Table of Contents

Introduction: 3
Task 1: 3
a) Produce separate input-process-output analysis for Premier Foods and Vodafone.
3
b) Considering inputs which of the two companies would be likely to thrive a
centrally-planned economy and which in a market economy? 4
c) Considering the output side of Premier Foods, is the company's customer
environment more or less uncertain than ten years ago? Why? 4
d) Identify the stakeholders in Premier Foods' business and plot them on a
power/interest grid. 5
e) How well is Premier Foods currently discharging its responsibilities to its different
stakeholders? 6
Task 2 7
a) Focusing on the global environment, produce PESTEL analysis of global foods'
business environment. Within each category, rank the different environmental
factors according to importance and justify your rankings. 7
b) Consider how the following macro economic factors affect Premier Foods'
business: unemployment rate, CPI inflation, RPI inflation, exchange rate, interest
rate. Rank them in order of importance and justify the ranking. 8
c) What are the social and cultural factors affecting the consumers which lie behind
the Premier Foods' decision to split its business into power brands' and support
brands'? 9
d) Is Premier Foods' current strategy to stop growing its business by buying up other
businesses and to concentrate instead on consolidation and organic growth, the
right one? 9
Task 3 10
a) Will this be good or bad news for Premier Foods in terms of the company's
inputs? What about its outputs? Refer to IPO analysis. 10
b) Which of the two companies, Premier Foods and Vodafone, might have more to
lose by the UK being outside of the European Economic Area? 11
c) Which of the two companies, Premier Foods and Vodafone, might have more to
lose by the UK being outside of a common regulatory framework for business? 11

Conclusion: 12
References: 13

Introduction:

Business in an entity that works to fulfill the want of its surrounding in exchange of
profit and it works in a particular environment. The business must adapt to its
environment in order to survive. Business environment includes all the things
around the business. It tells about what the business has to do, with which people it
has to work, how it has to work and work laws and rules it must follow. The better
an organization suits its environment the better it works and the better chances it
has in this era of competition. That is why it is essential for every businessman to
understand its environment.
The Premier Food and the Vodafone are two UK based organization, one serving in
the food industry and the other in the telecommunication industry. One company
serves only the customers who are residing within the country's border; another
company is engaged in international business and serving millions of customer
around the world.
Task 1:
Produce separate input-process-output analysis for Premier Foods and Vodafone.

Input process-output analysis is a method by which we determine the relationships

between interrelated goods and services. In this process there are elements which
are used to produce finished or semi-finished goods. The inputs are the essentials
that we use to manufacture the products and services. Mainly it shows the
relationships between two products and services. It shows how one is used to
produce another.
In case of Premier Foods are products are mainly kitchen materials. The products
are sub-divided into five categories. These products are produced from the
materials required. The basic food ingredients are used to produce the semi-finished
goods. The bread and cakes are made from bakery ingredients, the sauces and
other flavoring agents are made from spices. All these ingredients undergo the
manufacturing process. And the goods are supplied to the market.

Vodafone is a telecommunication company that operates globally. This company is

based on London and it serves many countries around the globe. The services this
company serve is communication service and it is distributed across the company's
own country border. The input-process-output activity is different from that of
Premier Foods.

The output product is the communication service that is why the input is the human
activities working behind it. There are the work of setting up infrastructure, hiring
employees and giving them proper training. All these work leads to proper service
to the customers (Worthington and Britton, 2006).
Considering inputs which of the two companies would be likely to thrive a centrallyplanned economy and which in a market economy?

Centrally planned economy is an economy where the production and distribution

decisions are made by the government. In this economy it is thought that the main
purpose behind business is to ensure economic growth of the country. Premier
Foods is the company that will probably do best in a centrally controlled economy.
This company works within the boundary of the country therefore; it will not be
harmed by the decision of the central government. This economy considers what is
best for the internal authority of the country. The company that works internally
does not work outside the country's border as a result all the decisions taken by the
central government for the benefit of the economy benefits the company as well.
A market economy is an economy where the decisions are made by the people of
the country, the businessman and there is less government influence on those
decisions. The production is controlled by the businessmen and the people of the
country determine the path of business and production in the country. In market
economy there is no domination of the central government and the government has
not much opinion in the economy. Vodafone can work best in this economy, as this
economy mainly focus on the development and uprising of the business rather than
the country's whole economy. As the main focus is always on the business and the
company works in an international arena, market economy will be most suitable for
it (Cherunilam, 2010).
Considering the output side of Premier Foods, is the company's customer
environment more or less uncertain than ten years ago? Why?

Premier Foods is a UK based company. This company has five categories of foods.
The company mainly works in the bread, sauce, spices and cake sector and has
been contributing in the economy for a long time. It manages a number of well
known brands that offer prepared or semi-prepared foods to the customers. The
company is mainly focusing on supplying its customers the best products and
cheapest cost, managing efficiently with a proper working team. The aim of the
company is sustainably. There are new growing companies in the market and the
world has changed over the last ten years. There are changes in the demand and
want of the people and there is more diversity, innovation and technology.
Therefore, we can say that the challenges have increased for the company than
what it was ten years ago.
The market of foods has expanded. Now days there are more companies serving the
food industry than before. Therefore there is increased competition in the market.
The company has to take innovative steps to direct the attention of the new
customers as well as it has to take steps to keep the attention of the present
market. The customer market is also diversified than before. The customer demands
have change and this is creating new challenges for the company (Blair and
Hitchcock, 2001).
Identify the stakeholders in Premier Foods' business and plot them on a
power/interest grid.

Premier Food is a company working in the United Kingdom. This company has been
serving in the food industry for a long time and has a number of stakeholders. The
stakeholders of the company are the shareholders of the company, the employees,
the customers, the society, the suppliers and the society. Beside all these
stakeholders there are a number of others who are either affected by the activities
of the company or who have some kind of power over it. There are various human
right organizations who are fighting for pure food for human and environmentalists,
who are working for the environment.

We can keep the board of management on the high interest high power sector.
These people have good power and are affected closely. The employees are the
high interest low power people. They are benefitted by the growth of company nut
do not have much power. High power low interest category can be covered by
government. They are not very interested in the activities but have good power. Low
power low interested people are the environmentalists and other human right
organization. They have power to some extent but do not exercise much interest
(Business strategy and the environment, 1993).

How well is Premier Foods currently discharging its responsibilities to its different
stakeholders?

Premier Foods is an UK base company that is working in the food industry; the
company is enlisted in the stock exchange and serves almost all the kitchen in the
United Kingdom. The target of the company is to supply the kitchen goods to the
customers in proper price. Reduce the cost of operation and running the activities
through active work team. There are multiple stakeholders related to the company.
There are the workers and the company is giving them proper facilities and training.
There are steps to improve the communication activities to improve outcome. The
company is working to satisfy the customers. Customers are the core to any
business and satisfied customers result in successful business. To satisfy the
customers the company is aiming toward providing their products in proper costs.
The aim of the company is to ensure sustainability in their activities. To ensure
sustainability they are engaged in contract with Vodafone. This will minimize the
cost of the company and help them serve the customers more effectively. The
shareholders will benefit from the prosperity of the company. There is goal toward
better management. Better management results in better work activities. All these
will result into increase of share prices in the market. The company is working for
the development of the company through stakeholder benefit and satisfaction
(Caprotti, 2012).

Task 2
Focusing on the global environment, produce PESTEL analysis of global foods'
business environment. Within each category, rank the different environmental
factors according to importance and justify your rankings.

There are various macro environmental factors that affect a company. These factors
are analyses through PESTEL. This tool helps to determine which factors have effect
on the business and to what extent. There are the political factors. The company
works under the law of the company and has done every contract under this law.
There are no contradictions by the company and it pays the taxes accordingly. The
current law is in favor of the company's progress. Next, there are the economic
factors. The interest rates that company has to follow are flexible and the exchange
rate does not have much emphasize as it does not operate outside country border.
The economic growth of the country is helping the company. Like other organization
the company had to face the economic down fall during the recession time. But now
the company has coped up with the situation. There are social factors. The food
industry has seen some changes in the demand of its customers. There is age

distribution and the company has developed their products according to it. The
population growth of the country is in favor of the economy and the company can
use the benefit. Technological factors are playing a huge role in the company. The
company is using technology for better communication, production and distribution.
Environmental factors focus on the way the company is working. There are no
problems in the processing of the food that can harm the environment. Legal factors
cover health safety of the workers which is ensured by the company and it focuses
on advertising standards (Kaplan and Norton, 2001).

Consider how the following macro economic factors affect Premier Foods' business:
unemployment rate, CPI inflation, RPI inflation, exchange rate, interest rate. Rank
them in order of importance and justify the ranking.

There are several macro economic factors that influence any business. Premier
Foods is a company that works in the food industry of United Kingdom and is
serving the industry for a long time. The unemployment rate of the country is 6.3%.
The rate has increased over the last few years. This increasing rate is dangerous for
the whole economy as well as the company. Less employment will result into less
consumption which will lead to less consumption and production. So there is a
negative relation of increasing unemployment rate and company growth. The CPI
inflation rate of the country is 0.5%. The rate has lowered down and reasons behind
it is the prices of commodities and other cost push materials are lowering down.
There is a decrease in the prices of fuels. Europe is going through deflation. The RPI
inflation rate is 2.2%. The RPI puts the information about housing and other costs.
The rate effect business as it shows how much money people would be able to
spend after the products that the business is delivering. The more the RPI rate the
less the flow of money will be toward the business industry. There is the influence of
exchange rate. The current exchange rate is in favor of the company. The exchange
rate is in a suitable condition. The interest rate of the country is 0.5%. This rate is
proper for the growth of the company (James, 1994).
What are the social and cultural factors affecting the consumers which lie behind
the Premier Foods' decision to split its business into power brands' and support
brands'?

The Premier food is a company that is related to various brands and the company is
focusing on sustainability. The company aims at providing its customers the food
that they want and excel in their performance through proper communication and
worker management. There is also an aim to minimum the cost. In order to serve
accordingly, the company has decided to split all the brands into two categories.

The brands that are more potential to growth are considered to the power brands.
These brands are more favored by the customers. If we look at the cultural side, we
can see these products are mainly the products that suit the British culture and
their eating habit. These products are popular in Britain far more than any other
country. The products that are considered to be support brand are not core British
food. These products are not day to day useful products to the people of the country
and some of them are not used regularly while taking meal. That is why the
company can use them to support the selling activities to serve the customers
better (Wyburd, 1995).
Is Premier Foods' current strategy to stop growing its business by buying up other
businesses and to concentrate instead on consolidation and organic growth, the
right one?

Premier Foods is the biggest branded food provider in the kitchen of United Kingdom
and is serving the consumers for more than ten years. This company is working with
a lot of brands and is focusing on sustainability. The company wants to achieve the
satisfaction of the customers by providing them the product that they want and the
company wants this work to be done by effective work team. As the company is
growing it wants to improve its work quality by collaborating its business with
others. It does not want to add new brands. This can be effective for the company. If
there are too many brands in one company, it may get hard for the company to
control all of them when the demands will go up high. In this case focusing on some
brand can be proved good for the company. This company has already gathered the
attention of the customers so it will be easier for the company to hold this attention
by proper management. The goal of the company is to ensure sustainability which
cannot be achieved if the organization takes up too many brands. In this case
working with a number of popular brands and giving the attention toward a better
service can prove to be far better decision tan chasing after lots of brand that it
won't be able to manage (Stikker, 1992).
Task 3
Will this be good or bad news for Premier Foods in terms of the company's inputs?
What about its outputs? Refer to IPO analysis.

The Premier Foods is a company that is mainly UK based and this company is
working with a number of brands. The brands are of various kinds but they all
belong to the food industry. This company is taking the inputs of various products
and delivering the prepared or semi prepared food items to the consumers. The
company does its work within the boundary of the country that is it is not engaged
in international business. If the country exits the EU, there will be some

consequences that the company will have to face. It will not face them directly but
there will be effect on the economy and as part of the economy this company will
also have face the result. There will be change in the inputs as there can be a
shortage of raw materials. Plus there will be some change in the various raters. The
rates will create an imbalance in flow of money this will impact the buying behavior
of the citizen. The output will be affected as well. The products can lose the market
and there maybe lesser buying tendency among the customers. The demand of
products may fall creating excess of production. Product prices can change and this
will create an impact on the whole food industry (Hostiuck, 1973).
Which of the two companies, Premier Foods and Vodafone, might have more to lose
by the UK being outside of the European Economic Area?

Premier foods and Vodafone are two companies that are working in two different
industries. These companies are both United Kingdom based. And they are both
enlisted in the stock market. Premier food works within the border of the country
and is not directly dependent on international business. On the other hand Vodafone
is a company that does its work all around the globe. It is a company engaged in
international business and is directly influenced by the decision taken by the
government regarding international transaction and activities. That is why Vodafone
will be the company that will be most affected by the exiting of UK from EEA. If UK
had been in the area then the company would be able to enjoy some facilities which
it will not be able to enjoy once the country quits from AAE. Premier foods will not
have such direct influence as it only serves those customers who are within the
border of the country (Friesl, 2011).
Which of the two companies, Premier Foods and Vodafone, might have more to lose
by the UK being outside of a common regulatory framework for business?

There is a relation between the companies that are doing business in a country and
the membership of that particular country in various international organizations.
When a country is a member of a particular organization that country's businesses
has to follow certain rules and regulations and abide by the rates that are
determined. Premier Foods and Vodafone is UK base companies so they will both be
influenced by the decision but Vodafone is the company that will be most affected
by it as it is engaged in international business. Vodafone serves some countries who
are member of the organization and if UK gets out of the organization Vodafone will
lose the special treatment it was getting from those member countries and it will be
hard for Vodafone. Compared to Vodafone, Premier Food will not be affected that
much as it only serves the customers residing within the countries border. There will
be no particular effect on the company regarding foreign transaction and business.
This company will face some difficulty in its input and output process but no direct

influence will be there. In case of Vodafone, the company may need to change some
of the policy to keep doing business in their previous areas like before (Kelly and
Scott, 2011).
Conclusion:

Premier Foods and Vodafone are two separate business entities. These are different
from each other as they serve two particularly different market and work in different
industries. There are several stakeholders of the companies. And they are affected
by various macro environmental factors. The decision of the country regarding the
membership of various international organizations has different effect on the
companies. The companies have separate input output system which is different
from each other and they are both affected by the change in various rates of the
country.

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