TASK ONE a) Identify the mission values and key objectives of Tate and Lyle. How far does the expression of vision values and mission affect the performance of the organization?
Tate and Lyle’s mission is to focus on value-added products and extend its operation worldwide. This mission is fuelled by the company’s desire to increase profit. They also have a mission to be consistently first in customer satisfaction. The expression of vision values and mission are important as a means of focusing attention on the means and the ends ; a value statement reflects the means which will used to attain the ends spelt out in the mission statement. Mission serves a beacon for organization and its employees therefore, it becomes imperative to remain focus to its element like goals and objective, strategic intent and direction and vision. Rarick & Vitton(1995) concluded that having a mission statement significantly increases shareholder equity.These are some examples of well known companies statement and it has obviously affected their present success stories: * Wal-Mart: "To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same thing as rich people." * 3M: "To solve unsolved problems innovatively." * Walt Disney: "To make people happy."

b) What do you consider to be stakeholder’s main objectives? Do you think these objectives are met by Tate and Lyle’s activities?
Many people are involved in running a business. Some have direct interest while others have indirect interest in the running of the business. These individuals or groups are known as stakeholders. There are different groups of stakeholders with different objective. This is explained as follows;
[source;www.bbc.co.uk]
Stakeholders | | Objectives | Owners | | Profits, growth of the business. Owners may be reluctant to see the business pay high wages to the workers. | Workers | | Job security, job satisfaction and a satisfactory level of payment for their efforts | Managers | | High salaries,Job security,Status and growth of the business | Consumers | | Safe and reliable products, value for money, proper after sales service | Government | | Successful businesses, employments to be created, more taxes, follow laws. | The community | | They expect more jobs, environmental protection, and corporate social responsibility towards the community. They also expect sponsorship of local events and good causes. |
Tate and Lyle has a business code of conduct that meets the stakeholder’s objectives. “Hiring and employment decisions, including those relating to compensation, benefits, promotion, training and development, discipline, and termination, are made solely on the basis of the skill, ability, and performance of workers. Discrimination is not permitted on the basis of gender, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, religion or other beliefs and ethnic or national origin”-this is part of the code of conduct covering the objectives of the employee.These shows that tate and lyle tries to meet the objectives on all levels.

c)What responsibilities does an organization have towards its stakeholders?Do Tate and Lyle carry these out?
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be defined as the "economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time" (Carroll and Buchholtz 2003, p. 36). The concept of corporate social responsibility means that organizations have moral, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities in addition to their responsibilities to earn a fair return for investors and comply with the law.Corporate social responsibility is the responsibility of every organization to its stakeholders.
Tate and Lyle are carry out these responsibilities in all ramifications.The business code of conduct ensures that the ethical and moral aspects are met and In the financial year to 31 March 2011, Tate & Lyle’s total worldwide charitable donations were £346,000 (2010 – £714,000) this decrease is largely due to the sale of the Group's EU Sugar Refining operations.This shows the philanthropic responsibilities of Tate and Lyle being fulfilled.

TASK TWO a) Examine the impact of social welfare and industrial policy initiatives on UK business and public sector.
Social welfare policies are understood as the policies of Government to improve standard of living in a certain time. Therefore, objectives of social welfare policies are: * Preventing social risks. * Stabilizing and improving standard of living of social as a whole and individuals. Social welfare policies can be classified to 2 types: * Universality: is the policy brings benefit for society as a whole. It means everyone can enjoy from the policy. Example: education, health care, infrastructure…. * Selectivity: the policy brings benefit to particular individuals or groups. This field, government have to decide who should be enjoyed from policy, it is very complex. Besides, when government chooses to include some people, simultaneously it has to exclude some people from policy. It is a trade-off decision. The UK is one of the largest producers and exporter of natural gas in EU except of its orientation of service. For this reason the increase in the price of energy has a positive influence on the UK economy. However the UK is facing problem in trading but it also 50% exporter throughout the world. So 50% of world trading depends on UK.Industrial policy had positive impact on the UK government before the current economic recession. ‘Industrial policy’ means in essence an activist approach by the state towards support for and development of the economy. Generally speaking, the UK is enjoying the fifth largest economy in the world with GDP of over 2.3$ trillion in 2006,but the recent economic recession shows that the industrial policy is having a negative impact on the UK business and public sector.
b) What has been the impact of current global economic change and government macro-economic policy on business and society?(use the scenario in your illustration)
The current global economic change has drifted towards a negative downturn. The United Kingdom, as well as many advanced economies, is experiencing a severe economic downturn because of the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. The main reason is that the bursting of the housing bubble. Similarly, the UK economy has been suffering from the sub-prime mortgage crisis. First of all, compared to traditional banks, most of banks take a very aggressive strategy and run a different business model. For example, three-quarters of Northern Rock’s funding comes from the wholesale inter-bank markets and it was lending it out in the form of mortgages (Brummer, 2008, p.13). In addition, many countries, including the United Kingdom, were deeply and quickly influenced by the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 because of globalisation. These days, there is a close relationship between the UK economy and other countries trade. The search for new markets and inputs encourages firms to become bigger and to operate in many countries, becoming multinational firms (Abercrombie, et al. 2000, p. 29).
Governments affect their nations' economies through fiscal and monetary policy. Fiscal policy involves government taxation and spending, while monetary policy involves actions to affect a nation's money supply.Government macro-economic policy and global economy influence organizations in many ways. Stakeholders are also affected due to the impacts that are created on the organizations by those policies. The government uses various policies including fiscal and monetary policy to try to achieve its aim. Changes to the tax and benefit system seek to reduce the risk of the ‘poverty trap’ – where households on low incomes see little net financial benefit from supplying extra hours of their labour. Fiscal policies often affect the level of taxation faced by business. If government raises taxes, businesses have less money for hiring and investment and might pass the increase on to consumers in the form of higher prices. c] What kind of economic system exists in the UK?Do you think the government allocates and makes efficient use of resources?
The United Kingdom is a mixed economy where some parts of the industry are owned and operated by the government e.g. street lighting, public transportation, legal system, public healthcare, defence and the judicial system, their motive being social welfare. It may also provide goods and services directly. These could be either public goods or other goods where the government feels that provision by the market is inadequate. In the UK taxes and regulations noticeably influence industries that are not owned or run by the government. An elected government set their own precedent on certain policies based on efficiency, growth, security, equality, stability and freedom for the economy and it is often difficult for them to balance all policies.
The allocation of resources is created through the self-interest, competition and supply and demand of individuals and companies in the economic marketplace. Individuals and companies distribute resources through self-regulation by using only the inputs they need and selling or giving away their leftover economic resources or inputs. Through this allocation of resources, the economic market place grows and expands as more individuals and companies have access to resources. The public sector cost efficiency is demanded by the political imperative to provide improved and extended levels of service while containing or reducing the cost to the public finances.
d) When looking at investments,products and services,training and location,does the government fit into the system?
Looking at investments,products and services,I think the UK government has done quite well using their economic system. Products and services provided by the government are still at a subsidized rate, for example,council houses and healthcare, and the government is beginning to widen its scope in terms of investments e.g invest more in manufacturing than the service based economy it used to run. In terms of training and location,the government has also done a tremendous job,by providing free training for job seekers,training such as health and social care training,to empower more people and make job seeking easier for them

TASK THREE a) Describe the characteristics of the sugar market. What kind of market structure exists? How far does it differ or approximate to perfect competition?
The sugar market is a highly unstable market, and it is also seasonal. Sugar is a special agricultural product. It is highly capital intensive because it requires mills and factories for final processing. The capital intensity means that long-term planning is essential. It also doesn’t have close substitute.
Market structure is the number of firms producing identical products.It is also described as the organisational and other characteristics of a market structure exists in the sugar market.Oligopoly exists in the sugar market. An oligopoly is a market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers (oligopolists).Because there are few sellers, each oligopolist is likely to be aware of the actions of the others. Oligopoly has stong barrier to entry due to the cost of entry. The similarities between oligopoly and perfect competition is that in both markets, firms need to advertise their products to make profit by increasing there sales volumes. Advertising plays an important role here. It is also found that the products are homogeneous to some extent.The differences are; 1. Oligopolies have relatively large firms while in perfect competition there are relatively small firms.2 Some oligopoloes produce differentiated products. e.g Tate and Lyle 3. There are entry and exit barriers in Oligopoly due to which firms are able to earn ab-normal profits even in the long run.4.The consumers or buyers of the product do not have perfect information regarding the pricing or other such things about the product. b) Looking at the supply in more detail in relation to the business model, identify the factors which you consider to have influenced Tate and Lyle sugar to develop it as the most successful organization in Europe.
If Tate and Lyle were to lower their prices, British Sugar and the other rivals would feel the need to follow suit to prevent losing customers to Tate and Lyle. Contrastingly, if British Sugar raised their prices, Tate and Lyle would not follow suit. They would keep their prices the same and gain customers from British Sugar. The kinked demand model illustrates this. Tate and Lyle are in a good position to put up their prices as they could make substantially more profit on each unit sold and yet sell only very slightly fewer units. (Sloman and Hinde 2007). The growth of the company was propelled by two massive acquisitions – Staley Industries in the United States in 1988 and Bundaberg in Australia in 1991. This move was topped by a numerous purchases, joint ventures and co-operative deals around the world.Tate and Lyle converted all its direct-consumption sugars to fair trade sugars,making it more successful and forging stronger partnerships between other sugar companies in EU member states.

TASK FOUR a) What is the justification for action of kind by the European commission?
Tate & Lyle’s business landscape has changed with UK’s accession to the EU in 1973. This resulted to a complete insulation of EU from the world sugar price and a tightly controlled sugar trading. Another provision of membership that affected Tate & Lyle was the EU’s subsidization of beet sugar production. It provided substantial incentives for the beet sugar industry (Tate & Lyle was not a part of the industry) to overproduce, decreasing the market for Tate & Lyle’s cane products.The European commission also helps to encourage competition in markets and to punish those companies who seek to reduce consumer choice. b) Outline other measures which might be taken to encourage competition?
Competition can further be encouraged by;
Encourage R&D spending (e.g. through tax breaks)
Improve the skills base
Deregulation
Reduce bureaucracy. c) Explain how small firms are able to exist alongside multinationals producing similar goods
Small and large firms continue to exist side-by-side because they often do not compete directly. Most times, the smaller firms also operate in markets too small for multinationals to invest in, they are more involved in the local market.They also have the advantage of customer loyalty as they are closer to them. d) Why do small firms mostly remain small?
Small businesses remain small for different reasons. They are almost always privately owned, some by couples, brothers, father and son,e.t.c where the owners own and operate the business and are not interested in expanding beyond the limits that they are comfortable with. Keeping a business in the hands of one or two owners/administrators and maintaining a work-load that can be handled by a few people and that generates enough income to pay the bills and insure the survival of your small business is not easy to do. If small businesses survive and remain small it is usually because the owner wants it that way and wouldn't have it any other way at all. e) Explain the economic implications for the UK entry into the EMU.
A monetary union is an arrangement where several countries have agreed to share a single currency amongst themselves.According to the five economic tests,conducted to know the economic implications for the UK entry into the EMU, the following conclusions were drawn; * There had been significant progress on convergence since 1997, but there remained some significant structural differences, such as in the housing market. * While UK flexibility had improved, they could not be confident that it is sufficient. * Euro membership would increase investment, but only if convergence and flexibility were sufficient. * The City of London, Britain's financial centre, would benefit from Eurozone membership. * Growth, stability and employment would increase as a result of euro membership, but only if convergence and flexibility were sufficient. f) Explore the significance of international trade and the European dimensions for the Tate and Lyle group.
One fundamental principle in international trade is that one should buy goods and services from a country which has the lowest price, and sell his goods and services to a country which has the highest price. This is good for the buyers and for the sellers. Another, with free trade, the less developed countries have the opportunities to accelerate the pace of their economic development. Because of international trade, people with money can acquire goods and services which are not available in their own countries. Hence, satisfaction of consumers can be maximized. International trade has helped Tate and Lyle since they buy all their raw materials from less developed countries. g) What impact would the two policies of the European Union on UK have on Tate and Lyle?
The EEC Sugar Protocols guaranteed annual quotas of raw sugar from the African, Caribbean, and Pacific producers. These agreements, embodied in 1975 in the Lomé Convention, completely insulated the EEC from the world price of sugar and tightly controlled sugar trading.This helped Tate and Lyle’s diversification and made it easier to buy raw products from developing countries.
The subsidization of beet sugar production however,did not go down well with Tate and Lyle, as it provided substantial incentives for the beet sugar industry to overproduce and decreased the market for Tate & Lyle's cane products.

REFERENCES

BBC (2009) ‘Sugar price reaches 28-year high’ http://www.news.bbc.co.uk [accessed 10th November 2009]
Clark, A. (2009) ‘Sugar the new oil as prices soar’ The Guardian. p.1. http://www.guardian.co.uk. [accessed 15th July 2012]
Competition Commission (1991) ‘Tate & Lyle PLC and British Sugar plc: A report on the proposed merger’ http://www.competition-commission.org.uk [accessed 15th July 2012]
Economics A-Level (2009) ‘Oligopoly’ www.economicsalevel.co.uk[->1] [accessed 29th June 2012]
Maskus, K (1993) ‘The Economics and politics of world sugar policies’ University of Michigan Press. pp. 88-92

TATE & LYLE SUGARS - European Commission ec.europa.eu/agriculture/cap-post-2013/.../tate-and-lyle-sugars-uk.pd..[accessed 22nd July 2012]