Facing Diversity - Case Study of Carrefour in Asia

This macro approach simply based on Economic, legal and political environment will may affect the business. Economic environment refers to the external factor in a business that can influence a business. Socialism and communism economic environmental factor. Socialism means where government or states owns all assets or we can say where government intervention is most. However, communism means all the assets and resources are owned by individuals.

All businesses will be affected by factors in its environment. The following are the 3 main factors affecting businesses;

There are two types of business environment - internal and external environment. As for internal environment, it includes some factors within the boundaries of the organization or specific decision unit that are taken directly into consideration in the decision-making behavior of individuals in that system.

The environment in which a company finds itself has been a factor in a firm’s strategy, because of access to raw materials. The environment in which a company operates can make and break the company at the same time. Environmental factors are evaluated on the footprint left behind by a firm on its respective surroundings. It is important that every individual or management considers the environment in which they intend to set up a business.

Every organization has to analyze its business environment before making policies and strategies for its day to day operations, marketing and promotional efforts, and competing with the industry rivals (Loudon, Stevens, & Wrenn 2004). The key factors of the business environment that affect the business operations of a company include political, economic, technological, environmental, cultural, and demographical factors. In addition to these factors, an analysis of the competitive forces is also essential in order to assess the potential threats and intensity of rivalry present in the industry (Ritchie & Crouch 2003). If an organization does not give importance to the analysis of its business environment, it may not be able to compete in the industry for a long period of time (Hill & Jones 2007).

Another of the biggest issues that Doohickeys faces, and probably unknowingly, is that there is no diversity. Yes, 90% of the managers are white middle-class males meaning that the other 10% are not. The CEO’s track record of hiring managers is from word of mouth and/or hiring friends or friends of friends, therefore everyone he hires is just like those already within the business. This method prevents diversity within the upper levels of the company. According to what we learned in Making Differences Matter, there are huge benefits of having diversity within a business; these include increase profitability, new learning, more creativity, flexibility, organizational and individual growth, and the ability of a company to adjust rapidly and successfully to market changes.

These factors influence the internal environment of an organisation and they help in identifying the past and the present of the company, It also provides a frame work for reviewing strategy position and direction of the company.

A firms external environment is divided into two composites: the general environment and the industry environment. Fahey (1999) states that the general environment encompasses the broader society that influences an industry and the firms within it. The industry environment is the set of factors that directly influences a firm and its competitive actions and responses (Chen et al. 2010). Identifying opportunities and threats is an important objective of studying the general environment. Opportunities help companies achieve strategic competitiveness whilst threats may hinder a company's efforts to achieve strategic competitiveness (Gilad 2011). A firm will scan, monitor, forecast and assess the seven segments of the general environment to determine their effects on the firm. Firms identify early signals, detect meaning,develop projections, and determine the timing and importance of environmental changes and trends for firms' strategies and their management.

In market environment include microenvironment and macroenvironment. Most important factors of microenvironment of business are competitors, suppliers, public, marketing intermediaries, customers and the company.

Business environment is the sum total of all external and internal factors that influence a business. External factors and internal factors can influence each other and work together to affect a business.

Identifying influencing factors of a company’s macro-environment helps in the strategic development and management within a company. The macro-environment outlines an industry and the competitive environment as seen in figure 3.1, (Gamble, Peteraf, Thompson, 39). Within the macro-environment there are the political factors, economic conditions, sociocultural forces, technological factors, environment forces, and legal/regulatory factors. All of these factors blanket the habitat an industry and its competition thrive in. Inside the industry and competitive environment there are five factors that influence an individual company. The five factors are suppliers, rival firms, new entrants, buyers, and substitute products. The biggest impact on a company are these five factors. For example, Under Armour focuses on their industry and competitive environment to survive and grow. Their strategy to win over the market share from Nike and Adidas consists of expanding a stable and original brand within record time, taking an innovative approach to their product line-up and brand-name appeal where the market seemed to be barren, and lastly, the company enters in the foreign market early on to establish its brand and influence markets outside of the US.

The article was written in 2013 by Barak, who is a knowledgeable and experienced professor, with an experience in social work and business. The book provides information on how to ensure there is inclusiveness in the workplace. The author reveals that management has to ensure it successfully handles diversity in the workforce. The author argues that in the current workforce, which is diverse, the challenge is exclusion. The book compiles extensive current information on social policy trends, legislative and demographic, as well as the analysis of causes and effects of workforce exclusion, and reveals that learning about how to manage the issue of diversity is critical. Therefore, based on the extensive information offered touching on diversity in the workplace, I will be utilizing the book to draw on the ways the managers of an organization ought to handle the issue of diversity for success of the company.

Political, Economic, Social and Technology are the factors that affect the external Environment of an industry.

In this term of our discussion we’re talking about business environment. It’s like an overview of the whole business environment. Simply environment of a business means the external forces including the business decisions. They can be forces of economic, social, political and technological factors.

An analysis of the external environment includes the factors in a business’s external environment about a business's industry, competition, and political and social environments, and affects the firm’s strategy (Aaker, 2001).