P1 - Two Different businesses belonging to different sectors

The two chosen businesses are John Lewis PLC which is a private sector business and Cancer Research UK which is a voluntary sector business. Introduction to both businesses:
John Lewis PLC is a chain of upmarket department stores operating throughout Great Britain. John Lewis PLC is owned by John Lewis Partnership which was created alongside the first John Lewis store in the mid-1800s. the first ever John Lewis store was opened in Oxford Street, London, in 1864. The slogan for the company is “never knowingly undersold”, and has been the same for quite some time. The slogan is hitting almost its 100th anniversary. John Lewis is one of the largest and successful department stores in Great Britain, and this has been achieved with just 45 stores throughout England, Scotland and wales. There biggest store which is being operated outside London has just opened in Birmingham city centre. The main headquarters for this business is in London. The total number of employees in this business is somewhere around 38,100. John Lewis, happens to be one of the oldest department stores which are still operating. This can be backed up by the fact that John Lewis has been operating for more than 150 years. It is a business based in the retail industry which is specifically a department store. They happen to have a large product range, these can vary from electricals, clothing to even sports and leisure equipment. The ultimate purpose of this business is the happiness of its members alongside with excellent customer relations.
Cancer Research UK is a cancer research and awareness charity in the United Kingdom. Cancer Research UK was formed on 4 February 2002 and has been operating since then till present. Its initial aim is to reduce deaths that are caused by cancer and this is done by, conducting researches into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the cancer disease. Research activities are carried out in institutes, universities and hospitals across the UK, both by the charity's own employees and by its grant-funded researchers. Cancer Research UK's work is almost entirely funded by the private. It raises money through donations, legacies, community fundraising, events, retail and corporate partnerships. The charity has just over 45,000 regular volunteers and almost 4,000 employees working for them. Their slogan is “we will beat cancer soon” which emphasises what they work for, and that is to beat cancer by finding ways to diagnose them, as well as cure them. This one of the biggest cancer related charities in the United Kingdom and familiar with millions. Their only motive is to beat cancer. On 18 July 2012 it was announced that Cancer Research UK was to receive its largest ever single donation of £10 million from an anonymous donor.

What are private and voluntary sector businesses and how do these specific businesses fall into that category?
A private sector business is a business is owned by a group of individuals. Shares of the business will remain with in the business and can be transferred onto anyone including employees. However, there is no specific marketplace where the shares of the business can be acquired by the public. A private sector is still part of the country’s economic system. They can be very large businesses or very small and are usually run by their owners compared to public sector companies which are owned by the government and funded via taxes. John Lewis happens to be a private sector business because it is not run by the government and has legitimate individual owners. These owners come from the parent company of John Lewis Partnership. The main reason that John Lewis falls under the category or being a private sector business is that it is not under direct government control and is run by their owners. Advantages of private sector businesses are more capital can be raised as no limit on number of shareholders, easier to raise finance, stable form of structure, decision making is very prompt and wastage of materials and labour is minimum. Disadvantages of private sector businesses are profits have to be shared out amongst a potentially larger number of people, greater admin costs and financial information can be inspected by any member of public once filled with the registrar. A secondary sector business is a business that usually finishes unfinished products or goods. However, at this point John Lewis don't fall into this category and nor will they fall into primary sector as these two sectors seem to be parallel with each other. A primary sector business would be a business that extracts products from the nature. The sector that John Lewis does fall into though is tertiary sector. They more or less provide services to individuals rather than businesses and sell products which have been completed by secondary sector businesses. For example, Apple Products or any other products which are branded by upmarket companies. Tertiary sector businesses are commercial services that support the production and distribution process.
The voluntary sector is sometimes known as the third sector because it resides neither in the public nor in the private sectors but fulfils necessary roles in a free market economy. The voluntary sector is composed of businesses known as non-profit organizations. These organizations are prevalent in areas specializing in technical research, medical services, agriculture, religion, disaster relief, philanthropy, and the arts. It is a growing sector and has even inspired some popular universities to offer non-profit management degree programs. My charity falls into a voluntary sector business because it is a non-profit organisation and there no general employees like other business such as private sector business or public centre business. They have over 45,000 regular volunteers and just over 4,000 employees. Also they are not exactly selling anything and instead raising money to help beat cancer. This charity has a different working infrastructure as most people who work usually do it for free especially fund raising and you can call that a job. They also provide medical service which just strengthens their position as a voluntary sector business. Cancer Research do indeed sell a product however it is in a different form in which they are helping customers in the long term, and it is not just them they are helping but just finding a cure for one sort of cancer can cure the lives of a million. The customers of cancer research aren’t indeed getting direct business as they are not the ones always affected by cancer but they do show solidarity towards these customers to ensure them that they are doing the best as possible for what they are being paid to do. Usually this is done by sending frequent emails to the customer as well as newsletters or free gifts. Customers also are acknowledged. The reason why Cancer Research UK would be classed as a tertiary sector business would be because they are not producing anything from raw materials which would fall into the primary sector business and they are not completing any products to be in the secondary sector business so the only viable placement for them would be to go into tertiary sector business as they are just providing a service for the customers which would indeed be carry out research into the cure of all cancer.

Type of business and their activities- are they local, national or global John Lewis is a national corporation or business. They tend to operate only in Great Britain regarding their stores but dependant on products do sell internationally. One of the main hint is that their website URL ends in .co.uk. For most businesses it would mean that they only operate in the UK/GB. The history of the business convinces us that they only sell in Great Britain. They also have 43 stores around the UK which happen to be very large department stores. So it would be fair to say the business is a national business. National businesses usually operate in one country compared to a global business that would operate over multiple countries having the main headquarter in one country. However, these sort of businesses tend to be franchises. National businesses are usually chain businesses. A local business is a business that is exclusive and a one off. You wouldn't usually get another business which identical a local business.
Cancer Research UK is a national business as they only operate in the UK. The name of the business generally gives a person the hint that they are UK based because it is part of the name. It is specifically stated as Cancer Research UK. The business cannot fall into the local business category because if you conduct a survey all over UK you would generally find out that the charity happens to be a household name. Even though it is stated in the name ‘UK’ i still conducted some research on whether they do work internationally to fall into the global business sector but I failed to find any hard evidence of Cancer Research UK doing any hard with other countries.

Purpose of the business The reason why John Lewis exists is because it provides customers a service in terms of supplying products. This is mainly done so that they can make a profit in return. Their total revenue for 2013 alone was £4.060 Billion. This reflects on how big their business is because they seemed to make a quite large profit in this year. High revenue has always been constant for them. They also have limited stores in the UK compared to their counterparts. Usually the supply for the products would be in store for them. John Lewis offer various products to customers and are one of the best traditional department stores in the United Kingdom. Their motive or slogan is to be never knowingly undersold. They contribute massively towards the country’s economy making massive number of increased sales during Christmas time. For many it is simply an ever-so-slightly well-to-do department store chain, with a large haberdashery section, that always boasted it was "never knowingly undersold". John Lewis supply a large number of goods to customers. The reason Cancer Research exist is because they are a large research based business that help other partnering businesses in helping create a cure cancer for those millions of cancer patients out there. They are generally based in the UK and work mostly towards the citizen of the country as it is a UK based business. Cancer Research UK aims to raise money to reinvest in curing cancer one day. This in general affects everyone who have been impacted with cancer within their lives. The charity does not directly help the customer rather make indirect contribution to their lives and surroundings.

Ownership
The ownership of John Lewis is a partnership owned by John Lewis Partnership. This was formed alongside the first build of the store in the mid-1800s. Employee ownership is a worker cooperative and is a partnership/business that is self-managed by its workers. However, there will be point where the worker-owner’s higher up the hierarchy will have stronger say on a topic compared to the worker-owner’s lower down the hierarchy. This could be in this instance the board of directors or any of the chairman’s. The John Lewis Partnership is the largest employee-owned company in the UK run by three key people. These are; Sir Charlie Mayfield (executive Chairman), Andy Street (Managing Director, John Lewis), Mark Price (Deputy Chairman, John Lewis Partnership and Managing Director, Waitrose). The Partnership Council meets four times a year and represents all partners. When our founder, John Spedan Lewis, set up the Partnership, he made it both commercial and democratic. The John Lewis partnership is separate from John Lewis PLC because the partnership owns the PLC. However, the John Lewis Partnership is an employee-owned UK company which owns both John Lewis PLC and Waitrose. The John Lewis Partnership is a visionary and successful way of doing business, boldly putting the happiness of Partners at the centre of everything it does. It's the embodiment of an ideal, the outcome of nearly a century of endeavour to create a different sort of company, owned by Partners dedicated to serving customers with flair and fairness. All 88,700 permanent staff are Partners who own 45 John Lewis shops across the UK (32 department stores, 11 John Lewis at home and shops at St Pancras International and Heathrow Terminal 2), 342 Waitrose supermarkets (www.waitrose.com), an online and catalogue business, johnlewis.com (www.johnlewis.com), a production unit and a farm. The business has annual gross sales of over £10bn. Partners share in the benefits and profits of a business that puts them first. Limited liability is a corporate structure whereby the members of the company cannot be held personally liable for the company's debts or liabilities. Although LLCs have some attractive features, they also have a number of disadvantages, especially in relation to the structure of a corporation. A LLC has to be dissolved upon the death or bankruptcy of a member, unlike a corporation, which can exist in perpetuity. Also, a LLC may not be a suitable option when the objective of the founder is to eventually become a publicly listed company. The ownership of Cancer Research UK, a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity, is governed by a Council of Trustees, the Charity’s board of directors. Council’s role is to set the Charity’s strategic direction, monitor the delivery of the Charity’s objectives, uphold its values and governance and guide, advise and support the Chief Executive, who leads the Senior Management Team towards achieving the Charity’s vision and purpose. So this means that there is no main owner or owner’s that run the place privately or publically looking for a hard profit. This is mainly because this is a non-profitable organisation and it doesn't have a motive of making a profit rather conducting research for cancer treatment.