The Business Environment P2: To describe the influence of stakeholders on the business. Stakeholders: A stakeholder is anyone with an interest in a business. Stakeholders are individuals, groups or organisations that are affected by the activity of the business. There are two types of stakeholders: – Internal: These are groups within the business including owners and workers. – External: These are groups from outside of the business including the community. Competition:
McDonald’s competition such as Burger King and KFC would have an interest in McDonalds as they will want to know how McDonalds are progressing in terms of products, service, marketing and pricing. They would use this information so that they can compete effectively and to ensure that their products would rival those of McDonalds. On the other hand, Cheam High School competition, which effectively is all schools within the London Borough of Sutton, would have an interest in Cheam High School in terms of how they are progressing in exam results, teaching qualities and resources.
As Cheam has a lot of resources such as a language and tennis specialist status which attracts a large amount of students, other schools may use this information to their advantage and hire specialist staff to improve their schools to rival Cheam High School. Local Community: The local community will have an interest in McDonalds as they will want to ensure McDonalds has a positive influence on their community, for example the community would want the franchise business to provide jobs for the unemployed locals or they would want McDonalds to support local projects.
To summarise, the local community are important stakeholders and have an interest in McDonalds for a range of different reasons. In the case of Cheam High School, the local community will have an interest in the school as they would want their children to gain a place in school. Furthermore, if their children were attending Cheam High School, they would want make sure their children are receiving the best possible education and would influence the school to invest in improved facilities. Franchisees:
Franchisees will have an interest in McDonalds because it is a large company which is well known all around the world and it is a safer way of starting a business. Furthermore, products and services are provided from McDonalds itself and with working under a big company, franchisees do not have to worry about generating publicity to raise awareness as customers will know what to expect from a big chain and will often flock to a brand name. On the other hand, franchisees do not have an interest in Cheam High School as it is a non-for-profit organisation and is not very well known.
Shareholders: Shareholders may have an interest in McDonalds as they are the people who invest in the business and want to make sure that the company generates profit to increase their personal revenue from the business at the end of the financial year. Furthermore, the shareholders aim to continually improve the business for the future. Governors, who are the equivalent of shareholders, have an interest in Cheam High School as they oversee and regulate the school issues as well as to provide strategic direction for Cheam High School.
Furthermore, governors have another role in setting and monitoring that Cheam High School achieves is aims and objectives. Customers: Customers have an interest in McDonalds because they would want to get the best quality of service and food that McDonalds has to offer which is very affordable (low cost). Students may have an interest in Cheam High School as they want to receive the best quality of education possible which includes the facilities and the teachers and that the school is the right environment for them to learn.
This will help them in their future career. Employees: Employees may have an interest with McDonalds as they want to benefit from the business involvement such as receive fair treatment or promotions from their employers or receive better wages and dividends and ongoing support and help from the company. However, any changes in the rules of the company will affect the employees as they will have to implement them.
On the other hand, teachers and other employees (teaching assistants, cleaners, and caterers) may have an interest with Cheam High School as they would want to have good working hours, good pay and a friendly working environment. Suppliers: Suppliers have an interest in McDonalds because they want to sell their materials or products to the company so that they can generate as much profit as they can for their products. On the other hand, they have an interest in Cheam High School because they want to generate as much profit from selling their goods to Cheam High School e. g. books.
