Understanding the Business Environment

As part of the formal assessment for the programme you are required to submit an Understanding the Business Environment assignment. Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the programme assessment scheme and general information on preparing and submitting assignments.

Choose an organisation with which you are familiar, either the one where you currently work, a previous employer or one for which you have access to the required information. You should use this organisation (and the industry in which it operates) as your example when one is required.

Business organisations can be classified according to many types of criteria.

Provide an introduction to an organisation with which you are familiar, identifying the legal structure (public company, private company, voluntary, charity, public sector, etc.) along with an outline of the operations/purpose of your organisation and its main objectives.

Identify and explain the market structure under which the organisation operates, including a discussion of how the market structure affects the behaviour of the organisation in looking to achieve a competitive advantage.

Define the following terms: stakeholder; shareholder and stakeholder analysis. Using a named real company of your choice, demonstrate how you would apply the stakeholder analysis process to identify the companys stakeholder groups and evaluate their needs and influence.

This Task requires you to research the organisation highlighted and then undertake a business environment analysis using appropriate business analysis tools/frameworks to identify critical issues facing the organisation both in the domestic and international market environments.

1. Discuss three reasons why it is imperative for your selected organisation to analyse the business environment it faces. Using the PESTEL framework, identify and explain at least five (5) important macro environmental influences currently affecting your chosen organisation.
2. Explain the importance of Porters Five (5)-Forces model. Using the Five-Forces model, examine the current behaviour of the selected organisation and explain what you believe to be the five (5) most critical influences arising from the competitive market environments, both nationally and internationally.

Referring to the Key Performance Indicators in the annual report of the organisation in Task 3, evaluate the development of the business with reference to short-term and long-term performance. In your own assessment, do you believe current growth reporting practice is balanced in terms of financial and non-financial measures of performance? Justify your answer and provide recommendations for improvement.