A Pestel Analysis of a Clothes Manufacturers and Suppliers

The PESTEL analysis shown in the appendix portrays some of the issues in the external environment that a firm manufacturing and supplying luxury men’s clothing may experience. In all six sections; political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal there are issues that the firm would face. However, some have more significance to others. Although political, technological and environmental factors would have a big affect on the firm, when looking at the three most important issues facing the firm; social, economic and legal come out on top.Firstly, social factors play a massive part in the external environment of the firm. For-fronting the part it plays could be, as brought up in the PESTEL analysis, the men’s clothing market is very dynamic. Fashion has its own cycle, but it very hard to understand, with items coming in and out of fashion quickly. With retailers changing stock usually at least 4 times a year (seasonal clothes) it can be very hard for a m anufacturer to keep up with. Along with this rapid change, there has been seen a raise in men’s fashion consciousness, with more and more premium priced men’s clothing appearing.This portraying the difficulty the firm may have at keeping up with its competitors who have somewhat consolidated themselves in the market. However, with low barriers to entry, thus low initial capital costs to start the business, they may catch up quickly. This along with the a thorough PESTEL analysis may see the firm compete well. Changing fashion has often been led by national social change. A recent form of social change has seen consumers become more ethically driven, with products such as the Fairtrade brand seeing a steep increase in sales, according to their website around ?300m of sales annually (2007 figure).This rise in what is known as the ethical consumer has meant that attention on this front has to be sharply increased. Some companies such as the bath shop have turned focussed solely on a ethical approach. The manufacturing of the firm will not go unnoticed with pressure groups being very much present. Businesses such as Primark and GAP have felt a full force lobby from these interest groups. Primark, who were outsourcing the manufacture of their goods to India, were uncovered by a BBC report. The program showed children working for the outsourced manufacturer and bad working conditions.If the firm was to have bad press too, say from PETA and animal rights activists, who look very closely at fur farming (for luxury clothing), this may have detrimental affects on factors such as their reputation and finances. This shows issues the firm may experience from pressure groups, so work will be needed to keep these people happy and too shareholders with similar views. Demographics mentioned in the PESTEL may too conjure up issues for the firm in the current environment. Demographics include age, race and gender.When looking at the age of the population, the firm will need to address the issue to which age group (target market) to supply this luxury clothing too. According to a recent census males aged 15-64 years old make up 33% of the population, thus a age group within this seems appropriate. However, the lower of the group having lower disposable income and other factors will need to be considered. Race and culture will also bring about some issues to the firm. They will have to consider clothing that will be appealing to all races and not offend any culture.This being a small issue but will need to be watched. Secondly, moving on to economic factors that may affect and bring up issues in the external environment for the firm. Recession comes out as the biggest threat to the firm at the moment, with many businesses falling into liquidation and great times of uncertainty for workers. With Recession comes many problems that the firm will experience. One being unemployment, which according to BBC figures has rose to around 8-8. 9%, these be ing the worse figures since 1992.Rising unemployment along with a falling national disposable income demand in the economy will fall. The firm supplying luxury goods are usually going to be more susceptible to a fall in demand when there is a fall in income. This is because luxury goods are more income elastic. Consumers will be more willing to give up spending on these kinds of goods than say essentials such as toilet paper and drinks. This is an issue to the manufacturer so they will have to hope on considerations such as brand loyalty and correct marketing to push up demand.They may also need to drop their profit margin on clothing to help generate more sales. In this economic downturn there has been a big depreciation in the pound sterling. This has made exports more attractive (however, fall in value of pound means its not exactly positive) and importing more expensive. With the firm mainly supplying the UK market with some operations abroad it will be affected by this. If raw materials are being imported into the UK for use in production then the firm will be paying a higher unit price for these. This of course will add to the unning costs of the business. Also the few countries they firm supplies they will be receiving a lower price for the goods losing out on the bad exchange rate, which has been at its worse for a decade. Both of these are an obvious issue to the firm but are out of their control, so it is just a case of sitting and waiting for the economy to be boosted again. One way the government may try to help the economy recover again is through a policy implemented in times of turmoil called fiscal policy. This comprises mainly of controls on spending and taxation.For example the VAT cut of 2. 5% from 17. 5% to 15% was made in attempt to help businesses stay afloat. Many companies passed these cuts straight onto the consumer in order to stay competitive. Another policy installed is the monetary policy, which looks mainly at money supply and int erest rates. Interest rates, under the Monetary Policy Committee, were brought down to a very low 0. 5% stated on the Bank of England website. This along with other contributors has led banks to be very stingy with lending money to each other, consumers and business.The firm if it finds itself needing to borrow capital from the banks may find this difficult and with such a weak pound investors may be less willing to invest too. This may be a great issue to the firm as with no constant cash flow partnered with a possible fall in demand it may find itself struggling to compete and stay in business. The final factor of the 3 most important issues currently facing the firm is the legal elements. These will have a big impact on the business environment of the men’s clothing sector such as the social and economic considerations have done too.The legal system in the UK is very complex and there are many laws that the firm will need to abide for business to run. The firm is likely to be affected in the two usual ways by legal factors. Firstly, if new procedures and systems have to be developed then it can affect the firm’s costs. Secondly, if the laws affect the likelihood of the customer buying the good, it can affect the firm’s demand. The amount of laws present makes it harder for the firm to run with checks needing to be made along many points of the course of the business.The Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974, is one law that would bring up issues for the business. First, they would need to spend money on ensuring the workplace is safe and suitable under the law, this would avoid any possible suing or bad press. Second, training will need to be provided before an employee can work on the firm’s premise. This will cost the firm and will not see a return until the employee has been working for a good amount of time. Also the risk of employees quitting during training (first few weeks at work is a likely time for one to quite) will mean money is wasted if they do so.Training will not be the only issue cost to the business, things such as reporting all incidents will increase administration costs, as more files are created and submitted for health and safety. The firm may feel under pressure too from other laws such as competition laws and employment laws and issues may arise if they are caught breaking these laws. Competition law will be likely to protect the firm against other manufacturers who may make cartels or predatory price for example.However, it creates pressure on executives and others to keep by these laws and run the business in the â€Å"correct† way. Employment acts such as the Employment Relations Act, 2004, give certain rights to the employees to stop them being â€Å"abused† by managerial personnel. This has left the firm’s employees with a greater authority, allowing them to legally call strikes if they have any concerns. This is made more likely to happen to the firm as it i s sitting in a recession with high inflation.High inflation can lead to employees demanding higher pay, thus being an issue that the firm will need to keep tabs on. All laws, as said make business practice a very much controlled environment to work in, which has shown to cause business various issues, some stated already. These have mainly been issues that affect the firm’s costs. One issue that can affect the demand of the goods may be bad press. Many laws put in place to protect people e. g. employment laws and international agreements on human rights or environmental policy, will create bad press if broken.Emissions levels and road taxes may affect the firm if it is importing its raw materials laws may also make it hard for the business to import all the materials they need too or they may need to pay more for the surplus on the amount allowed. All three factors from the PESTEL analysis show many issues that the firm will face in the external environment of the men’ s clothing market. Overall, social, economic and legal considerations bring about more issues than technological, environmental and political elements. However, they too create issues that the firm will need to analyse and consult.The men’s clothing market is strongly influenced by social and economic happenings and controlled by laws portraying why they create more issues than the other three. All in all, politics do not play a great role in the manufacture of clothes. Also the men’s clothing market being a relatively simple segment in terms of technology, thus low barriers to entry, technological factors do not form many issues. Environmental factors seem to create the most issues to the firm but are closely linked to social and legal and seem more appropriate in these sections.

Breach of Covenant That Was Present †Free Samples for Students

In the present case, the facts given in this question revealed the presence of the issue if puters Pty Ltd can successfully sue Systems Pty Ltd for the breach of covenant that was present in the employment contract of Chu with puters Pty Ltd. This issue has arisen as a result of the fact that after his retirement, a pany, Systems Pty Ltd was incorporated by Chu's wife. This pany has been taking on Business Law from the clients of puters Pty Ltd. in NSW while restrictive covenant present in the employment contract of Chu provides that he cannot join any business that petes with the pany for 2 years in NSW. Therefore, it needs to be seen in this case if puters Pty Ltd can take action against Systems Pty Ltd for the breach of this covenant. 1. It appears that in the present case, as soon as Chu took retirement from the pany, he had decided to start a business that was going to pete with puters Pty Ltd. However, in order to fulfill this objective, a pany under the name of Systems Pty Ltd had been formed by Chu's wife. She is the sole director of the pany and also holds all the issues the capital in the pany. This pany is taking the business of puters in New South Wales. The legal principle was provided in Salomon v Salomon according to which it was affirmed that after it's incorporated, generally panies considered as a separate legal entity that is distinct from its shareholders. In this way, the principle of separate legal identity of the corporation has been followed in Anglo Australian panies’ law for more than 100 years. Therefore, when a pany acts, it acts on its own and not simply as alias for the persons controlling the pany (Clarke and Clarke, 2016). In the same way, the shareholders of the corporations cannot be held labor regarding the debts of the corporation beyond the initial capital investment. Similarly, they do not have any proprietary interest in the assets of the pany. In Jones v Lipman (1962), the defendant had entered into a contract for selling his land. However, later on he changed his mind. Therefore, the defendant found the pany and he was the owner/director of this pany. The land was transferred to this corporation and the defendant declined to perform the transaction. As a result, the relief was sought by the plaintiff. In this case, the court stated that the remedy of specific performance can be granted against the contracting vendor, because it was in his authority to force the other person to convey the property in question. Therefore, specific performance was ordered against the director and the pany. The court held that the pany cannot escape or divest itself from the knowledge that has been gained by it through the director. The court stated that the pany was a creature of the controlling director or a device or a mask that the director holds before his face for the purpose of avoiding recognition by equity. However, there are certain circumstances where the court may arrive at the conclusion that the corporate veil needs to be pierced in a particular case. Therefore, while basic principle provides that under the corporation’s law, a pany is treated by the law as having its own separate legal identity. And as a result, it is considered to be distinct from its members. But as time passed by, the courts have e up with several exceptions to the application of this general rule. As a result, now under some circumstances, it is available to the court to set aside the fact that the pany enjoys a separate personality and concludes that the members of the pany can be held responsible for its actions. When such a decision is made by the court, it is said that the court had decided to lift the corporate veil (Khoury and   Yamouni, 2010). The facts of Gilford Motor pany Ltd v Horne (1933) are somewhat similar to the problem given in the present case. In this case, Mr. Horne was working as the managing director of the Gilford Motor pany. After he left the pany, he decided to incorporated his own pany. Therefore, after the entire production of his pany, he started to solicit the clients of Gilford Motor Co. on the other hand, there was a non petition covenant present in his employment contract. Therefore, the issue was if the actions of Mr. Horne's pany can be considered as a breach of the non petition covenant present in his employment contract. However, the court decided that this amounted to the breach of covenant and granting an injunction against Mr. Horne and his pany. In support of its decision, the court stated that the pany incorporated by Horne was merely a cloak that had been used by Horne for the purpose of breaching the non petition covenant. A somewhat similar decision has also been given by the court in J ones v Lipman (1962). Therefore in Gilford Motor Co v Horne, the defendant was the ex-MD of the plaintiff. However, there was a restrictive covenant present in his employment contract. In view of this clause present in the employment contract, he was refrained from joining a business in petition with his former employer. Therefore in order to avoid this covenant, the defendant formed a pany and he tried to transact his business through this pany. Therefore, at the first instance, the court held that this pany has been formed for the purpose of allowing the business to be carried on under the control of the defendant but without injuring the liability for the breach of the covenant. That was present in his employment contract. In this way, the court noted, the reality that this pany was being used by the defendant as a channel through which he was performing his business in breach of the covenant. In such a case, it can be said that the pany has been formed only as a cloak or sham due to the reason that in reality the business was being carried on by Chu. Due to the reason that the restrictive covenant prevented Chu from peting with the business of puters Pty Ltd. whether as principal or, while acting as an agent for another party, it was not relevant if the business belonged to him or the belonged to his wife, provided that the business was being carried on by Chu. The only significance of the interposition of the corporation was to maintain the pretense that the business was being continued by other person. Therefore, in such a case it can be said that there is no doubt on the basis of the present facts that the pany formed by Chu's wife was created for the purpose of acting as a channel through which Chu was going to carry on his business that will pete with the business of puter Pty Ltd. Although under the corporations law , it has been provided that a pany has to be considered as a separate legal entity that is distinct from those who manage the affairs of the pany, but in the present case, it can be said that it was one of the reasons behind the creation of the pany by Chu's wife was the fear that Chu may be held responsible for the breach of the covenant and with the help of the formation of this pany, he may be able to avoid liability if he acted through the pany. On these grounds, it can be said that this pany has been formed merely as a device or a stratagem for the purpose of acting as a mask to effectively carry on the business of Chu. In the present case also, puters Pty Ltd is required to establish in the court that the new pany, Systems Pty Ltd had been formed only with a view to evade the application of the restrictive covenant present in the employment contract of Chu according to which he cannot pete with puters Pty Ltd for a period of two years in New South Wales. Hence the court may decide that the corporate veil should be lifted in this case and the restrictive covenant in the employment contract of Chu needs to be enforced against the pany created by Chu’s wife, Systems Pty Ltd. At the same time, as puters had created a subsidiary pany and the benefit of the restrictive covenant can also be provided to this pany. C Kidd, (1985) ‘Partial Performance o Lump Sum Contracts: Proposals for Reform’, 59 Australian Law Journal 96   Daniel Khoury, Yvonne Yamouni, 2010, Understanding Contract Law, 8 th Edition, LexisNexis Butterworths Jane Swanston, (1981) ‘Discharge of Contracts for Breach’, 13(1) Melbourne University Law Review 69 M Dockray, (2001) ‘Cutter v Powell: A Trip Outside the Text’, 117Law Quarterly Review664; P Clarke, J. Clarke, 2016, Contract Law, mentaries, Cases and Perspectives, 3 rd Edition, Oxford University Press  

Precedent in English Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Precedent in English Law - Essay Example It is always considered to be the rule-based, legally well-established case law. "The fact that English Law is largely a system of case-law means that the judge's decision in a particular case constitutes a 'precedent'The judge may simply be obliged to decide the case before him in the same way as that in which the previous case was decided, even if he can give a good reason for not doing so," Cross and Harris (1991, p.4). There is no doubt that precedents have not remained what they used to be and as the society evolves, some of the precedents might become irrelevant and it is left to the court's discerning judgement where and how to apply these highly useful precedents. "Rather, what is common to all the various traits of free judicial decision-making is their critical attitude towards the formalist premises of legal positivism and the ideology of bound judicial decision-making," Siltala (2000, p.5) and he argues that legislative techniques have undergone great change in 20th century which has given way to 'judicial anti-formalism'. Precedent spells the legal authority in the form of a forgone legal case that had reached a judgement that could be described as 'out of the track'. It does not say that similar judgement should be established every time; it only becomes a mandatory example from which either the judge could derive inspiration or measure the new case from that angle. Court is expected to consider such precedents before interpreting law for another judgement. Precedent is a landmark decision that could be applied to other cases, but according to independent circumstances. "The rule-based model suggests that the function of precedent is to settle the law so that it can guide individuals and the courts. The reason-based model suggests that the function is to compensate for the erosion of consensus in the common law by simultaneously fixing starting points for decision-making without giving the judiciary lawmaking power" http://journals.cambridge.org/download.phpfile=%2FLEG%2FLEG11_01%2FS1352325205050019a.pdf&code=303b5dd539d0786a50aadfcbedad50cd Precedents could be mandatory/binding or persuasive, depending on the importance of the said precedent, and also depending on the exclusive circumstances under which it was delivered and the authority who created the precedent. Usually binding precedents are created by higher courts for the lower courts to follow. If created by a lower court, it is never binding on the higher court, although it could take it as a matter of sound significance. Even if it is binding, this does not mean that the lower court has to follow it to the letter unless it is 'directly in point' and no additional cases could be formed on the precedent case. Also in rare occasions, a higher court can overturn the judgement of precedent case, or sometimes even limit the scope of the precedent. Even when they are binding, they do so in a certain ratio, which was highly pronounced in Duncan v Cammell. "On that criterion the ratio decidendi of Duncan v Cammell, Laird would have to be "the" reason which explains the holding on "the" material facts and nothing wider. Therefore all utterances in the precedent case which went in verbal ambit beyond such a reason, even though that ambit might seem to govern the instant facts, did not in law do so. For they were simply not a part of the ratio of Duncan's case," says Stone (1985, p.133).

Environmental Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Environmental Strategies - Essay Example The results are analyzed in relation with the discussions that were explained in literature review section. Based on the discussions made on global warming and its effects, both the organizations agreed to the fact that global warming is a significant problem and believe that it is important for them to act on it with immediate effect. As a service provider for Network Rail, Atkins limited believes that public is the major contributor for global warming. They suggest that with proper usage of rail networks, the usage of cars and trucks to travel can be avoided to a great extent and thereby, reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. The organizational heads believe that, because of recession in current economy, the issues related to environmental changes have lost their limelight and have taken a back step. With the climatic change meet scheduled to happen at Copenhagen in November, clients and service providers believe that the global warming issues will again be under the scanner. They expect the meeting to design long term plans to achieve the goal of reducing global emissions by 80% from the current level in 2050. On organizational perspective, as an example of companies practicing new strategies with the primary focus both on environment and customer, the rail network organization has come up with an A2B strategy for their business. By this strategy, they have kept the mitigation of climate change effects as one of the top requirements, on par with cost and maintenance activities. Based on the argument produced by Arvin Lazar regarding climate change becoming one of the top most agenda for organizations, the two organizations have different opinions on this issue. Being a part of the government of UK, Network rail has taken into consideration the environmental impact by green house gases, in their funding strategy. They have organized an environmental committee to promote them to a state where they have a clearer idea about the environmental impact caused by them. Whereas on the other hand, the contractors are concerned more about the quality of the product they deliver rather than climate change. They prioritize issues based on the client needs and believe that climate change would be considered as a top priority in the near future. On an introductory note, we can summarize the issues that the contractors and the client are challenged by implementing the environmental change strategies in their respective system. For the client, implementing the environmental strategies is in the pipeline but the only drawback they are facing is a failure of an estimation of the cost required to do the same. The contractors, due to recession are in a state of implementing environmental strategy only on compulsion from the client and hence it is yet to become their prime motive. Since there are no set of standards on implementing the strategies, both the clients and contractors believe that the implementation is not a onetime process. Government The government has introduced a program called Climate Change Program (CCP) to reduce Carbon content emission levels. But then, as (David 2008) suggests, the above program will not affect greatly on reducing the percentage of emissions. The contractors agree with this thought as their main goal is quality of work rather than leverage of taxes. The client side analysis shows that they believe the rules are only just to comply and suggest that legislations in Scotland have to certain extent,

How do you define success Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

How do you define success - Essay Example The most successful people were clearly those who had all the parties, had attractive boyfriends and girlfriends, and sat at the right lunch tables. Today I look back at this adolescent phase and consider that while my understanding of success was widely shared, I can’t help but feel it was rooted in an illusionary understanding of reality and what is important in life. Today I define success much differently. Rather than viewing success in terms of other people, I understand success as a matter of personal meaning and social contribution. I think that it’s important that human beings live their lives with purpose. Too often people are caught seeking acceptance from others and personal wealth as they believe these things constitute success and personal happiness, when in actuality they are a mirage. True success is living life to one’s full potential in ways that contribute to the world in positive ways. For me, this means seeking out and sharing new and interesting ideas, living with a social conscience, and a sense of morality. I’m not a stoic, and I believe life is full of enjoyment, but if we are to achieve a lasting sense of accomplishment it must come from a personally defined sense of meaning and purpose. This is the true definition of

Pier Paolo Pasolini Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

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The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Essay Example Decision Tech’s employs too could not work together efficiently, they could not create their own magnetism because ‘†¦ few key employees below the executive level unexpectedly left the company. Morale deteriorated†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ if this technological company had learnt the attributes of team work, they needed not to have depended on Jeff Shanley leadership ‘.. Someone had to be accountable for the mess, and Jeff was the man at the top.’ The big attribute of team work revolves around cheering and bolstering their leader, this lacked in this firm instead Decision Tech developed a reputation within the valley for being one of the most political and unpleasant places to work. Question two: Review the information on the establishment of team â€Å"Norms† during the forming and norming stages of team development in your text on pages 498 -501. What behavioral norms had been established by the executive team at Decision Tech before Kathryn took over? How did these norms help or hurt the company’s performance? Dependence and superficiality: There was little interaction which was formal or guarded, in establishing clarity of purpose, norms, procedures and expectations thus cohesive unit could not be created. The more employees interact together the more they develop a common behavior. This lacked in Decision tech’s capacity leading to a poor performance There was a lot of cooperativeness and heightened interpersonal attraction‘†¦ it had the most experienced – and expensive- executive team imaginable†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ this helped it a lot to attract even the ‘†¦cautious venture ï ¬ rms†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ who were ‘†¦ lining up to invest, and talented engineers were submitting their rà ©sumà ©s before the company had leased even an office.’ The firms employees conformed to standards and expectations for high achievement leading to ‘†¦a seemingly indestructible business plan and more top-tier