Assignment 1 on Business Environment Tittle
Assignment 1 on Business Environment
Tittle: Two Businesses on your Doorstep & Similar Businesses in Different Worlds
Submitted to:
J. Sungkur
Lecturer of business environment
submitted by:
t. pillay
cundasamy
level 3
A
assignment 1
(a) Describe the type of business, purpose and ownership of the two contrasting businesses
The two types of businesses that has been chosen are:
1: The Mauritius telecom group, which was founded in 1988 in the name of Mauritius Telecommunication and in 1992 it was renamed as Mauritius Telecom after having been merged with other abroad Telecommunication services. In 1996 the company has set two fully owned company which were related namely the Cellplus Mobile Communication Ltd and Telecom Plus Ltd. Today this company is among the list of the top hundred companies at the rank of 8 position with a profit of Rs 1,512,000 in 2016. This company has been chosen for the profit sector organization in Mauritius.
The vision of this company is to connect everyone to what is essential to them.
Their ambition is to offer the unmatched customer experience
Their core values are:
Passion
Professionalism
Creativity & innovation & Respect & responsibility
2: The association of sos children village which is found in beau – bassin / rose -hill and bambous. This is an association that looks after disabled children and those who are abandoned by their parents. This association was chosen for the non-profit sector in Mauritius as they gather sponsor to cater the needs of these children.
Mauritius telecom is a shareholder company as it is owned by Rincom Ltd which has invested 40% of the vehicle flow of that company, furthermore the Government of Mauritius has a share of 33.49%, the SBM Holding Ltd owned 19% shares. Moreover, the National Pension Fund has 6.55% and finally the existing and retired employees of the Mauritius Telecom has 0.96% of shares in that company.
The Mauritius telecom group which was founded in 1992 is a business that provide the citizens of Mauritius with a telephone network and has 357 ,000 customer for this network, furthermore they also provide us with a mobile network for this network they have 804 ,000 customer nevertheless since 2014 this organization has started to provide the Mauritian citizens with an internet service also known as Wi-Fi and is named My. T.
Stakeholders can affect the organization, be affected by another organization. Some examples of stakeholders can be employees, customers, debtors, creditors and suppliers.
Employees can affect the business in terms when they don’t perform their duties like it should be as for example if the frontline employees such as cashiers or sales representatives doesn’t provide a good customer service this can have negative impact on the business such as may be customers would not repeat their sales with they for instance they may go towards its competitors such as Emtel.
Moreover, customers also do affect the business a concrete example would be if the Mauritius telecom impose a relatively high price on a mobile phone which its competitors also provide but with lower prices customers would go towards its competitors as customers looks for high quality at competitive lower prices as there are variety of choices.
Furthermore, debtors they also influence the business as they owe money to the business therefore this can affect the organization negative, for example Mauritius telecom may lack capital to expand its services and products.
To contrast the second business that was chosen to compare these two different types of business is the sos children village which aim is to learn them good manners and to look for the welfare of those children and is not a profit making as compare to Mauritius Telecom.
The purpose of the association is to provide to those children a good development in a good family atmosphere. Furthermore, they also put emphasis on the child best interest.
For instance, the ownership of this organization is not owned and controlled by the the government. It is a group of voluntaries that has decided to work together to satisfy and play a role model for those children. They work in affiliation with the SOS-Kinderdorf umbrella organization.
The stakeholders that may affect the organization are employees, if there are not as much employee needed to look after those children the organization may face difficulties to look after them. Hence, they may not be able to reach their aims and objectives that they settled at the beginning.
In addition, if there are not volunteers that are willing to help them for example by providing them with stuffs like food for daily use clothes etc. The may not be able to feed all those children as they are a non-profit-making organization. Therefore, this is a way how this organization could be affected.
(b)Explain how their style of organization helps them to fulfil their purposes
The style of organization also known as the organizational structure would help them to fulfil their purpose as for example at the start of Mauritius Telecom it would set a mission. In other words, they would set a mission to reach their vision. The mission of Mauritius Telecom would be to provide the best telephone line in Mauritius as so to maximize its customer and reach their mission to supply the whole with telephone lines.
Furthermore, having a good style of organization would help the organization to set strategic initiatives such as for Mauritius Telecom to increase sales, growth, operational efficiencies, provide security for their employees such as secure job.
In addition, as Mauritius telecom is a partnership business, a good style of organization would help them to fulfil their purpose such as for example to increase their shareholder values in other words to increase their level of dividend.
Moreover, they can also fulfil their purpose like to increase customer satisfaction, having a good style of organization would help them to know their level of customer satisfaction if needed to improve they would know.
However, having a good style of organization for the sos children village would help them know ethical values which means the values that they need to give to those children. For example, teach them how to behave in the society, know how to behave when they have visitors coming to visit them may be to offer them a meal and not to be arrogant or misbehave with them.
Moreover, if they have a good style of organization, this would help the sos children village to fulfil their purpose like to identify their level of security available for those children. For example, if the wall that surround the premise is well enough to ensure their security not to escape etc.
(c) Explain the points of view of different stakeholders seeking to influence the aims and objectives of the two contrasting organizations.
Aims are the goals that a business wants to achieve in the future.
Objectives Is a detail plan in which Is clearly written all steps that should be taken to achieve the aims that has been settled by the company at the start. Objectives should be SMART:
S- SPECIFIC
M- MEASURABLE
A- ACHIEVABLE
R- REACHABLE
T- TIMEBOUND
An example of for Mauritius Telecom could be to install 10 WIFI connection to ten families in the island in 1 day (working hours).
The different types of stakeholders that might influence the aims and objectives of Mauritius Telecom would be mostly its customer.
The customer of Mauritius Telecom would like to have a wide range of services and products from this company. Like more variety of Wi-Fi. for example, to have different tariff according to the customer income and Wi-Fi usage furthermore, they would also seek for high quality service at a relatively low price. In contrast if customers are unhappy with the services provided by the company they would turn themselves towards competitors therefore this would influence the company profit level. When the company is not reaching its profit target this in other words means that the company is not reaching its objectives. Therefore, the company may have problems to provide broader products and services.
Moreover, employees too can influence the aims and objectives of the company by doing too much of wastages. Therefore, the company need to find more resources such as in the case of Mauritius Telecom if its employees is using the WIFI cable which are provided to them inefficiently, theref0re, there will be more WIFI cable needed to supply the demand of customers. Which means that the company might have difficulties to reach its aims and objectives.
However, the stakeholders that might influence the aims and objectives of the sos children village would be the member of the association, they would influence its aims and objectives if they do not come to work on regular basis , therefore maybe the aims of this association is to serve all children with healthy foods every day for the three meals but if the crew who was supposed to prepare the meals are often absent therefore the association would not be able to meet its objectives.
Moreover, if the association is not having the support of the local volunteers for example, to donate them with required materials like the necessities such as food clothes etc. The association may not provide those children with what need, therefore the association would not be able to reach its aim and objectives.
(d) Describe how the two businesses are organized.
The two businesses are organized by the different types of organizational structure. For the Mauritius Telecom they would use the: the functional organization one which is the most common type of organizational structure that mostly all businesses use nowadays. It is based on the functional area such as to make research and development, IT, and the finance sector.
This is an example of the functional structure. In this case the Manufacturing, Sales, Research & development and the Accounting & finance works all under the CEO of Mauritius Telecom and would also report to him if any issue occur or if they have any enquiries and the CEO therefore would report these issues to the director of the company if necessary.
Secondly, the geographical organizational structure is very important for Mauritius Telecom as this would help them to identify the customers needs and wants in the different regions in the island. Maybe in Phoenix where it is an industrial zone. The entrepreneurs there would look for more rapid internet network to communicate faster with their suppliers, or maybe the machinery runs with internet connection therefore to increase productivity they will need faster internet connection than a normal person using Wi-Fi at home. As a result, the geographical would help the Mauritius Telecom to serve the local demand better.
In contrast the sos children village, they might use the flat organizational structure as this type of organizational structure is used for small organization having less than 20 employees, therefore this would help them to take decisions faster.
Like in this diagram, the team leader of the association would pass the same message to the 5 employees at the same time.
List of References:
1. Villen Angana, 4 july 2016, www.lexpress.mu top hundred companies.
2. www.telecom.mu n.d.
3. The sos village of Mauritius page, n.d, www.soscvmauritius.org, n.d.
4. Lecturer note on lecture 4.
5. www.telecome.mu shareholders info, n.d.
6. www.smallbusiness.chron.com, n.d.
7. http://courses./umenlearnimg.com, n.d.
8. Search in functional structure pictures, n.d.
9. Search in flat structure organizational pictures, n.d.
10. History of Mauritius Telecom. www.mauritiustelecom.com, n.d
ASSIGNMENT 2:
(a) Compare the challenges to the selected business activities within a selected organization, in two different economic environments.
The selected organization is Mc Donald’s in the economic environment of Mauritius and in south Africa.
Business like Mc Donald’s is international, and the organization is highly affected by the inflation and exchange rate of every country it has its franchise, for instance the inflation rate in Mauritius is relatively higher than in south Africa therefore this would determine the supply and demand relationship of raw materials within the organization. For example, if the price of its burgers in Mauritius is higher than its competitors for instance KFC, people would tend to purchase more KFC than Mc Donald’s therefore the demand of Mc Donald’s would less low than in south Africa, as a result, the organization in Mauritius might suffer as maybe they would be able to cover their cost.
Furthermore, the different wage rate in the two different economic might influence the business activities of Mc Donald’s. for example, if the wage rate of Mauritius is relatively higher than in the economic of South Africa, the organization implemented in Mauritius therefore would have to pay their employees more than in South Africa, hence, for example instant of being able to open another outlet in other region in Mauritius they would have to pay their employees and not being able to open another outlet. This is another way in which the economic of two different worlds affects the similar business activity as there would not be able to maximize more profit that would be possible by opening another outlet in Mauritius.
In addition, the environmental factors also influence the business activities of Mc Donald’s in both Mauritius and South Africa as in both countries the environmental laws are severe. A concrete example is that the organization has had to invest in paper bags for take away instance of plastic bags because the paper bags are eco-friendlier and is more easily degradable than plastic bags. Hence the money invested to manufacture paper bags could be using to make research on more types of burgers that could be available to its customers therefore this action influences the business activities and business growth of Mc Donald’s.
Moreover, the legal factors would also play a major influence on the business activity of that organization as according to the legal factors of both countries Mauritius and South Africa, they are forced to pay tax on each burger they sell. Therefore, buy paying tax to the government in both countries Mc Donald’s profits would be lower than if they had no tax to pay. As a result, this highly influence the business activities of any organizations not only Mc Donald’s.
Furthermore, the political stability could also influence the business activities of that organization as it is an international business, for example if there is a huge takeover, this can overthrow the government. As a result, this could lead to a riots and massive disorders in the environment in which Mc Donald’s is operating.
In addition, the demand in each country is also very important to take into consideration as this would determine the sales of Mc Donald’s in each country. For example, if in Mauritius the company do not supply halal beef and chicken, Mc Donald’s would lose lots of sales as mostly all the Muslims community in Mauritius would not consumer Mc Donald’s, as a result if they do not provide what the consumers want in the different countries this would affect the business activities as they would not be making as much profit as they could have earned if they were providing according to the consumer needs and wants.
Moreover, the interest rate can also influence the business activities of Mc Donald’s as if in Mauritius the interest rate is higher than in South Africa, this means that the company which is in Mauritius would have more interest to pay to the bank as compared to South Africa, hence the growth in the organization in Mauritius would be less than in the other country which therefore would affect the business activities.
(b) Evaluate how future changes in economic political, legal and social factors, may impact on the strategy of a specified organization.
Future changes in the economic can have an impact on the strategy of Mc Donald’s as the strength and the performance level of the local economy would have a direct impact on the business. This would present both an opportunities and threats to Mc Donald’s as if in the future the government imposes higher lever of taxation the company would have more tax to pay which therefore would cause a direct negative impact on its strategy as his level of profits would decreased. However, if the level of taxation decreases in Mauritius or South Africa this would be an opportunity to Mc Donald’s as they would have less tax to pay, therefore they could use that money to invest in the business like for example opening another outlet to better serve the customers and being more accessible to everyone.
Furthermore, the political factors such as regulations and policies that are being settled by the local government would have a direct impact on the company strategies. For example, if the government impose tariff on import and export this would make Mc Donald’s having difficulties to trade with certain countries where it already has its franchise, therefore with these new changes in the political and legal factors there is a possibility that may be countries where Mc Donald’s have its franchise and having difficulties to trade with would have to close.
In addition, if the transportation and logistics cost in the future increases, this would have a direct impact on the future strategies of the organization as they would have more to pay for importation. As a result, when the transportation and logistic cost would increase, Mc Donald’s would be forced to increase the price of its burgers as a new strategy to be able to cover its cost and therefore make profits.
Moreover, the there can be future changes in the social factors such as changes in the consumer taste and preferences. Therefore, this would have a direct impact on Mc Donald’s strategy and they would have to make changes to keep their consumers and not going towards their competitors. As a result, Mc Donald’s would have to invest in making research and finding new strategies how to supply according to the needs and wants to its consumers.
The legal factors such as changes in the health and safety at the work place like for business such as Mc Donald’s too play a major role in the future strategy plan of organization as if there are possible changes impose by the government have are forced to change their strategy and work towards the new changes to avoid any issue regarding the employee protection.
List of references:
1. http://wrilepass.com 12 December 2012.
2. Pestleanalysis.com/political factors n.d.
3. Smallbusiness.chron.com/business. Environment factors – influence – strategy n.d.
