stagecoach business analysis
External Environment and Business Operations
-A Case Study of Stagecoach Group, UK
1. Introduction
It is widely known that business strategies are critical to survival and development to entities. Basically, companies set their strategies to earn profit. A number of factors are considered when setting those strategies. Generally, in literatures, those factors affecting business strategies are divided to two types, internal factors and external factors. In specific, internal factors are the factors that the entity could take control of while external factors are those that companies could not change. In this study, instead of analyzing all the factors influencing business operations, I am trying to illustrate how external factors affect business operations.
Rather than a literature review research, this paper implies the case study method. The second largest transportation company, the Stagecoach Group, is chosen to be the case for analysis. The industry the company is in is quite familiar to everybody in the UK. I am trying to identify how the business operation is affected by the external environment and how the business deals with those factors.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows: section 2 presents a literature review of published researches aiming to state what other study found in the area; section 3 mainly represents the back ground of the Stagecoach Group and the rationale of selecting the company for this research. Section 4 is discussion part which illustrates how business operations of the Stagecoach Group are affected by external factors and how the company deals with the situations. Section 5 is the conclusion for the whole research; several suggestions are made in this section as well.
2. Literature review
The concept of external factors, or in specific, the environmental factors affecting business operations are sometimes referred as “micro environmental factors” in literatures (Covello and Hazelgren ,1994). The studies in this
-A Case Study of Stagecoach Group, UK
1. Introduction
It is widely known that business strategies are critical to survival and development to entities. Basically, companies set their strategies to earn profit. A number of factors are considered when setting those strategies. Generally, in literatures, those factors affecting business strategies are divided to two types, internal factors and external factors. In specific, internal factors are the factors that the entity could take control of while external factors are those that companies could not change. In this study, instead of analyzing all the factors influencing business operations, I am trying to illustrate how external factors affect business operations.
Rather than a literature review research, this paper implies the case study method. The second largest transportation company, the Stagecoach Group, is chosen to be the case for analysis. The industry the company is in is quite familiar to everybody in the UK. I am trying to identify how the business operation is affected by the external environment and how the business deals with those factors.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows: section 2 presents a literature review of published researches aiming to state what other study found in the area; section 3 mainly represents the back ground of the Stagecoach Group and the rationale of selecting the company for this research. Section 4 is discussion part which illustrates how business operations of the Stagecoach Group are affected by external factors and how the company deals with the situations. Section 5 is the conclusion for the whole research; several suggestions are made in this section as well.
2. Literature review
The concept of external factors, or in specific, the environmental factors affecting business operations are sometimes referred as “micro environmental factors” in literatures (Covello and Hazelgren ,1994). The studies in this
References: Arkebauer, J. (1995) "The McGraw-Hill Guide to Writing a High-Impact Business Plan: A Proven Blueprint for Stagecoach -Time Entrepreneurs" The McGraw-Hill, INC., ew York. Covello, J Covello, J. and B. Hazelgren (1998)"Your First Business Plan: A Simple Question and Answer Format Designed to Help You Write Your Own Plan", Source Books, INC., Naperville, Illinois. Hisrich, R., M. Peters and D. Shepherd (2005) "Entrepreneurship", McGraw-Hill Irwin, Boston. O 'Donnell, M Dethomas, A. and L. Grensing-Pophal, (2001) "Writing a Convincing Business Plan", Borron 's Educational Series, New York. Michael E Schilit, W. (1990) "The Entrepreneur 's Guide To Preparing A Winning Business Plan and Raising Venture Capital", Prentice Hall.