Business Analysis Assignment on Influential Business Environmental Factors

Question

Assignment Brief and Guidance
Scenario: Imagine that you have been employed as a Business Analyst by a large multinational organisation of your choice. Alternatively, you can use your own place of work (if appropriate), to investigate different types and sizes of business your selected organisation will have to compete with.

You are required to investigate and explain three different types of organisations, their size and classification to highlight differences between them. This should include their legal structure, size and scope, as well as their key stakeholders.

For one of the organisations you must then explain the various functions within the business and create an organisational chart to explain the interrelationships between different functions. You must also explain how this would be different in the other two organisations.

This will be presented as a report to the CEO and should include the following:

1. Introduction to provide an overview of different types of organisations and the growth of the international business environment.
2. An explanation of each of the chosen organisations, including: background details of the organisation; the products and services they supply; the size and scope of the organisation; their vision, mission and business objectives; the organisational and legal structure; and information about their stakeholders.
3. In detail, explain the functions for one of the chosen organisations, using an organisation chart to show how the functions interrelate and an explanation of how they relate to structure.

Assignment 2 Brief and Guidance
Scenario: With reference to Assignment one, you and your partner (pairs) have been employed as Business Analysts by a large multinational organisation to analyse the current environmental factors that influence or impact your chosen organisation.

1. Using PESTLE analysis identify and discuss the various macro environmental factors that impact on the business, highlighting the positive and negative impacts.
2. Apply a SWOT or TOWS analysis to your organisation to identify their key strengths and weaknesses. Explain the interrelationships these have with the external factors previously discussed.
3. Present the internal and external analysis of key findings and explain how they influence the decision-making process.

Answer

Executive summary
Organisation forms an integral part of the society without the help of which development or progress is not possible. In the contemporary times, various organisations seemed to have sprung up due to which changes, in environment; life style way of living has been modified largely. However, it requires to be mentioned here that these organisation can be classified under different types. To discuss the same, the current report has been prepared; it has analysed business environment and has identified its impact on decision-making process. Various scholars are of view that different organisations have varied scope, size with the common aim of gaining achievements. Keeping this mind, the current report has discussed in details about the different type of organisation one can find out in this contemporary business world. The first assignment has highlighted in details about various organisations including that of BBC, McDonalds and University of Cambridge along with their legal structures. A broad analysis has been carried out about the legal structure interrelationship of BBC. In addition, various advantages and disadvantages that BBC faces due to these interrelationships have been discussed as well.

On the other hand, the second assignment has focused on the external and internal environment of BBC network. A brief analysis has been carried out focusing on the factors that affect micro and macro environment of BBC thereby using SWOT and PESTEL tool. The later part of the report has observed the various impacts of theses environmental factors that influence the working environment of BBC.

Introduction
An organisation can be of different types and size. According to the size and sectors, the scope of the companies varies. Here in this report, a brief analysis of different types of companies, their size and scopes are done. With the rapid change of global business environment, the framework of the companies is changing rapidly too. In this aspect, three companies of different type have been taken under account in terms of discussing and comparing their various internal and external factors. This report is focused on the background of different companies and their comparison of size and scope. Legal structure and the key stakeholders are another comparative looks out of this report. Apart from that, a comparative study of the organisational framework of BBC has been discussed here. This report has discussed both the advantages and disadvantages of the interrelationship of the organisational functions.

1. Overview of different types of companies: International business, in the contemporary times, seemed to have enhanced due to continuous environmental changes and that of strategic imperatives. However, businesses critics are of view that international business have grew due to the gradual saturation of domestic market. Organisations on the other hand, have played major role in new-flanged business world. There are major different types of organisations, which include public, private, Sole Proprietorship and voluntary.

Public sectors: Public sectors are companies which much larger than any other sectors. They are supposed to be joint-stock company. As an example, BBC can be cited because the organisation can sell their shares, exchange stock to the public, and have greater finance than any other organisation. The legal structure of Public sector organisations are down by central or local government; even BBC follow the same pattern where the executive committee ids appointed to deliver BBC’s services in terms of strategy. As stated by Armenski et al. (2018) they are the nationalised industry, which provides their services to general people. This can be well associated with BBC as they are successful in providing news all over the globe. However, it has been found that BBC is not a state owned organisation but they follow the rules and regulations that have been set up by the government.

Public corporations are the companies that are founded by following acts of parliament or central or state legislature. It has its own separate legal entity. On the other hand, governmental companies are considered as those companies that focus on holding a paid share of about 51% through the state government or the central. This report has taken BBC under account as an example of public organisation. BBC is the world fastest growing network that has been meeting the requirements of current market thereby providing news all over the globe.

Private sectors: Private companies like Mc Donald’s occupy a legal structure that allows the company to run by individuals. It encompasses the profitable business that is not owned or operated by government. Private companies can be small or family-centred business just like Mc Donald. Shareholders, in most of the cases own them; in case of Mc Donald’s shareholders plays the most important role. As opined by Rankine, (2017) a shareholder of a private company, they cannot sell their shares to public. The business in private sector has a separate legal identity; in fact, Mc Donald’s have their separate and individual legal entity that has bounded their limits.

Figure 1: Types of Organisations
(Source: as influenced by Soaita et al. 2017)

It requires to be mentioned here that sole proprietorship can be considered under the Private sectors. These types of business organisations are owned and controlled by a single individual. As stated by Hassan, (2017) they have to pay their personal tax return as per their profit and expenses. For example, Mc Donald’s that has been serving their customers’ need since ages can be categorized under private sector.

Voluntary sectors: In this type of legal structure, unpaid management committee runs the foundation like Cambridge University. They do not work for any profit. Their focus is to do social works. They generally work for the profit of community. In reference to this, mention must be made of Cambridge University, an educational institution as a perfect example of voluntary sectors. Cambridge University has been considered as a charity subject claimed under Charities Act 2006. Voluntary sectors are mostly government sponsored or favoured by different trusts. Cambridge University has no separate legal identity, as it is a voluntary sector. The members and the management groups act as a group of individuals and the group has no separate legal status. It has been noticed that Cambridge University being a university does not have to pay legal tax to the government.

2. Explanation of each of the chosen organisations: This report has focused on three different types of organisations. In the viewpoint of Soon et al. (2017), it has been found that framework of organisation highly influences the mains and objective of that organisation. In addition, it requires to be mentioned here that the structure of an organisation depends largely on their strategy to manage the market level. Besides, it also helps to increase the working efficiency. Company offering food and beverage needs a simple structure while a worldwide broadcasting company follows a complex structure. BBC has taken under consideration as a public company. McDonald's is a private company and the University of Cambridge has taken as a voluntary sector.

Under Royal Charter, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been considered as a public organisation. BBC is the largest broadcasting company of the world, which acquire around 20,950 staffs. The annual revenue of BBC is approximately £166 million (bbc.com, 2018). They have drastically increased their growth in last few years. They include executive committee, a board of directors along with commercial and operational divisions. Organisational size and structure is a key factor for business objects. It is based on market management according to performance levels. A worldwide broadcasting company like BBC deals with a large number of human capital. As opined by Soaita et al. (2017) they have to look after their company structure more sincerely in terms to manage this huge number of employees. Business objectives and company structure can be as to be as two sides of a coin. They are two interrelated things. The way of achieving business goal and objectives relies on scope of organisation. These scopes include financial capital legal ethics and skills. The scope and growth of a company can depend on the geographical locations and risk factors too. In these aspects, BBC gets an advantageous position in this market (influenced by bbc.com, 2018). Mission of BBC is to entertain people through their programs they provide the information, education and entertainment to people worldwide. They are focused to become the most creative medium of spreading enlightenment through the world.BBC follows their values of trust, quality, creativity respect and collaborative work. Thus, the vision of this organisation is clear which states, “To be the most creative organisation on the world”

On the other hand, McDonald’s is a private sector serving food and beverages. They have their outlets in 120 countries. They are either owned outlets or franchised. They attract around 68 million customers each year. They occupy approx 1.9 million staffs. McDonald’s holds a market share of near about 127 million USD (Mcdonalds.com, 2017). Employees, customers, suppliers and others are the key stakeholders of this organisation. After comparing and conducting a thorough research, it has been found that the structure of organisation and the legal factors of BBC and MC Donald’s are completely different from one another. In this regards, Mc Donald’s mission deserves mention which states, “To be customer’s favourite place and way to eat and drink”. This is quite justifiable from the legal structure size and expansion that claims McDonald’s in UK has an advantageous position (telegraph.co.uk, 2018). Their structure helps them to become the UK’s largest food chain. They have more than 1250 outlets in UK and more than 90000 employees working Key of their success is their unique legal structure and their large size (Soon et al. 2017). Legal structure of the franchise business helps them to achieve success. Their recent growth in UK is also the outcome of their effective structure. However, the vision statement of Mc Donald’s has always been “To be world’s quick service restaurant experience”.

University of Cambridge has taken under consideration as a voluntary organisation. The main mission of this institute is to facilitate research materials to the students and a wide scope for learning (Cam.ac.uk, 2017). Mission and vision are dissimilar in nature in terms of BBC and McDonald’s. Their organisational structure and scopes are also different from each other. The key stakeholder of this foundation is the students. They are dedicated to student's welfare and social service. They have a different approach than that of conventional business organisation. According to the University administrator, they are aimed to deliver exclusive information to their students. They provide a large organisational structure along with libraries and research centers to create opportunity. Besides, they provide a large number of modern pieces of equipment in terms to provide skills training and exclusive learning to their students. The vision statement of Cambridge University "Advance the Frontiers of Technology" thereby aiming to hold the position of top ranked centres of excellence globally. The vast size and scope of the university is a major part of them in order to meet their objectives and create a large belt of knowledge.

Unique structures of these mentioned foundations are essential for their business motive and their business plan. All of these companies hold strong foothold in their own field and as well as is considered to exist in a pinnacle position within UK. BBC follows a hybrid business structure for incorporating different aspects of business process. They include some functional structure along with some geographical structure based on their location. They have their worldwide network of television, radio news, and studio. Mon the other hand McDonald’s are the fast food joint and University of Cambridge is focused to spread knowledge. Hence, it can be said that both of these companies follow a different approach than BBC. These separate approaches fulfil organizational objectives thereby sustaining the efficient structure.

3. Explanation of relationship between different organisational functions for one of the chosen organisations: The organisational framework and the legal structure of BBC are focused on broadcasting marketers worldwide. As stated by LÊgreid, (2017) they have developed their structure in terms to supporting different country demands. Different organizational functions in BBC include radio, human resource, news, security, property, strategy and finance. A hybrid framework is followed by BBC organisational structure. In this kind of structure, the operations are based on various functions including divisional patterns for products that focus on various commercial segments like studio, geographic locations, televisions, news, radio and so on.

Figure 2: Different types of segments used in BBC organisational structure
(Source: bbc.com, 2017)

The worldwide framework is followed by the organisation for covering each operation. Features of business control are the prime focus of BBC. The structure of BBC incorporates three types of board including that of journalism, commercial and that of creative, which further gives report to executive board and Governor Board. From the organisational structure, it is clear that the board comprises of a series of Board of Authority that includes Director-General who are entrusted with the task of managing other staff members. [Refer to Appendix]

BBC has their branch in three countries named Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland within UK. A foundation should maintain their function as per the geographical barriers. They should control their actions as per the legal requirements of that country. BBC should set their functional criteria and the actions according to the nations by meeting their laws of taxation. For this, they should recruit local staffs. The areas that supposed to give a large number of viewers should be focused while planning the business strategies. BBC operates different function-based groups that include, finance, marketing, broadcasting department, legal departments, and the HR department (as influenced by bbc.com, 2018). Functions of these departments are interrelated and promote organisational objectives. These functions are important in order to run the company smoothly. Managing a smooth functional strategy help the organisation to create distinct framework for successful performance. Following strategic functions are the key to achieving growth for the global company like BBC.

Hybrid framework is the major key for BBC in their way to achievement. As the largest broadcasting company, BBC follows a number of strategies that helps them to grow their network. As it works through Royal Charter, it needs to look after the operations in different countries and have to follow the requirements of the customers of those companies. The franchises of UK has successfully delivered services and achieved better growth in recent years (Theguardian.com, 2016). BBC is the example that has maintained a balance among organisational functions, scope, and the structure. This hybrid structure has some advantages and disadvantages in the organisational growth.

Advantages:

• Hybrid structure provides a logical reflection of each function and that functions are controlled by departmental functions.
• All the departments at is included in the functions must be implemented with professional and expert staffs.
• Hybrid functions develop easier coordination among functional activities.
• This process is focused on the specialisation principle.
• Functions should be divided according to the performance of the employees, which provide support for meeting marketing strategies.
• This system makes the monitoring process easier for the company. Implementing hybrid functions, company can monitor the growth of the very section.
• Director-General feel is able to easily achieve control over all departments to control each functional department.
• Another effectiveness of hybrid business is to resolve the HR complexities and internal business issues.
• Hybrid structure makes the work easier. Working on a hybrid structure help the employees to focus on a particular matter which in turn increase the working efficiency.
• It provides a flexible working environment which is the key to changing need of the market.

Disadvantages:

• Hybrid functions sometimes make the decision making procedure slow and bureaucratic. This happens as each decision in this system is to be approved by several departments. Therefore, if one department delays to give approval, the whole process will be stopped.
• Sometimes employees become over specialised and their viewpoints and outlook become narrow.
• Having a large number of departments with a large number of employees makes the process difficult to monitor the performance of each employee. As a consequence the accountability reduces.
• Hybrid structure is stereotype up to some extent in comparing to operational functions of BBC (as influenced by Standard.co.uk, 2017).
• Top level managers carry out the task of supervising profits and accounts and lower managerial levels reports to them
• Sometimes capabilities of employees to adopt the environmental changes become reduced because of interrelationship of functions. Another issue that an organisation can face because of the interrelationship of functions is the cease of career development. This happens because changes in one department affect the whole function.

On a similar ground, it can be said that functional and geographic framework helps in encouraging and increasing the rate of productivity thereby increasing the profitability at the same time. As opined by Soaita et al. (2017), it helps in promoting horizontal coordination and prevents any form of restricted view on organizational goals. These interrelationships also result in facilitating synchronsiation as well as keeping right track of all form of activities. Specialisation skills implementation is also key for securing high performance. On the other hand, interrelationship grows complexity because of the involvement of more departments at a time. These hamper the coordination between the employees. Thus, it is clear from the above explanation that interrelationship is closely associated with different types of organizations and posses great impact on the same.

Conclusion: This report has focused on the different types of organisations like public sectors, private sectors, and voluntary sectors. In this aspect BBC, McDonald’s and the University of Cambridge have taken under consideration as public, private and voluntary sectors respectively. It can be concluded from the report that these three types of organisations work in the different field in the market. Their scope, growth, and vision and mission all are different from each other. Therefore the relationship between organisational function and their effects to the organisational objectives and structure has been discussed in the aspect of BBC. From this part it can be concluded that interrelationship between functions has some advantageous impact on the company growth. It may increase the working efficiency and lower the workload on the employees. On the other hand, it has some bad effects too. It may break the synchronisation between employees. It has been accounted that this strategy may hamper the monitoring system in an organisation like BBC with a large number of employees.

Assignment 2
Introduction: In the present scenario, internal and external factors create a great impact on the business organisation and its development and competitiveness. The report has focused on the impact of various macros environment challenges on the BBC. It discuss about the political, economical, social, legal and environmental impacts on the BBC. The report also discuss about the strengths and weakness of the BBC. Not only has that it also revealed that how company strengths and weakness helps BBC in their decision-making. In the pestle analysis report briefly, discuss about the company gain and its opportunities. The market analysis of BBC also helps the company to develop its opportunities and makes positive decision to meet the weakness. The market analysis also helps the company to compete with other business organisation in business market.

1. Impact of various macro environment : Different macro environmental factors influence the business operations of different organisation among international, national and regional levels. The external factors help the organisation to achieve its objectives by the modification of strategy as per market requirements. As influenced by the idea of Theaker (2017), market analysis also helps to identify the threats and challenges of the organisation.

In reference to the opinion of SHTAL et al. (2018) business operations are often hindered due to external factors as they can provide wrong forecasts. Detailed analysis on these factors also does not provide proper guarantee on the organizational effectiveness. Macro analysis only provides the inputs about testing and strategic development. For an example, it can be said that a sudden climate change or modification on customer demand pushes organisation to implement changes in its strategic decisions.

From the above analysis, it has been seen that political factors hamper the strategic operation of BBC and creates a negative impact on market analysis. Social factors help BBC to forecast the possible changes in future market and analyze the future prospects of the organisation. Technological development and sustainability program develops fulfill the stakeholder demands and increases stability in competitive market (Salter et al. 2018). On the other hand, legal policies impose financial and broadcasting impediments on the company .

2. Strengths and weakness of the organisation: SWOT analysis of BBC shows the different strategic changes and decision-making analyzing the strengths and weakness of the company.

The micro environmental factors influence the strengths and weakness of an organisation. This internal environment also analyses the opportunities and threats of an organisation. From the above SWOT analysis, different threats have been found on the market value of BBC. This threat helps BBC to their future financial structure making. If BBC reduces its domestic channels then number of viewers will be increased. As stated by Saleem (2017), all changes that are brought about in customer’s preferences and needs influence organizational policies. For instance, BBC had to recently change its broadcasting services as result for customer demand for more numbers of entertainment channels. New software update and innovation of BBC increases competitiveness in business market.

3. Internal strengths and weaknesses of organisations: Weakness and strengths within an organisation are two interrelated factors in macro-environment of an organisation. The management team provided an overview that that certain unavoidable and unpredictable changes within these macro environments could highly influence the decision-making process of a company. In this context, it can be said that if the company has enough capital, these changes cannot affect their strategies. In another context, if the company get rapid staff turnover, the global inflation rates can cause economic turmoil and the organisation may fail to pay the proper salary to their employees. On the other hand, political environment of a country can affect the organisational environment. In this aspect, political environment is an important macro factor that affects strengths and weakness of a company. Politically strong companies can take their steps confidently. In order to resolve this problem, company can recruit expert staffs to meet the political requirements and changes. They should be aware of the political changes in country and effect of the political environment in organisational growth.

Apart from that resource of a foundation and the socio-culturefactors are interrelated. As opined by Háša and Brunet-Thornton, (2017) in order to meet customer preference and attract more customers, a company should follow a business strategy that allows them to abundant financial and natural resources. Working efficiency of employees and coordination between team members and team leaders is a driving force for growth of company. In this aspect, the company must hire an influential team leader, who can motivate the employees to meet goal and make them self sufficient to take their own decision. Along with these macro environments, cultural environment of the workplace is also a responsible factor in terms of building up strength. The cultural environment of workplace impacts the employees in an effective way. Maintaining a healthy culture may allow the employees to focus on their job, which will increase their working efficiency. Therefore, conducting an efficient analysis of external and internal factors of a company helps to identify the weakness and strengths of them and that directly influence their decision-making capabilities.

Conclusion: This study shows that, in terms to run a successful organisation and meet their objectives a company must incorporate some strategic plans and responsible staffs. It is very important to follow systemic structure in order to survive in this competitive world. Another important factor that can be concluded from this study is that responsible and skilled staffs must be recruited in every department of a company to make it strong. From the above analysis of BBC’s organisational framework, it can be assumed that if the certain activities are placed properly, then there are high chances to bring modification in business performance and thereby generating positive outcomes for the organisation. Business and marketing strategies must be improvised in terms to get an efficient outcome. Every company follows their unique business strategies to achieve their ultimate goal. From the analysis of macro and micro-environmental factors that affect the strength and weakness of a company, it can be concluded that they can affect the organisation both good and bad way. In this aspect, company should revise their strategy and implement new strategic techniques as per requirement.

References
Books
Háša, S. and Brunet-Thornton, R. eds., (2017). Impact of organizational trauma on workplace behavior and performance. IGI Global.

LÊgreid, P., (2017). Transcending new public management: the transformation of public sector reforms. Routledge.

Journals
Armenski, T., Dwyer, L. and Pavlukovi?, V., (2018). Destination competitiveness: public and private sector tourism management in Serbia. Journal of Travel Research, 57(3), pp.384-398.

Fargani, H., Cheung, W.M. and Hasan, R., (2018). Ranking of factors that underlie the drivers of sustainable manufacturing based on their variation in a sample of UK manufacturing plants. International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 32(3), pp.297-311.

Hassan, R., (2017). Unit-3 Social Organisation And Dynamic Theories Ofstructure. IGNOU.pp33

Rankine, M., (2017). Making the connections: A practice model for reflective supervision. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 29(3), p.66.

Saleem, M.A., (2017). The impact of socio-economic factors on small business success. Geografia-Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 8(1) pp 24 - 29.

Salter, A., Salandra, R. and Walker, J., (2017). Exploring preferences for impact versus publications among UK business and management academics. Research Policy, 46(10), pp.1769-1782.

Soaita, A.M., Searle, B.A., McKee, K. and Moore, T., (2017). Becoming a landlord: strategies of property-based welfare in the private rental sector in Great Britain. Housing Studies, 32(5), pp.613-637.

Song, J., Sun, Y. and Jin, L., (2017). PESTEL analysis of the development of the waste-to-energy incineration industry in China. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 80, pp.276-289.

Soon, J.M., Chandia, M. and Regenstein, J.M., (2017). Halal integrity in the food supply chain. British Food Journal, 119(1), pp.39-51.

Online articles
Darabpour, M.R., Darabpour, M., Sardroud, J.M., Smallwood, J. and Tabarsa, G., 2018. Practical Approaches Toward Sustainable Development in Iranian Green Construction. Civil Engineering Journal, 4(10), pp.2450-2465.[ONLINE] Available at: http://www.civilejournal.org/index.php/cej/article/view/1019 Accessed on:31.12.2018

SHTAL, T.V., BURIAK, M.M., AMIRBEKULY, Y., UKUBASSOVA, G.S., KASKIN, T.T. and TOIBOLDINOVA, Z.G., 2018. Methods of analysis of the external environment of business activities. Revista ESPACIOS, 39(12). .[ONLINE] Available at: http://www.revistaespacios.com/a18v39n12/18391222.html Accessed on:31.12.2018

Theaker, A., 2017. What is public relations?. In The Public Relations Strategic Toolkit (pp. 17-27). Routledge. .[ONLINE] Available at: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415428026/casestudy_napoli.asp Accessed on:31.12.2018

Websites
bbc.co.uk (2018) INSIDE THE BBC Available At: http://www.bbc.co.uk/corporate2/insidethebbc/whoweare/mission_and_values [Accessed On: 27th December 2018]

bbc.com. (2017). BBC. Accessed from: https://www.bbc.com./ [Accessed on: 26th December 2018]

cam.ac.uk. (2017). University of Cambridge. Accessed from: https://www.cam.ac.uk/ [Accessed on: 23rd December 2018]

mcdonalds.com .(2017). McDonald’s. Accessed from: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us.html [Accessed on: 24th December 2018]

Standard.co.uk. (2017). BBC accused of 'bias' after row over election newspaper reviews. Available at: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/bbc-accused-of-bias-after-row-over-general-election-newspaper-reviews-a3543591.html [Accessed on 26th December. 2018].

telegraph.co.uk (2018) 15 Fascinating facts about McDonald's in UK Available At:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/11223308/15-Fascinating-facts-about-McDonalds-in-UK.html[Accessed On: 24th December 2018]

Theguardian.com. (2016). BBC may have shown bias against Corbyn, says former trust chair. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/12/bbc-bias-labour-sir-michael-lyons [Accessed on 24th December. 2018]

Appendix: BBC Organisational Structure

(Source: https://www.hierarchystructure.com/bbc-hierarchy/)