1.A well-written and well-explained comprehensive business plan undoubtedly helps an organization improve its business operation to a large extent, ensuring its long-term sustainability in future. It is not sufficient for a company to merely conduct its business in a given country, but it is equally important to develop awareness about its competitors, its own brand popularity amongst the consumers or the political stability of the country it is conducting business in. Herein lays the importance of environmental (internal and external) analysis of a company. In today’s highly global and competitive business world, each business organization must keep on updating itself about its own capabilities as well as the competencies of its rivals to attain competitive advantage (Grant 2016). While the analysis of the internal environment enlightens a company about its own strength, weakness, threat and opportunity, an external analysis can make it aware of the political, socio-economic factors or the threat of competition from the new entrants in the market.
As clearly evident from the above diagram, the environmental analysis of an organization helps an organization gain competitive advantage over its rivals. In order to substantiate this point, it would be interesting to see how the internal business giant KFC has been utilizing the environmental analysis concept to gain a competitive edge over the last years. By conducting the SWOT analysis, the management authority of KFC became aware that the company will simply rule the fast food industry because of its strong brand popularity (strength), and yet its high fat and high calorie food is a major weakness. Again, from the external environmental analysis, the company got to know that the consumers of US are driving much of the organic food market. It is through the environmental analysis only that KFC informed its business decision of offering 'clean eating' KFC burger , which has replaced almost every element of the burger people know about and replace them with much healthier alternatives (Gavrilova et al. 2014). In order to thrive in a highly competitive business environment, satisfying the legal requirements of the nation is highly important as well. The PESTEL analysis has helped KFC become aware of the regulations of the UK government to address the issue of animal welfare, and this has helped it comply with animal welfare regulations by arranging the KFC Animal Welfare Advisory Council. Similarly, with the help of the Porter’s Five Forces Analysis, KFC has been able to create awareness regarding the threat of new competition from Redix Fried Chicken. Since both RFC and KFC sell quite similar products, the process of environmental scanning helped KFC realize the importance of offering product differentiation (Hu 2015). This is why KFC launched Chizza that helped the company offer a mixture of Pizza and Chicken and thereby gain a competitive edge over its rival. The environmental analysis of a company as per the country it conducts its business in, helps the company offer unique products and services that are relevant in the specific market only. By conducting the macro-environmental analysis such as PESTEL, KFC can create relevant offerings in a market, such as Rice Bowl in India, French Fries with added spice in KFC and Patel de nata in Hong Kong.
2.The management trainees are the future managers of an organization and hence they must be able to communicate effectively with the team mates as well as the other stakeholders of the organization. First of all, the body language is an important technique whereby the trainee should be able to have a positive, assertive and direct way of approaching employees. He must have a patient, composed look whereby employees may feel free to communicate to him. The facial expressions, posture, tone of voice, and volume of speaking should be taken care of. Using the right body language is important as it can determine how a message will be received. Next, the management trainees should listen calmly and validate the opinions of others, instead of imposing his own decisions on other people. As people feel heard, they become more receptive of the perspective of the opinions or directors of the managers. This contributes to higher employee retention rates as well (Tan et al. 2015). The last communication technique is to use positive words while communicating any message. For example, the management trainee is expected to say : ““Could you give us a quote by tomorrow” instead of saying “You must give me the quote by tomorrow”. The choice of right words helps in creating a sense of mutual trust, respect and loyalty, ultimately leading to organizational success.
References
Gavrilova, T., Yanson, A.S. and Alsufyev, A., 2014. Modern Notation of business models: ? visual Trend. ??????? Foresight-Russia, 8(2 (eng)), pp.56-70.
Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley & Sons.
Hu, M., 2015. Explore Brand Crisis Management Strategy of Food Industry from KFC. Advance Journal of Food Science and Technology, 8(1), pp.52-58.
Tan, B.C., Wei, K.K., Huang, W.W. and Ng, G.N., 2015. A Dialogue Technique to Enhance Electronic Communication in Virtual Teams. Writing and Speaking in the Technology Professions, Second Edition, pp.357-369.
Wheelen, T.L. and Hunger, J.D., 2017. Strategic management and business policy. pearson.
