives to help the environment.
Task 4: understanding the global factors and assess the significance of the global factors that shape national business activities 4.1 Discuss the significance of international trade to Sainsbury PLC UK International trade includes trading for products , services and currency amongst different countries. Advantage of international trade for Sainsbury will be it can utlilize resources to a greater limit. Many food products that are notr localy produced in the United Kingdom can be imported by the help of international trade. Increase in customer acquisition of the Sainsbury as international trade will enable Sainsbury to offer more choices to the customers attracting them. Sainsbury can develop international trades with the countries tha tcan offer them comparitive advantages benefiting both the countries. International trade and commerce mean globalization and paves way for possibility of expansion. The advancement in technological advancements has made international trade feasible and knitted the world in a small web. International trade leads to achieve more number of suppliers and possibility of finding better suppliers at economical prices which would mean Sainsbury’s can target on increase its profit margin without a sufficient price hike in its product this would
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help Sainsbury to gain competitive advantage over the other supermarkets in the UK and establishing itself better in the competitive grocery industry. (Dudovskiy, 2013) Sainsbury is a part of the fair trade that helps Sainsbury to indulge in ethical business and effect the environmemnt in a positive way.
4.2 Analyse the impact of global factors on Sainsbury PLC UK Businesses deal in the global environment having international trade relationships and suppliers so; global factors regulate the business operations. Global factors relate to the business’s access to global markets, spotting opportunist market and building trade and commerce. Sainsbury’s requires to increase the extent to which it will be competitive in the global markets. Sainsbury takes decisions considering the global market. Sainsbury can be determined by not only the size of the firm in terms of its own expansion but also through mergers, acquisition and take over’s it does in the global markets is an essential factor talking about the global success of the firm. The global environment consist the political, environmental, social and technological factors and a PEST analysis will help us to understand the impact of the global factors better. Political factors The political factors in the UK have great impact on the performance of Sainsbury. Currently in UK, the government debts and the consumer debts are very high. This impacts the customer attitudes and therefore business conditions experience great pressure. Sainsbury has to not only operate in these market conditions but also has to develop their business continually. Economic factors These factors affect demand, costs, prices and profitability. In the light of the economic slowdown, growing unemployment and inflation in food prices are important elements of economic factor that affects Sainsbury greatly. As a result of growth unemployment and high prices of food products, the demand for Sainsbury's products will decrease which in turn will
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decrease the production of food products. This will further lead to increase the food prices and unemployment just like a viscous circle effect. Sainsbury should decide on expanding into new markets and therefore globalization of Sainsbury's store will enable it to well-manage the risks associated with the economic slowdown. Social factors Customers prefer to have all the products available under one roof. Sainsbury by introducing non-food products have largely benefited from this strategy. With reduction in the people cooking meals at home and the onset of easy to prepare and less time taking options of eating, there is a growing demand pattern of a certain types of products. The marketing themes of Sainsbury being ‘Cook and Save' promotes easy to cook products thereby allowing the customers to have more options that they look for from the Sainsbury and increase in item sales. Technological factors The technological advancements have a positive impact on the business operations. There is a significant growth potential in the online or web based operations of the business. Online operations enable the organization to expand their operations in areas of growing demands. Environmental factors Sainsbury operates considering the environmental obligation as there is a huge global pressure to do so. (Alexander & Hansen, (n.d))
4.3 Evaluate the impact of polciies of the European Union on Sainsbury PLC UK Sainsbury supports the extent the EWuropean Union is in support of being commited to human health and protection of the customers.
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It sees food safety and sourcing with integrity as a part of its values. EU’s proposal on food safety is taken as Sainsbury as a tool to restore the confidence of its customers in it. Sainsbury being a trusted brand name in the grocery market of the United Kingdom is vigilant on the quality of food it sells adhering to the guidelines proposed by the European Union. Sainsbury is in favour of tracebility of product guideline that the European Union proposed and follows it. All brands and products of Sainsbury follows tracebility guidelines. Sainsbury believes that the European Unions idea to establish a European Food Authority is a measure to ensure that consumer safety and health is protected. Sainsbury employs scientist who perform risdk analysis of different products sold by the brand accepting the EU proposal.Sainsbury however is skeptical about making the EFA vbody the first contact point on all issues relating to scientific food information as from its inception the first point of customer interface about their queeries has been done by Sainsbury so it might result in lost of customer confidence. (European Commision, (n.d)) European commision gives various guidelines and set of standards for the grocery business of the member countries. Sainsbury being a responsible company adheres to these guidelines that it finds reasonably correct. However, it has doubts and uncertainity regarding certain proposals of the Union suchas being the prime point of contact with the customers. Bibliography 1. Alexander, J. A., & Hansen, E. ((n.d)). J. Sainsbury Plc and the Home Depot: Retailers' Impact on Sustainability. MacArthur Foundation. 2. Branson, R. (2014, April 28). Richard Branson on Developing a Vision for Your Company. Retrieved August 21, 2014, from Entrepreneur: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233206 3. Burger Business. (2014). Menu & Marketing News with Plenty of Napkins. Retrieved August 21, 2014, from Burger Business Web site: http://www.burgerbusiness.com/?p=9168 4. Cencage Publishing. ((n.d)). J. Sainsbury plc and the UK food retail industry . Retrieved August 22,
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