(1.1) Identify the vision, mission and objectives for the selected organization?

Vision serves the purpose of stating what an organization wishes to achieve in the long run. Mission: A mission statement should include social responsibility quality commitment to survival, growth, and profitability identify customers and markets identify products and/or services family values OBJECTIVES In strategic management, there are strategic objectives and financial objectives. Additionally, all objectives are either short-run or long-run types. When planning a firm's strategy it is important to have objectives in mind and to understand the differences between the types of objectives (1.2) Explain the different types of stake holders of your organisation, their influence and how stakeholder views conflict? Stakeholder Type Supporter or Opponent Primary or Secondary Classified based on Interest Interest, Involvement Example Primary : Customers End users, Project Sponsors , Project Managers, Senior Management and team members. Secondary : Administrative Staff, Financial or Legal Consultants Internal : Project Managers, Team MembersExternalGovernment agencies, Customers and Competitors Direct : Team MembersIndirect : Customers, End user Operation : Team MembersStrategic : Senior Executives

Internal or External

Position Relative to the Organization

Direct or Indirect Operation or Strategic

Affect Level in the Organization

Stakeholders have increased influence on company business activities in the early 21st century as community citizenship and social responsibility have been consistently integrated into business management. Customers, employees, communities and business partners are among key stakeholder groups that carry weight in company decisions and activities. Understanding the impact of these stakeholders on business is especially important for small businesses.

Having identified the main responsibilities the business has to each stakeholder, see if you can work out where conflicts might arise. These conflicts will arise when the interests of one stakeholder group are opposite to that of another stakeholder group. For example: Employers seeking higher wages might conflict with the desire by management to cut costs to boost profit and thus satisfy their own ambitions and meet the needs of the shareholders. (1.3) Evaluate your business on bases of SWOT and PEST analysis? SWOT Analysis SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is commonly applied to a product, project or business to assess its position in the competitive market. Taking into account every detail of the project, marketers try to get a picture of how it would fare in the market against competitors. Strengths and weaknesses are internal. An example of a product's strengths might be its brand equity or loyal customer base. Not enough distribution channels would be a weakness. Opportunities and threats are the external factors: An untapped market for a product represents an opportunity; manufacture of a similar product by a competitor might pose a threat. PEST Analysis To understand the climate of a new market, marketers must to implement PEST analysis, which assesses the political, economic, social and technological climate. PEST would inform marketers of political red tape, economic slowdowns, sociological or cultural hindrances, and if the new market lacks the technological capabilities to perform business. It can also suggest which areas would be best to infiltrate, taking into account political and economic structures. For example a company looking to expand into a particular state might discover through PEST analysis that the state offers incentives to attract out-of-state companies and that it has the economic resources to make expansion more cost-effective (2.1) Explain the concept of scarcity, and the role it plays in decision making? Scarcity means that people want more than is available. Scarcity limits us both as individuals and as a society. As individuals, limited income (and time and ability) keep us from doing and having all that we might like. As a society, limited resources (such as manpower, machinery, and natural resources) fix a maximum on the amount of goods and services that can be produced. Scarcity requires choice. People must choose which of their desires they will satisfy and which they will leave unsatisfied. When we, either as individuals or as a society, choose more of

something, scarcity forces us to take less of something else. Economics is sometimes called the study of scarcity because economic activity would not exist if scarcity did not force people to make choices. To make efficient decisions - decisions that provide the greatest possible return from the resources available -, people and society must weigh the benefits and costs of using their resources to do more of some things, and less of others. For example, to use their time effectively, students must weigh the additional benefits and costs of studying economics rather than listening to music or socializing with friends, or sleeping. School officials must decide whether to use some of its funds to buy more library books, more football helmets for the team, or more classroom equipment for teachers. Company managers must choose which products to make and whether to increase or decrease their output. Government officials must decide which spending programs to increase and which to decrease. (2.2) Briefly explain the four types of economic system? There are basically four kinds of economic systems: 1) Market economyAn economic system in which individuals own and operate different factions of production. Examples: Free Enterprise & Capitalism 2) Command economy An economic system in which government owns and operates all factions of production. Examples: Socialism & Communism 3) Traditional Economy An economic system based on culture and tradition. Economy is based on agriculture and hunting. Examples: Non-Industrialized agrarian societies. 4) Mixed Economy An economic system where both command and market systems are featured. Examples: United States is not a pure capitalist country for there are forms of socialism instilled in it to benefit individuals in need of services and has minimum wages, however, free enterprise reigns in the U.S. China also has both forms of economy, however, the Chinese government controls the prices and production. (2.3) Evaluate how the macroeconomic policies would influence the decision making process of a business.?

Macroeconomic indicators such as GDP, employment, investment spending, capacity utilization, household income, business profits, and inflation fall, while bankruptcies and the unemployment rate rise. The process by which businesses make decisions is as complex as the processes which characterize consumer decision-making. Business draws upon microeconomic data to make a variety of critical choices, any one of which could mean the success or failure of their enterprise. The reliability and currency of the information a business uses, therefore, is of the utmost importance. (3.1) Explain the factors affecting the elasticity of demand and supply? Many factors influence elasticity, some of which include: Necessities versus Luxuries - It is harder to find substitutes for necessities so quantity demanded will change less. Availability of Close Substitutes - If there are close substitutes, buyers will move away from more expensive items and demand will be elastic. Definition of the Market - The more broadly we define an item, the more possible substitutes and the more elastic the demand. Time Horizon - The longer the time available, the easier to find substitutes and the more elastic the demand. Relative Size of Purchase - Purchases which are a very small portion of total expenditure tend to be more inelastic, because consumers are not worried about the extra expenditure. Rate This Answer (3.2) Describe the different types of market structures in a business environment? Monopoly: A monopoly exists when one company and one only provides services in a particular industry, or one company dominates and consumers cannot substitute anything that comes close. Today, very few industries are monopolies. Utility companies such as water companies or electric companies may be considered monopolies. Consumers can't exactly substitute something else for electricity from the local provider, unless they switch to firewood and candles! Oligopoly: An oligopoly consists of only a handful of companies selling similar products. Consumers can substitute products, but only one company's offerings for another. An example would be the three big American car companies of today: Ford, GM and Chrysler. Monopolistic Competition: In monopolistic competition, many sellers sell different products. It's very similar to competition, below, with the exception that the products themselves are a bit different from one another, so consumers look for those differences rather than price differences. An example is the restaurant industry. Anyone can obtain the proper permits, licenses and such and open a restaurant offering any cuisine or food in the world. Whether the restaurant is successful or not depends upon whether or not consumers like the food, service, dcor, location, and all the other factors that make restaurants successful.

Competition: In markets with perfect competition, there are no barriers to entry, and many offering different goods. Consumers often shop on price differences alone. Wal Mart may be viewed as a purely competitive company within the grocery industry for its super centers that offer lower prices than competing grocery chains. (3.3) Briefly explain the different types of pricing strategies adopted by the firms? Cost-plus pricing - Set the price at your production cost, including both cost of goods and fixed costs at your current volume, plus a certain profit margin. For example, your widgets cost $20 in raw materials and production costs, and at current sales volume (or anticipated initial sales volume), your fixed costs come to $30 per unit. Your total cost is $50 per unit. You decide that you want to operate at a 20% markup, so you add $10 (20% x $50) to the cost and come up with a price of $60 per unit. So long as you have your costs calculated correctly and have accurately predicted your sales volume, you will always be operating at a profit. Target return pricing - Set your price to achieve a target return-on-investment (ROI). For example, let's use the same situation as above, and assume that you have $10,000 invested in the company. Your expected sales volume is 1,000 units in the first year. You want to recoup all your investment in the first year, so you need to make $10,000 profit on 1,000 units, or $10 profit per unit, giving you again a price of $60 per unit. Value-based pricing - Price your product based on the value it creates for the customer. This is usually the most profitable form of pricing, if you can achieve it. The most extreme variation on this is "pay for performance" pricing for services, in which you charge on a variable scale according to the results you achieve. Let's say that your widget above saves the typical customer $1,000 a year in, say, energy costs. In that case, $60 seems like a bargain - maybe even too cheap. If your product reliably produced that kind of cost savings, you could easily charge $200, $300 or more for it, and customers would gladly pay it, since they would get their money back in a matter of months. However, there is one more major factor that must be considered. Psychological pricing - Ultimately, you must take into consideration the consumer's perception of your price, figuring things like: Positioning - If you want to be the "low-cost leader", you must be priced lower than your competition. If you want to signal high quality, you should probably be priced higher than most of your competition. Popular price points - There are certain "price points" (specific prices) at which people become much more willing to buy a certain type of product. For example, "under $100" is a popular price point. "Enough under $20 to be under $20 with sales tax" is another popular price point, because it's "one bill" that people commonly carry. Meals under $5 are still a popular price point, as are entree or snack items under $1 (notice how many fast-food places have a $0.99

"value menu"). Dropping your price to a popular price point might mean a lower margin, but more than enough increase in sales to offset it. Fair pricing - Sometimes it simply doesn't matter what the value of the product is, even if you don't have any direct competition. There is simply a limit to what consumers perceive as "fair". If it's obvious that your product only cost $20 to manufacture, even if it delivered $10,000 in value, you'd have a hard time charging two or three thousand dollars for it -- people would just feel like they were being gouged. A little market testing will help you determine the maximum price consumers will perceive as fair.

(4.1) Evaluate the risk of international trade? Risks in International Trade are the major barriers for the growth to the same. International trade has been a much debated topic. Economists have differed on the real benefits of international trade. The increase in the export market is highly beneficial to an economy, but on the other hand the increase in imports can be a threat to the economy of that country. It has been the worry of the policy makers to strike the right balance between free trade and restrictions. International trade can develop an economy, but at the same time certain domestic players can be outperformed by financially stronger multi nationals and forced to close down or get merged. Sometimes these multinational companies become so powerful, especially in smaller countries, that they can dictate political terms to the government for their benefit. (4.2) Discuss the importance of international trade and global markets to a business organization??? International Trade The buying and selling of goods and services across national borders is known as international trade. International trade is the backbone of our modern, commercial world, as producers in various nations try to profit from an expanded market, rather than be limited to selling within their own borders. There are many reasons that trade across national borders occurs, including lower production costs in one region versus another, specialized industries, lack or surplus of natural resources and consumer tastes. Global marketing Today, global marketing can have an effect on every business. This includes large corporations down to smaller localized businesses. The Internet has drastically increased the speed of

information that is available and has provided a cost effective medium that gives all businesses an affordable method of marketing. Because the Internet is worldwide, even small businesses can benefit by promoting their products and services. (4.3) Evaluate the reasons for protectionism and the policies adopted by the government to protect the local industries.

Protectionism is a policy adopted by some countries to protect domestic industries from global competitors by imposing some restrictions on trade of goods and services between countries. In this policy government of that particular country increases tariffs (import taxes), Quotas, Embargoes (a complete ban on imported goods), import licensing, subsidies, exchange controls etc to increase prices of imported products which make them expensive and less attractive. Countries using protectionism when they feel that their industries are getting damage from unfair global competition. In short-term, it work like a defensive measure but if it remains for long-term may ruin the industries trying to protect as less competitive on global marketplace. Benefits of Protectionism If protectionism is use for short term as a protective measure it can give following advantages. If a country wants to grow in a new industry, protectionism is good to adopt in such conditions as it will protect the new growing industry from already established foreign competitors. This will give a time to new industries to learn and develop competitive advantage. Protectionism also beneficial in lowering ratio of unemployment in a country. It is because companies are restricted by tariffs, quotas and other methods which compel them to hire local workers.