Business and the Business Environment

Introduction

In the recent era of globalisations, the multinational corporate firms focus on developing effective organisational structure and functions for running the operational activities of the firms strategically (David, F.R. and David, F.R., 2019). The aim of the study is to analyse different size, types and structure of the organisations as well as identify the inter linkage between the organisational structure and functions in a particular company. The paper also focuses on analysing the macro and micro factors of running the business through PESTLE and SWOT analysis, where it is possible acknowledge the external business environment as well as internal strengths and weakness of the company in running the business strategically in near future. For those who are seeking guidance in this specific area, consider seeking a business dissertation help in place to navigate all the complexities of organizational analysis and strategic planning.

Explaining different types of organisations, their size and scope

As per the organisational size, there are three sizes such as large corporations, medium sized firm and small businesses and considering the types of the businesses, there are three types which are public, private and voluntary sector, where the firms are operating for different purposes. In this context, the public sector, the organisations are owned by the government of the country and on the other hand, in the private sector, the companies are owned by private proprietor as well as for the voluntary sector, the organisations including profit or non-profit firms focus on maximisation of the social welfare. The three types of the organisations will be illustrated further,

Public sector organisation, NHS:

National Health Service is an independent government regulated public health care providers in the UK where the aim of the organisation is to maximise the social values by delivering quality treatment and care to all the individuals who need health care service across the England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The organisation is regulated by the UK government, where the management team of the NHS focus on maximising quality of healthcare and provide the access where the individuals can afford the treatment and get the best possible care from the institution to maximise the standard of living (NHS, 2019).

Private sector firm, Lidl:

Lidl is the private sector firm, operating in the retail sector. The company is a German discounted supermarket chain which is successful to deliver high quality products and efficient services to the loyal customers. The employee base with more than 315000 staff members are also contributing in achieving the organisational success. The company’s mission is to maximise customer values by delivering quality products and services. The vision of the firm is to be a famous retail supermarket chain across the globe. In addition to this, the values of the firms are such as Maximising the organisational profitability and sales volume ion near future, creating values for all the stakeholders, managing people at the workplace as well as showing integrity and respect towards people and community giving and environmental sustainability (Lidl, 2019a).

Voluntary sector company, World Vision:

World vision is the charity firm who work with the children in need and the social communities as a whole. It gives support and fulfil the basic needs if the children in the society. The vision of the organisation is to serve every child and pray for them for better future (World vision, 2019a). In addition to this, the vision of the organisation is to maximise international partnership for serving the poor and promote human transformation for justice and fulfilling the basic needs of the children across the social communities. The organisation aims at working with the children by mitigating the root causes of poverty and gives them freedom to live, education and fulfil their basic needs of clothing, shelter, safety and security, food and others (World vision, 2019b).

Demonstrating the interrelationship of the various functions within an organisation and organisational structure

Lidl as a private organisation focus on developing effective organisational structure in the workplace so that it is possible to manage the organisational functions and operational activities of the organisations in long run. In this regard, the company focuses on vertical hierarchy where the company is successful with the proper organisational structure, where there is CEO at the top of the structure. The CEO of the company Lidl is efficient to make decision and manage the organisational managers where the managers are also proficient to develop effective tactics for maintaining the workers and handling the organisational activities to fulfil the pre specified organisational aims and objectives, set by the leader. In this regard, the major functions of the business Lidl are production, operations, finance, human resource and marketing which influence the managers to take active part in their experience field and fulfil the organisational objectives strategically (Lidl, 2019a). Under the production function, there is effective organisational structure where the production mangers handle the employees to manufacture the quality products and store it in the organisational warehouse. In addition to this, operations is another critical functions of the organisation, which needs appropriate structure in which the operation manager handle the activities including transfer of raw materials, maintaining warehouse for storing final products and distribution of the final goods and services across the international borders as per the market demand (Ansoff et al., 2018). The human resource is another department, where the employees and the organisational staff including suppliers and distributors, are managed well. In this regard, the activities such as managing human resource, providing proper tasks to each of the members, redesigning the rewards and incentives for the employees and managing safety and security are the functions under the human resource department where the human resource manager is efficient to handle the workplace and lead the employees towards achieving future success.

In addition to this, the marketing functions are there where as per the organisational structure, there is marketing department and the marketing managers are able to handle the marketing activities of the organisations for successful promotion of the organisational products and services as well as setting marketing gaols and targeting the emerging markets for Lidl to expand their business through restricting the promotional activities. Additionally, there is customer service department which is also linked with the functions of customer service management, where the activities such as managing the customers, supporting the consumers 24*7, resolving the queries of the buyers and developing strong customers service management strategies are conducted by the support manager, customer service supervisor, as well as the finance team including cashiers, stockers ad sales associates (Rothaermel, 2017). Hereby, as per the above analysis, it can be stated that, there is strong linkage between the organisational functions and the organisational structure where the multinational corporate firms try to develop effective structure according to the organisational functions so that the managers can develop effective strategic planning to fulfil the aims and objectives of the organisations. The CEO and board of director of Lidl also focus on the organisational functions and develop structural hierarchy with vertical structure where the structures are created as per the internal functions of the company (Lidl, 2019b).

Analysing the impacts of macro environment on business

The macro environmental factors are effective for the companies to analyse the external circumstances in running the business in the market. Through the pestle analysis, it is possible to analyse the external environment of Lidl which will be illustrated below.

Political:

Political stability is important factors where the government encourage the multinational corporate firms and contribute positively to enhance the activities in international trade and in this context government cooperation, encouraging globalisation and stable political environment further provide a scope to the business to expand their activities strategically (Thompson and McLarney, 2017).

Economic:

Economic growth with high per capita income and national income are contributing factors and it reshapes the retail industry as a whole, where the organisations can utilise the national income growth and enhance their international trade successfully. The company Lidl has the opportunity to utilise economic growth for expanding their business and enhance their international trade to secure future sustainable development.

Social:

The social development is another contributing factor to the retail industry, where the customers are well acknowledged about the latest activities of the business and they prefer innovative and creative products and services in the market, this further influences the retail firms including Lidl to enhance their product line and attract the audiences successfully (Thompson and McLarney, 2017). For successful social development, the company Lidl has also the scope to retain the customers through online activities and ecommerce service where strong relationship between the organisation and the customers can be built and Lidl would strengthen their customer’s base for future success.

Technological:

Technological advancement through Big data analysis, implementing ERP and GPS system in the organisation for managing warehouse and supply chain, cloud computing as well as e-commerce growth are effective as these latest technology provide a scope to the retail firms to manage their operational activities and ensure future sustainable growth where the companies are able to utilise latest upgraded technology to run their operations efficiently.

Legal:

The legal activities such as regulations in the food safety and security, tax norms and customer protection laws and legislations are effective where the company Lidl has the scope to run their business in a systematic manner and maintain business ethics for near future so that it can secure future sustainable growth (Shatskaya, Samarina and Nekhorosheva, 2016).

Environmental:

As per the environmental activities, in the recent era of globalisation, all the customers are concerned about protecting the environment and natural resources of globe. Hence, it is necessary for the firm Lidl to maintain business ethics and maximise green environmental footprint through operating in the retail chain sustainably. Hereby, the activities such as using renewable resources through solar panel implementation, utilising rain water for production and manufacturing as well as using electric cars for green supply chain management, and reducing the green house gas emission as well as managing food waste and product packaging system will provide a great opportunity to Lidl to maximise the brand image in the international retail industry and run their business strategically.

Determining the internal strengths and weaknesses of the business

The SWOT analysis is effective to understand the internal strengths and weaknesses of the firm Lidl as well as identify the market opportunities and threats in future where the firms can develop effective strategic planning for running the business by utilising the market opportunities and mitigating the threats. The SWOT analysis for the firm Lidl can be evaluated further, where strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities and threats are developed.

Strengths:

The major strengths of the business Lidl is string brand image, where the company is successful in running the business in the retail industry of the UK. Being a famous German supermarket, the company deliver quality products to the customers since 89 years. Hereby, it has strong brand image and it is considered to be strength for the company to retain long run customers for near future. In addition to this, good locations and string discounted supermarket are other strengths, where Lidl is successful to set lower rice for the quality products of the company. The aim of the organisation is to deliver high quality products and services at competitive price so that the customers can afford the products successfully and make effective purchase decision for the organisational quality products (Lidl, 2019a). Hereby, the company is string in managing the products quality and setting competitive price which can reflect the quality and quantity of the products. Through this process, the firm is also successful in creating customers value where it tries to deliver high amount of products at lower price and create values for all the customers. Hereby, the company Lidl has loyal customers base where the customers are trustworthy and make effective purchase decision for the organisational products and services of Lidl. Though the profitability of the brand is not much higher as compared to other market dominated retail supermarket chains like Tesco and Walmart, the brand Lidl has financial stability which can be considered as strength of the company, where the firm is able to maintain stability in financial performance in every year. Hereby, great pricing policy, financial stability and good locations as well as strong supply chain are the strengths of the company (Lidl, 2019b).

Weaknesses:

The major weaknesses of the company are such as lack of promotional activities, poor performance in the global retail sector and lack of profitability are the major weaknesses for which the company fails to grab the market opportunities and strengthen their position in the retail industry. The company is not efficient in investing more in the promotional activities to promote the organisational products and services in the global retail firm which hamper the brand image in the international retail industry (Lidl, 2019b). Additionally, poor performance in the market and lack of profitability are other weaknesses of the company for which it fails to gain high competitive advantage and market share in the retail sector across the international borders.

Opportunities:

Expansion of the ecommerce services across the globe is the major market opportunities, where the firm Lidl has the scope to explore new market and expand their business internationally. In addition o this, the company also has the opportunity to grab the market opportunity of high demand for fashionable products and efficient services which may be useful for the firm to strengthen their customers base. Product diversification and managing string product line of the organisation are other scope where the firm can grab the market by delivering a huge variety of products. Enhancing the creativity and innovation as well as expansion of the social media activities for promotion of the organisational products and services are also considered as future market opportunities for the company Lidl to explore the retail sector across the globe and expand the brand for securing future sustainable development.

Threats:

The major threats for the company are high and intense competition where there is threat of substitute products in the market and the threat of competitive brands operating in the global retail sector. Hereby, it is difficult for the company Lidl to gain high market share and run their operational activities smoothly.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, the organisational structure demands on the functions of the company where the multinational corporate firms focus on the functions and operations of the business and develop corresponding structure so that the organisational tasks can be performed well. In this context, the PESTLE and SWOT analysis is effective, where it can be stated that, there is favourable business environment for the company Lidl to expand their business across the international countries and secure future sustainable development. The strengths of the company such as financial stability, strong supply chain and brand image need to be utilised by Lidl to grab the market opportunities of high demand of the customers for innovative and diversified products and services at lower price. The company also needs to utilise the external business environment and ecommerce activities for successful expansion of the business and gain high market share in the global retail industry.

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Reference List

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David, F.R. and David, F.R., 2019. Strategic management: A competitive advantage approach, concepts and cases. London: Pearson.

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Shatskaya, E., Samarina, M. and Nekhorosheva, K., 2016. PESTEL analysis as a tool of strategic analysis in international markets. SCOPE ACADEMIC HOUSE B&M PUBLISHING, p.47.

Thompson, J. and McLarney, C., 2017. What effects will the strategy changes undertaken by next Plc have on themselves and their competition in the UK Clothing Retail Market?. Journal of Commerce and Management Thought, 8(2), p.234.

World vision, 2019a. About us. [online] Available at: https://www.worldvision.org.uk/who-we-are/about-world-vision/ [Accessed on 2 December 2019].

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