Module code: |
BMA4000-20 |
Module title: |
The Business Environment |
Assignment: |
A2: Individual Reflective Performance Report (Based on Business Case Study given on Moodle) |
Word count: |
1500 (+/- 10%) |
Contribution to module mark: |
40% of overall grade |
Student name and ID: |
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Executive summary
This report is based on individual performance and own experience of an individual for focusing on the business environment through the case studies of fast fashion organisation organisations in the UK. The use of the Gibbs Reflection model is also beneficial for identifying the feelings and experiences of my own. It has been necessary to focus on the competitors of the fast fashion business to identify the risks, issues and problems and to get an exact solution from this. Using Tuckman and Jensen’s theory has been useful for developing the team members and managing the relationship for establishing the changes with collaborative and shared leadership.
Table of Contents
Reflective Report
Introduction
An individual performance report is always helpful for identifying own experience based on different business organisations (Meijerink et al., 2022).In a business environment, there are some of the other forces, which can control the business organisation. It also can create a huge impact on the overall performance of the business, also on sustainability (Morrison, 2020). This report will discuss about the Gibbs Reflective Cycle, which is effective for analysing own experience about the business industry.
Description
This case study is focused on the fast-fashion clothes. It has identified about different new productions of the fashion organisation. I have noticed that, this case study is based on the manufacturing of fast fashion clothes with Uniqlo, Zara, H&M and others. As per my knowledge, this case study is helping to get ideas about the growth and profit of the UK retail clothing business market.
The case study has been designed in the retail clothing market industry, which has a major contribution in the economic field of UK (Boddy, 2019). I have acquired huge and adequate knowledge about production and about the continuous growth in the clothing business. I have discussed different new strategies, which can be implemented to improve the success and growth and to get competitiveness in the clothing business field. I also have been aware of the challenges and issues in the social and environmental challenges in the clothing business. The renowned clothing organisations like H&M and Levi’s have been discussed with their reusing and recycling initiatives. I have been aware of and analysed the problems and issues with environmental risk for identifying the purchasing power of the business. Using the Tuckman and Jensen's theory for developing and identifying the growth of the team by managing leadership styles and changes (Worthingon and Britton, 2018).
Feeling
I thought that, it is a beautiful experience to work on the business related projects, which are associated with the fast fashion. The case subject is about the growth and expansion of the wardrobes. It also has discussed about the safety and security of the organisation, which is important for increasing the profit and growth in business. I have noticed that, there are different types of social and environmental challenges and risks, which need to be mitigated to achieve ultimate growth and sustainability in the fast fashion business industry. In feel that, I need to get more knowledge and ideas about the shopping trends in a sustainable manner. In order to get a complete insight into the customers, I need to get all the competitive knowledge. Apart from that, I believe that identifying and discussing all the challenges and issues can be beneficial for resolving those problems and getting a proper solution from them.
I have tried to adequate information about the fast fashion marketplace and about the customers to identify their demographics, like age, gender, location, income and shopping habits. I need to get an idea about the psychographic profile of the customers for analysing their personality, traits and about social convictions.
Evaluation
During the reading and analysis of the case study, I made some positive decisions for completing all the case activities. At the time of completing all the case activities, I made the right decision to get a critical analysis of the fast fashion and business market. I have tried to get ideas about the customers and competitors in the fast fashion business and marketplace for promoting business strategy and promoting the product with social media platforms. At the time of completing the case activities, it was difficult for me to get an idea about the internal factors of the organisation by doing the internal analysis. I need to be focused on the competitors to identify their strengths and weakness in the business. In order to get an idea about the social media platforms, I need to be focused on the marketing and advertisement of the teams.
I got ideas about the day-to-day operations for reducing the impact of the organisation with the financial, reporting, compliance and raising capital. My team felt that I made some negative decisions due to the lack of knowledge about the competitors due to my lack of resource investigator of Belbin team role. In order to handle all the social and environmental issues, I need to get a depth of knowledge about the external and internal information of the business. However, in order to get and implement a business plan, I was required to get adequate ideas about the overview of the fast fashion and business of the UK.
Analysis
In order to make strategic business decision, I think that, my internal analysis of SWOT analysis worked well in fast fashion business market. On the other side, getting an in depth knowledge about the competitors also helped me for identifying the personality traits, social convictions and about social and political issues. As per my knowledge, I felt that some of the things did not work for promoting the plans of the customers and to get the overall strategy about them. Identifying and focusing on the overall strategy is required to get a complete idea about the competitors and to manage and tackle all the problems and issues in the business. I found major difficulties with strategic business decisions in the marketing and management environment.
No, I have not used Mintzberg or Porter’s theories in the internal analysis of the business environment. In order to manage strategic business decisions, I need to be focused on different market strategies for identifying and analysing my own problems and issues and to get ideas about new business skills. I have noticed that, in marketing and management, all the strategic business decisions are important and challenging for mitigating the issues and stress in the business. In order to make and create an appropriate and strategic business decision, I need to consult and get ideas from my team members. Additionally, it is also necessary to minimise and resolve all the problems and issues by implementing alternative strategies with the marketing and management. I was also required to get some alternative ideas about strategic development for managing and getting ideas about a proper business decision and to identify the social and political information about the business environment.
Identifying and gathering ideas about the demographic and psychographic profile can help in analysing the priorities and preferences of the customers and fulfilling their demands as per their requirements. I need to be focused on the customers to get idea about the changes of the shopping habit and about the new fashion trends. In the online and social media platform, I need to get an idea about the fashion trend for managing overall problems and issues with social media platforms. In order to manage the day-to-day operation in the business, I need to identify the issues and problems, which can create a harmful and negative impact on fast fashion. Moreover, it is also important for me to identify the business operations like reporting, compliance and raising all the ideas about the capital to prevent uncertainty and problems in the business (Meijerink et al., 2022).
Improving research, communication and time management skills will be essential for getting a better performance and to increase competitiveness in the business (Griffin and Pustay, 2015). Focusing and improvement of the skills will be essential for making strategic decisions about the internal business environment (Morrison, 2011).
Conclusion
As per my knowledge, I need to get the required ideas about the development of the new skills for providing a better performance within a group and work. I need to improve my communication, time management, research and listening skills for getting overall growth and profit in the organisation and to improve the productivity of my workplace. I need to work on these skills to get information that is more productive and to achieve all the goals in my future life. In order to get an idea about the understanding of the case studies, I need to do in-depth market research to identify all issues and trends in the business and to identify the competitiveness of the business.
Action Plan
Step 1: As per my own and overall analysis of my experience for the case study, I need to be focused on analysing all the issues and problems in the internal business to manage all the strategic decisions in the business.
Step 2: I need to improve my communication, research skills, collaboration and others for getting an ultimate progress and success in the business environment.
Step 3: I need to get adequate resources for improving my communication, collaboration and others to fulfil all the requirements and to identify the solution to this.
Step 4: It is essential for me to identify and schedule the tasks within a specific time to fulfil all the requirements and to get a complete research and analysis on the business case studies.
Conclusion
In order to get an idea about the overall business strategy, it is required to be focused on the advertisement and promotional strategies of the business, which can be helpful for managing day-to-day operations in the business. It is also necessary to be more collaborative with my team members.
Reference List
Bailey, K., Basu, A. and Sharma, S.(2022)‘The environmental impacts of fast fashion on water quality: a systematic review’. Water, 14(7), p.1073.
Benzaghta, M.A., Elwalda, A., Mousa, M.M., Erkan, I. and Rahman, M.(2021)‘SWOT analysis applications: An integrative literature review’. Journal of Global Business Insights, 6(1), pp.54-72.
Boddy, D. (2019) Management: Using Practice and Theory to Develop Skill, 8th ed., London: Prentice Hall.
Griffin, R.W. and Pustay, M. (2015) International Business: A Management Perspective. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Hageman, E., Kumar, V., Duong, L., Kumari, A. and McAuliffe, E.(2024)‘Do fast fashion sustainable business strategies influence attitude, awareness and behaviours of female consumers?’. Business Strategy and the Environment, 33(2), pp.1081-1098.
López, T., Riedler, T., Köhnen, H. and Fütterer, M.(2022)‘Digital value chain restructuring and labour process transformations in the fast?fashion sector: Evidence from the value chains of Zara & H&M’. Global Networks, 22(4), pp.684-700.
Meijerink, J.G., Beijer, S.E. and Bos-Nehles, A.C.(2022)‘A meta-analysis of mediating mechanisms between employee reports of human resource management and employee performance: different pathways for descriptive and evaluative reports?’. In Strategic Human Resource Management and Organizational Effectiveness (pp. 170-218). Routledge.
Morrison, J. (2011) The Global Business Environment: Meeting the challenges. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Morrison, J. (2020) The Global Business Environment: Towards Sustainability? 5th ed., Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Theguardian (2024) Fast Fashion. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/jun/21/fast-fashion-is-on-the-rampage-with-uk-at-the-head-of-the-charge (Accessed: 27 September 2024)
Vijeyarasa, R. and Liu, M.(2022)‘Fast fashion for 2030: Using the pattern of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) to cut a more gender-just fashion sector’. Business and Human Rights Journal, 7(1), pp.45-66.
Worthingon, I. and Britton, C. (2018) The Business Environment. 7th ed., London: Prentice Hall.
Zhang, B., Zhang, Y. and Zhou, P.(2021)‘Consumer attitude towards sustainability of fast fashion products in the UK’. Sustainability, 13(4), p.1646.
Appendix
Case Study Questions
SWOT analysis helps to get all the internal data and information for focusing on technological development and globalisation to connect with the other business partners (Benzaghta et al., 2021). It is necessary to get the influence for exchanging new information and ideas and to operate the business for identifying the strengths, weaknesses and other opportunities.
Strength
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Weakness
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Opportunity
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Threats
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Table 1: SWOT Analysis
(Source: theguardian, 2024)
2. In the fast fashion business, some of the major competitors are Zara, H&M and GAP (Hageman et al., 2024). The fashion market leaders have huge revenue and profit in their business with an impactful supply chain process and communication with others all over Europe, Asia and North America.
3. The demographic for fast fashion is the young people, who can influence the other generation and culture with their fashion and style trends. It is both the male and female, who are addicted to the fast fashion trend. The age is mostly from 18 to 35 or 40. The occupation and disposable income are high for fast fashion products (López et al., 2022).The hobbies are mostly shopping and improving my fashion and style of own.
A psychographic profile is unique for the customers for increasing and managing the value, interests, hobbies and principles with a cognitive characteristic. Most of the fast fashion customers try to be updated with the fast fashion and trending styles for modifying and upgrading their lifestyles (Zhang et al., 2021).
4. The fast fashion organisations can promote all their products by using digital platforms and to get ideas about the overall business strategy. In order to promote the product and service to the customers, it is required to get the offerings to the audience. Promoting the business is highly necessary for optimising visibility (Bailey et al., 2022).The fast fashion companies also use the promotional campaign for traditional advertising and to minimise the expenditure of the business.
5. Social media marketing and advertising streams have been known as fast fashion in business. This type of marketing is useful for implementing a marketing strategy with the marketing plan. The use of both online and social media platforms helps to reach customers without wasting any time.
6. The companies like Zara, H&M, Uniqlo and others have managed their social and environmental issues by reducing plastic and microfibers. The high depletion of the natural resources can create major problems in the environment (Bailey et al., 2022). After running the business for 2 years, it is understood that, the social impact of fast fashion is based on the sustainability getting idea about the environment.
7. After running the business of fast fashion for 2 years, it is identified that the private limited companies can conduct their daily operations by getting better access to capital and by expanding the operation with the investment and growth of the business. Activities like financial, reporting, compliance and raising the capital are important for getting the debt and financing solution with the equity and funding for the organisations (Vijeyarasa and Liu, 2022). Funding the options has been important for getting huge benefits and facilities in the private companies. The private fast fashion companies like H&M, Uniqlo and Zara can reduce unnecessary expenses with a streamlined process and negotiate better deals with suppliers.
