Exploring Business Activity
Scenario:
Tesco’s core purpose is to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty. (Source: www.tesco.com). Tesco is Cancer Research UK Charity of the Year for 2012. They aim is to raise around £10million to help find the cure for cancer but also help keeping families together by prolonging lives. Cancer Research is therefore the leading charity to help patients suffering with cancer.
Task 1:
There are different aspects of business activity in the United Kingdom’s economy; this involves the Primary sector, Secondary sector and Tertiary sector.
Primary sector involves extracting raw products from natural resources for example farming.
Secondary sector is the main sector in the economy this includes industrial manufacturers of finishing products from raw material this includes both light and heavy industries. An example of secondary sector involves making plastic from oil.
The final business activity is tertiary, tertiary sector is a voluntary or non-profit sector of the economy. These provide services to individuals and businesses.
The two organisations I am going to describe the purposes of are Tesco and Cancer Research UK. Tesco’s and Cancer Research Up are two very different types of businesses. Tesco’s is a profit organisation while cancer is a non-profit organisation. Profit organisations rely on keeping running costs to a minimum. These running costs are the day-today costs that are needed to help run the organisation. For a profit to be made, the money received from sales, cover more than the running costs. An example of a profit is Tesco’s they make 7p profit for every £1 that is spent in their stores. Most businesses are set up to make a profit but however some aren’t. A Non-profit business is setup for different purposes compared to profit based business. The aims of these organisations are to seek money and give donations this is run on a business line. However they do need money as they have many paid workers. An example of a non-profit organisation is Cancer research
There are many different types of sectors in which a business can operate. These include public, private and voluntary sectors. In the public sector businesses are therefore owned by the government or companies appointed by the government to provide a service. In the private sector businesses are then owned by individuals. An individual owner is a single owner, a group of partners or shareholders. Finally in the voluntary sector, businesses have groups that are each responsible for the organisation and how the business is run.
There are many different types of ownership and this includes sole trades, partnerships, public and private limited companies, work co-operatives and charitable trust.

Sole traders;
A sole trader business is controlled and owned by one person. There are not any complicated requirements to set up as a sole trader business. Advantages of a Sole Trader are that all profits go directly to the owner, decisions can be made quickly and there is close contact between customers and employees. On the other hand there are also many disadvantages as all decisions are made by you; Sole Traders also tend to work longer hours resulting in fewer holidays and where any debt is accrued by the business remains the sole responsibility of the owner.
Partnership;
A partnership is formed by signing a deed of partnership. This means different partners have different responsibilities and may be paid different percentages of the profits. Before this is done this has to be supervised by a solicitor. An example of a partnership would be a Dental Practice. Advantages are that the partners can share knowledge, skills and work load and also the possibility is more free time. The disadvantages include differences over decision making, profits have to be shared and the reluctance of partners to borrow or raise large amounts of money when required.
Public and Private Limited Companies;
A limited company has to be registered by the government before it is able to operate. The owners of these companies are shareholders, these are people who have an interest in the company by investing their own private money by buying shares in the company and in return they receive profits in the form of dividends. These companies hold annual general meetings and this is a report of how the company is doing. The Managing Director is responsible to the board that runs the company and he provides specialist advice for the business. There are two different types of Limited company
Private Limited Company offers limited liability, or legal protection for its shareholders but that places certain restrictions on its ownership. These restrictions are defined in the company's regulations and are meant to prevent any hostile takeover attempt. Shareholders cannot sell or transfer their shares without offering them first to other shareholders for purchase. Shareholders also cannot offer their shares to the general public over a exchange. The number of shareholders cannot exceed a fixed figure (commonly 50). Ref: BusinessDictionary.com
Public Limited Company is a company whose shares are traded on a stock exchange and can be bought and sold by anyone. Public companies are strictly regulated, and are required by law to publish their complete and true financial position so that investors can determine the true worth of its stock (shares). Ref: BusinessDictionary.com

Government Departments and Agencies
Government Departments administer public policy. Employees for such departments are usually known as Civil Servants. These departments are responsible for the overseeing of such things as Income Tax collection and Defence.
Government Agencies are independent bodies tasked by the Government and they take up responsibilities in particular activities e.g. the Child Protection Agency which involves the rights of children. This agency is funded by the government and is accountable to the government but it does have some freedom to manage its own affairs
Work Co-operatives
This is owed by people who work for it. This body has limited liability and to become a member you must buy a share in the organisation. This makes this body a fair organisation as everyone has a vote in decision making on the basis of one member, one vote principle. This is democratic and prevents larger shareholders taking control. Profit sharing is made on the basis of how many shares are held, each share allocated an equal dividend. These co-operatives are usually referred to as Co-Ops.
Charitable trust
This is a charity organisation and helps raised funds and supports a good cause, the objective is to help others. A surplus occurs when the revenue is greater than the running cost of the charity. These organisations rely on voluntary work though larger charitable organisations have paid staff resulting in them using some of the funds to pay wages, and these businesses do not aim to make a profit.

Summary of the different types of Ownership Type of Business | Owned by | Controlled by | Financed by | Legal Formalities | Liability | Sole Trader | Owner | Owner | Owner | No | Unlimited | Partnership | Partners | Partners | Partners | Limited | Shared | Private Ltd Co | Shareholders | Board of Directors | Shareholders | Limited | Limited | Public Ltd Co | Shareholders | Main shareholder | Shareholders | Yes | Shared | Government departments and agencies | Government | Government | Tax Payers (government) | Yes | Unlimited | Work co-operatives | Workers (shareholders) | Workers (shareholders) | Workers (shareholders) | No | Limited | Charitable | Government | Board of directors of the charity | People | Limited | Limited |

Task 2
In this task I am going to explain how Tesco and Cancer Research is organised. Different organisations are organised by different types of methods these include Function, Geographical area, Product group or type of customer.
Tesco and Cancer Research are two different types of organisations, as they both have different aims and objectives.
Tesco is organised by the method function. Function is an action that is performed by a device, department or person that produces a result. Most businesses are organised by function. This follows a structure where employees are grouped depending on the department, then managed through different lines of authority, with one person on top of this scale. Tesco have 12 different departments cover different products for different personalities and age groups therefore increasing a wider range of customers. These departments include Baby and Toddler, Books, Clothing, DIY and Car, Gifts and Jewellery, Health and Beauty, Home and Furniture, Home Electrical, Sports and Leisure, Technology and Gaming and Toys. This explains why Tesco is organised by functions and different department’s needs different types of skills and requirements for the job e.g. Tesco mobile if a complaint comes in about the phone then the employee needs to know how to fix this problem, while in DIY and Car the employee must have a working knowledge of how to work the tools.
Tesco is a profit making company with shareholders and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. Tesco pay an annual dividend to these shareholders and this dividend is released at the companies AGM each year As Tesco shares are listed on the stock exchange, they can be bought by anybody. Shareholders invest in companies, by buying their shares, to make money thus Tesco is subject to market forces and can see its share price rise or fall depending on the company’s performance. As a profit making company, Tesco is subject to the United Kingdom laws governing the payment of tax.

Cancer Research UK is very different compared to Tesco as Cancer Research is organised by geographical area. Geographical area is when a firm is organised into geographical units this includes regional, national and international. A central headquarters is required to administer all areas functions. Cancer Researches headquarters is in Angel Building, 407 St John Street, London, EC1V4AD. Cancer Research is an organisation that is set up to raise funds and support people in the UK that are suffering from Cancer.
Cancer Research relies on volunteers to help raise awareness of the illness, but Cancer Research needs a lot of money to help pay for their doctors that work on the illness and research into finding a cure for the disease. This money is raised by various means such as organising charitable events, Television adverts, public donations and a chain of charity shops selling various items which have been donated by the general public. All profits made from this fundraising are then used in various ways such as hospice care, doctors, nurses and scientific research.
Cancer Research UK is a reregistered charity and therefore is not subject to paying tax on any monies earned. This is a legal process which must be approved by the Government and this makes Cancer Research UK a Non-Profit making organisation.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cancer+research+uk+headquarters

Cancer Research and Tesco’s therefore have different aims and objectives as they are two different types of organisations. Cancer Research aims and objectives are to overall find a cure for cancer, help new new medicine to help prolong lives, developing new treatments to help the pain cancer causes, help families that have a loved one suffering from cancer and finally fund doctor to work on this disease. An example of this will be in Yorkshire as £20 million pounds is spent on over 200 doctors. These aims are decided by the health service as Cancer is the biggest disease in the UK. Cancer kills the future of the country, the experience and the skilled reducing the amount of opportunity the country has to develop and also the amount of money the country makes. On the other hand Tesco’s aims and objective are very different. They include making a profit, maximum sales, stay as number one retail in the UK, outshine other competition and finally offer high quality goods for cheap prices. These aims are decided by the shareholders of the company as they pay money to run Tesco’s hence they want more money back. If Tesco didn’t have aims and objectives the company wouldn’t be as successful as it today, as this gives them a target to work for.
These aims for both companies are decided by the type of organisation they are. Cancer Research UK aim is to help people and families who are suffering from the deadly disease while Tesco’s aim is to make a profit there increasing their business hence making more money hence linking into the purpose of the organisation.