SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN THE UNITED
KINGDOM
Eric Asare
,Name: Eric Asare
Assignment: 1 Unit 1
Teachers name: Isa Ijale
Class: 1G
Small and medium enterprises in
the United Kingdom
Introduction
In this assignment I will be writing a report about the type of business, purpose
and ownership of the two businesses I’ve chosen. I am going to explain the
different stakeholders who influence the purpose of the two businesses I’ve chosen: one
is a large, which is ASDA and the second business is Eastbury comprehensive
school.
In this section I shall be talking about ASDA
ASDA is one of the largest retailers in the United Kingdom. ASDA provides a wide
range of products and services such as groceries, household products, clothing
(George) to insurance (travel insurance), along with housewares, music, videos,
and books. ASDA has approximately 259 stores each averaging nearly 42,000
square feet with some as large as 100,000 square feet and over 200,000
employees. ASDA once upon a time was known as a dairy conglomerate, was
acquired by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in 1999. ASDA is a PLC company which
sells/trades shares to the public also their aim is to make profit. ASDA is an
international business because they operate all over the world and has multiple
bases and HQs. ASDA is a tertiary sector because ASDA provides services and
sells products. One of ASDA’s purpose is to provide good quality products at
reasonable prices for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty. ASDA offers a wide
range of products and services such as groceries, household products, clothing
(George) to insurance (travel insurance). ASDA is a retailer so therefore it is the
tertiary sector. Tertiary sector provides services to the general population and to
businesses e.g. wholesale sales, transportation and distribution. ASDA is a
limited company because if ASDA goes bankrupt the owner’s shareholders will
only lose money they have invested into ASDA and not personal assets such as
car, house and others.
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,Name: Eric Asare
Assignment: 1 Unit 1
Teachers name: Isa Ijale
Class: 1G
The aims and objectives of ASDA
One of the aims of ASDA’s is to become the UK’s number 1
supermarket store beating their competitors Tesco.in order to cover
this aim ASDA can reduce their prices and promotes them on TV
adverts to attract more customers.
Another aim is to provide good quality products at sensible prices
for customers. In order to cover this aim ASDA buys their products
from highly competitive supplier and they also use their own
packing and brand name to reduce packaging cost.
An example of how ASDA meets their objectives is to
increase their market share by 3% in 12 months using
smart.
Specific-this is only looking at the market share
Measurable-increase the market share to 3% stating the percentage provides
something that can be measured to show whether the objective has been
achieved or not.
Achievable-before setting the objective ASDA has to make sure that they are
currently doing well before attempting in order for it to be achievable.
Realistic-before setting a 12 month deadline for the objective ASDA has to review
their resources, employees, competitors and current market share to make sure
if it is possible for them to increase market share by 3% in 12 months.
Time scaled-this part is achievable by the objective including a 12 month times
scaled.
ASDA’s mission
To be the Britain’s best value retailer exceeding customer needs, every day.
ASDA’s purpose
To save everyone, money every day.
What is a stakeholder?
A stakeholder could be anyone who has an interest in a business anyone from
the customers to the pressure groups, Stakeholders are individuals, groups or
organisations that are affected by the activity of the business. Businesses will
automatically do what they believe is in the best interest for both the company
and investors. One of the advantages of a stakeholder is that the stakeholder can
provide you with valuable input which can improve outcomes and build
consensus. One of the disadvantages of a stakeholder is that stakeholders often
takes time. So this will depend on the project time line as the business might not
have sufficient time to engage stakeholders. An example of a stakeholder at
McDonalds is customers because customers buys food and drinks from
3 | Page
,Name: Eric Asare
Assignment: 1 Unit 1
Teachers name: Isa Ijale
Class: 1G
McDonalds, suppliers because McDonalds buys supplies from them, local
community because McDonalds can provide jobs for them, government etc.
Key stakeholders are important to the success of operation within a business.
These key stakeholders could be within the business or outside the business and
they can influence the operations. Stakeholders can be internal or external.
The Internal stakeholders work within the business. For example:
managers, directors, employees and shareholders. External stakeholders
do not work within the business. For example: customers, local
community, government, suppliers.
The point of view of Internal and external stakeholders
for ASDA
ASDA’s stakeholders Reasons why they are stakeholder
Customers(external) The customers are external
stakeholders because they don’t work
within ASDA but they buy products
from them so this means customers
have an interest in ASDA, in other
words everyone who purchase
something from ASDA is stakeholder.
Customers who have an interest in
ASAD tend to come to ASDA for
different reasons. For example many
customers expect good quality
products at sensible prices and others
might be interested because of any
advertised offers. ASDA uses different
types of techniques to get feedback
from customers such as
questionnaires which allows ASDA to
find out what customers thinks about
their services as well as products
because if ASDA receive a negative
feedback about their service from the
questionnaires then ASDA would then
know what to try to fix the problem in
order to make customers happy. Also,
customers help ASDA meet their aims
and objective because without
customers buying their product ASDA
wouldn’t be able to make profit and
survive.
Employees(internal) Employees are internal stakeholders
because the work within ASDA.
Employees are one of the most
important stakeholders because they
are the ones who provide their
services to customers and help ASDA
4 | Page
, Name: Eric Asare
Assignment: 1 Unit 1
Teachers name: Isa Ijale
Class: 1G
meet their aims and objective. So
when ASDA in making big decision
they have to make consider their
employees because they work hard
for ASDA in order to help ASDA meet
their aims and objective and make a
lot of profit. The reason why
employees do this is that they don’t
want to start losing money and
become bankrupt as it will lead to
ASDA to making decisions which
might affect their job security as
employees don’t want their jobs to be
put at risk, so employees expect from
ASDA a long-term job security and
stability. Another thing that motivates
employees to work hard is that ASDA
provides bonuses and prizes for
employees which can influence
employees to work extra hard in order
to receive those bonuses and prizes.
However, if employees receive bad
working condition or a low salary, this
will affect to ASDA because their
employees would not work and the
company will need to deal with
customer’s negative feedback from
customers which will eventually cause
Some customers to not come back.
But the purpose of ASDA is to save
everyone, money every day and if
they are not able to help everyone
save everyday then ASDA will not
make any profit. Lastly it is important
that ASDA look after their internal
stakeholders because they could tell
friends, families and others how good
ASDA is and why they should shop at
ASDA.
Suppliers(external) The suppliers are external
stakeholders because they don’t work
within ASDA. It is important the
ASDA’s suppliers are flexible and
reliable suppliers because if they are
not then ASDA wouldn’t be able to
survive or meet their aims and
objectives. It is important that ASDA
keeps a good relationship with their
suppliers because they can provide
ASDA with a discount. Suppliers have
an interest in ASDA because the more
ASDA orders they more money the
suppliers gets. But if the suppliers
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