To: Mr Finean
From: Eliza Davenport
Date: 30/09/13

“Business environment refers to different internal and external forces or surroundings that affect business operations.” – The Business Dictionary
Task 1 - Pass 1
Marks and Spencer
Mark and spencer’s is an international Pubic Limited Company (PLC.) Its headquarters are in the city of Westminster, London. With 703 stores in the United Kingdom and 361 other stores spread across 40 countries this Company is international. The company began on 28th of September by Michael Marks and tom Spencer, the offer the combination of both clothes and food shopping in one store which was one of the very few stores to do so. I think M&S’s main sources of threat are from large stores that sell clothes and/or foods such as Waitrose or Debenhams, even though they do not sell the option of both foods and clothes, they are still very well known and share the same market as M&S does, decreasing M&S’s market share.
The company being a PLC means that it has a lot of shareholders, which makes it have more stakeholders than a private limited company would, M&S would want to be a PLC because the money spent by the public on shares will add to their revenue and help the company to grow quicker. There are advantages and disadvantages to this as every sector will have.
Advantages of a Public Limited Company are; * The shareholders have limited liability, so if M&S ever lost a great amount of money the shareholders wouldn’t have to put this right out of their own pocket. * A company can raise additional capital by selling more shares, this is good for M&S as raising their capital can help their company grow quicker and will increaser their market share. * Shareholders can sell their shares freely Disadvantages include;
There is a loss of overall ownership, meaning M&S don’t have one owner who has final say, there are many voices and opinions that need to be heard, so making any simple decision may become more difficult.
There is less control over the business than there would be from one domain, this is similar to the disadvantage above, having no one that has the highest jurisdiction makes it harder to make decisions. * Decisions take longer and there may be disagreement, this is due to having more than one opinion that counts, everyone that has control over the company has a say and it’s very rare chance that everyone will agree, especially as more shares are sold and more people become in control. * Significant expenses are incurred when setting up a company * Profits are split between a greater number of people, resulting in a smaller amount for individuals. * Public disclosure of the financial affairs is necessary. | | | | | This is M&S’s Profits and turnovers for the last 17 years that are made available for the public. The purpose of M&S is to provide a service to their customers, at a cost but also to make a profit whilst providing a good product and service. M&S have 703 stores in the Unite Kingdom and 361 stores spread across more than 40 countries, this shows that M&S are on a Global scale, this also shows they have a very large company as the amount of employees needed to cover these stores will be a great deal. | | | | |
BBC
The British broadcasting Corporation is a worldwide limited company (Ltd) The BBC is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London and has major production centers in Salford Quays, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and Glasgow, and smaller production centers throughout the UK.
The ownership of BBC is a broadcasting corporation owned by the government. It gets it money in order to operate from both people buying there TV license and from government funding. This means that the government can control what is visible to the viewers and what stories the BBC can broadcast.
This type of ownership is suitable to this business as for a company which is very accessible to the public the content with which it contains will need to be constantly monitored by a public body which has the best interests of the public in mind. The purpose of this business is to provide a cost free service to the public and inform them on the world wide events, they make this possible as they are the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, of about 23,000, whilst being on an international scale.
According to the BBC's 2012/13 Annual Report its total income was £5,102.3 million, which can be broken down as follows: * £3,656.2 million in licence fees collected from householders; * £1,101.2 million from the BBC's Commercial Businesses; * £269.7 million from government grants, of which 264.7 million is from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the BBC World Service; * £75.2 million from other income, such as rental collections and royalties from overseas broadcasts of programming
These following figures are from 2012/2013: Department | Total cost (£million) | Television including BBC Red Button | 2,471.5 | Radio | 669.5 | BBC Online | 176.6 | Licence Fee Collection | 111.1 | Orchestras and Performing Groups | 29.2 | S4C | 30 | Digital switchover | 56.9 | Restructuring | 23.1 | Property | 181.6 | Technology | 175.1 | BBC Trust | 11.9 | Libraries, Learning support and Community events | 33.6 | Other, including training, marketing, finance and policy | 925.9 | Total | 4,896 |

This pie chart signifies the expenditure previously stated in the table above.
This pie chart signifies the expenditure previously stated in the table above.

Task 2 – Pass 2, Merit 1 & Distinction 1
Marks & Spencer and BBC * Customers
A customer constitutes as anyone who has purchased a product or service from the specified business. A customer has an interest in the business because they will desire the high quality product or service that they pay for, at reasonable prices. The quality and price will vary of course on what the customer expects and or wants. * Employees
Anyone who works for a company and earns a wage is an employee. These have an interest in the company as they will be affected by the company’s success or failure. They are an important part in the making of a successful business and the care and treatment they get will affect their want for the company to survive. * Suppliers
A supplier is an external company which ‘supplies’ it’s products to a company to use in their business, for a cost. They will want business from the companies which extract their ‘supplies’ from their suppliers. A business will not survive without a supplier as without, they will have no products to sell. A supplier will want a fair price from a business in turn for their own products. * Owners
Owners will want their business to survive and succeed. A profit will be desired and their sole aim will to make their business successful. They have a lead role in their company and they will suffer the most if they don’t gain all they can from their business. * Pressure Groups
Pressure groups are organisations that try to influence public policy in the interest of a particular cause. When they see a cause that they find problematic within a company, e.g. unfair pay. They will want the business to take notice and take action to prevent whatever just cause they are fighting for. * Trade Unions
A trade union is an organised association of workers in a trade, group of trades, or profession, formed to protect and further their rights and interests. When a trade union expresses the views of employees and defends their employees’ rights, they will want the Company to co-operate and take to any means to right the wrongs. Trade Unions are stakeholders in the sense that they have members working in a specified business and will want to protect the jobs and terms of employment, to do that the businesses have to be doing well. * Employer association
This is a body of employers, usually from the same sector of the economy, associated to further the interests of member companies by conducting negotiations with trade unions, providing advice, making representations to other bodies, etc. * Local and national communities
The communities there are set near to the business will potentially be customers of the business so they will potentially have the same wants as a customer stakeholder. Whereas National communities will want a varied options of accessing business, * Governments
The government runs the country. It has responsibility for developing and implementing policy and for drafting laws, they will hold a stake in the company as the company will have to co-operate with the laws put in place to make their business legal.

Marks & Spencer
Our aim is to make M&S a truly international, multi-channel retailer – accessible to even more customers around the world. We have created considerable momentum through a wide range of activities and are making good progress.
Above is the main aim of Marks & Spencers for their business and, these are not SMART aims as it is neither measurable, or time-bound and to be a full SMART objective an aim must cover all aspects of it. Below are their objectives and key strategies of Marks & Spencer; this is made up of their focuses in the UK and their ‘Plan A’.
Focus in the UK
Trusted food - In a year when trust was more important than ever, customers turned to M&S for great quality, responsibly sourced food. Our innovation kept them coming back – with over 1,900 new lines.
Cheshire Oaks - Every aspect of the new M&S format comes together at our new store. Showcasing all our products in a visually stunning environment, the store boasts impeccable green credentials and has performed well ahead of plan since launch.
Perfectly edited - Our Perfectly campaign brought together a carefully edited collection of the iconic quality wardrobe staples that set M&S apart. Each ad offered easy style advice, showing different ways to wear these key items.
New Home concept - With clearer segmentation and a more multi-channel approach our new M&S Home concept drove a reappraisal of the offer. The new format is now featured in 33 stores.
Multi-channel
Online sales - More people than ever chose the convenience of shopping with us online. Improved navigation, greater choice and exclusive ranges and offers boosted online sales by 16.6% this year.
Free next day delivery - Shop Your Way orders increased this year, after we introduced free next day delivery to our stores. 54% of orders are now collected or placed in a store.
Castle Downingtown - Our fully mechanised 900,000 sq. ft. e-commerce distribution centre is the UK’s largest. It has the capacity to process and ship up to a million products per week to customers’ homes and M&S stores across the country. iPhone app - Sales via mobile increased 200% this year, following the launch of our first transactional iPhone app. It had received over 580,000 downloads by the year end.
International
Multi-channel expansion - We are building our European presence through a ‘clicks & bricks’ approach. Complementing our French website, we launched Shop Your Way at our two Paris stores. We have two additional full line stores due to open in 2013.
New stores - M&S has a clear and targeted strategy for international growth. We continue to expand in key locations across our priority markets, employing a mix of ownership models including partnerships and franchises.
Golden Bell - The Shanghai region is one of our strategic international markets. We expanded our presence here with the opening of our 4,500 sq. m flagship store at Golden Bell Plaza – one of the region’s most popular shopping destinations – giving us a total of 14 stores.
Reaching more customers - We are extending our reach across new and existing markets through our online development. Following launches in Germany, Spain, Austria and Belgium, we’re now online locally in ten markets and deliver to over 80 countries.
These are not SMART objectives, because although they are specific, realistic and achievable they are neither measurable nor time bound which makes it unqualified to be SMART objectives.
Below are the stated mission, vision and values of the BBC.
Our mission
To enrich people's lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain.
Our vision
To be the most creative organisation in the world.
Our values * Trust is the foundation of the BBC: we are independent, impartial and honest. * Audiences are at the heart of everything we do. * We take pride in delivering quality and value for money. * Creativity is the lifeblood of our organisation. * We respect each other and celebrate our diversity so that everyone can give their best. * We are one BBC: great things happen when we work together.

These are not SMART objectives, ‘To enrich people's lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain.’ This is certainly achievable and possibly realistic but it is not specific, measurable, or time bound hence it fails to allow it to become a SMART objective. Looking at both companies strategies you can see that they are ambitious and have ideas in place to achieve their goals, we can see that the main influential stake holders are the shareholders. These are their objectives because they want to gain more profit for their shareholders, increase profit for their selves and to keep/gain more customers and shareholders

http://uk.ask.com/question/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-a-plc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marks_%26_Spencer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/ http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/role/parliament-government/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/whoweare/mission_and_values/