Business and the Business Environment

Select one of the following firms/organizations from the list below. (choose GOOGLE)For that company, using no more than 1,500 words, examine the following issues.

a) The methods by which it has grown in size and the reasons the company might have had for choosing the methods (40% of marks)

b) The political-legal, economic, socio-cultural, environmental and technological (PESTLE) factors which are shaping the external environment in which your company is operating (60% of marks) It is extremely important that you comment on the current position of the company, in the current economic climate and forecast the future performance of this company in the UK.
a) The relevance of the factors used to answer the question set.
b) The quality and depth of the PESTLE analysis
c) The extent to which other analytical business concepts are introduced in order to answer the question.
d) The extent to which the report is coherently structured.
e) The accurate referencing of the texts and data, and variety of sources used in your analysis.

1. The most important thing you must do in completing this assignment is to make sure that you answer the task that has been set.

2. Ensure that you remain within the word limits given for the report. The word limit is to test whether you can write concisely, thereby getting all the main points down without wandering ‘off-topic’.

3. In presenting your answer, you should use an appropriate structure. Your tutor will advise on this. It is best to avoid using too many sub-headings and to not use lots of bullet points or the numbering of paragraphs. Otherwise your answer will look like a set of notes/instructions/textbook and appear disjointed. Using continuous prose enables you to develop arguments and to inter-link issues you are raising.

4. You should think very carefully about the resources you use for this assessment. Make sure that all the research you do is from academic sources. Academic sources are things like textbooks, journals and e-journals. Everything you read in an academic source will have been peer-reviewed which means that experts in the field will have seen it and agree that the ideas are reasonable and accurate. Web sites such as wikipedia are not peer reviewed and therefore do not count as academic sources.

5. At the end of your assessment, you should list out all books to which you have referred in your work using the Harvard style. Your list should be alphabetical by author and list out the author(s)’s surname, first name, date of publication, title of book, publisher of book and the place of the book’s publication. Examples can be found in the referencing guide on the VLE. If you have used internet sources, you should give the author(s)’s name, title of web page, the full internet address of the page(s) you have used and the date(s) that they were accessed. Poorly referenced work will be penalised as the quality of referencing is part of the marking scheme (criterion).

6. You should not copy text from a book, another person’s work or internet sites and imply that it is your own work. This is known as plagiarism and is an academic offence. Plagiarism is the word academics use for ‘copying’. If you want to quote directly from a book, you should indicate that it is a quote (by using quotation marks “…”) and the name of the author whose work you have cited in the main body of your assignment. You should avoid excessive use of quotes as the work you submit must be your own – not simply a collection of quotes!

7. Your report must be word-processed, using 1.5 or double spacing and a 12 or 14 font size. Always leave a margin so that I have space to insert any comments I would like to make as I am reading your work.

8. When you hand your work in, please ensure that all the pages are stapled together in the correct order and that pages are numbered. You should keep a copy of your work, as I will retain the copy you submit.

9. The marking scheme that we use in the UK may be different from that which you are familiar with in your home countries. The pass mark for this assignment is equivalent to 40%. This means that you have just succeeded in meeting the criteria set out earlier in this handout. An ‘average’ mark is equivalent to 50-55%. A good mark is equivalent to 60% and above, with marks equivalent to over 70% being deemed to be of excellent quality. Do not expect to get mark equivalent to 90-100% as a matter of course. Scores such as these would be for work of the most exceptional quality.

10. You will not get a second chance to improve on the mark that you are given for this assignment. Thus, if you are given a mark equivalent to 55%, that is the mark that will be entered onto your mark sheet. Similarly, if you are unfortunate and fail the assignment, that fail mark will be added to your other assessment marks to determine your overall score for the module.