Exploring business: Unit 1, Assignment 1
For this assignment I have been asked to prepare report that investigates and assesses the
reasons for the success of two businesses. The businesses I have chosen to report on are
Volkswagen (private sector) and the UK sepsis Trust (charity)
Volkswagen
Features and purposes
Volkswagen was founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front in Nazi Germany and grew
rapidly after its first car (the VW type 1) was brought out. The majority ownership of the
Volkswagen Group these days belong to Porsche Automobil Holding SE with a 31.4 %
ownership and Foreign institutional investors with a 25.9 % ownership. An impact of Porsche
having a majority ownership is they now can veto against any resolutions put forward to
them, meaning that all business decisions must pass through Porsche Automobil. Not only
was this but Porches’ fight to gain majority shares an ownership also hugely profitable for
Volkswagen Group. With the shares that were owned by the government and Porches, there
were very few shares left for anyone one. This led to the share price of Volkswagen Group to
€200 a share to over €1000 a share and raised Volkswagen’s capital drastically.
Volkswagen Group is in the private sector and is a public limited company making their
liability limited solely to the business. Liability in business is something that a company owes
to someone and the advantage of having limited liability is that if your business was to go
into administration and then eventually bankrupt, only the business would have to pay off the
debt, and your personal assets would be safe. You would only lose the amount of money that
you have put into the business- nothing else will be lost. As well as having limited liability,
being a PLC also allows people to buy shares into Volkswagen Group which has huge
advantages for them - it gives a business the ability to raise additional finance through share
capital and increased negotiation opportunities with suppliers due to larger companies being
able to benefit from a reduction in their unit costs due to buying in bulk. This will impact the
success of Volkswagen Group as less expense is spent on stock, creating larger amounts of
revenue coming in and bigger profit margins
Volkswagens Group’s purpose is to make cars for people all over world to drive. The original
Volkswagen was also named the ‘Peoples’ car’ in the early 1930’s as it was a luxury that
average working people could afford, have a brand as strong as this made Volkswagen cars
very popular for middle- and lower-class people when it first came out. This shaped
Volkswagen Group’s future as being known as a good, affordable car leading to them selling
over 3.4 million cars in 2019 through Lamborghini, Porsche, Audi and many more of their
passenger cars.
Volkswagen Group is a part of the tertiary sector and was originally invented to make money.
The tertiary sector is the service and retail sector of the processing and selling of goods
process and is the third part of this 4-part process. The other sectors include the primary
sector, where the raw materials are gathered and collected; the secondary sector which is
where the raw materials get manufactured into products and the fourth part of the process is
the quaternary sector, which provides information services such as computing and
consultancy. Volkswagen’s objectives for the future are to make more sustainable and safe
mobility solutions for the next generation to drive. They also aim to get to stop manufacturing
,diesel running cars by the year 2025 and start producing more electric vehicles, for a ‘greener
planet’. Although Volkswagen is and international business, the actual size of company is
hard to capture in just a single number or word, they own many other major car brands such
as Lamborghini, Bugatti and more. Volkswagen’s total assets for 2020 amounted to a huge
€497.114 billion, and it's all thanks to the at least 660,000 employees. Having this many
assets help further develop the business as profit can be reinvested to create more efficient
processes and help Volkswagen Group make more new advancements on their cars.
Stakeholders
A stakeholder is anyone who has an interest in a business and is likely to be impacted by the
decisions the company makes. There are two types of stakeholders within a business: an
internal stakeholder and an external stakeholder. An internal stakeholder is directly involved
in the company, such as an employee or an investor, whereas external stakeholders are not
directly involved in the company but are directly affected by the decisions the company
make, for example a supplier, or a creditor.
Internal Stakeholders
Volkswagen group has three main internal stakeholders that are directly linked and work
within them, these are: The owners, the managers and then the employees.
The owners of Volkswagen Group (such as Herbert Diess – the CEO of Volkswagen group)
have the biggest influence in the business, as most owners of any business do. This is because
they have the power to make decisions within and for the business, whether that is deals with
manufacturers, suppliers and other businesses, or dealing with problems internally such as
employees. The owners of VW specifically, are the most important stakeholders as they
control the business. If they are unhappy with how the business is run or how staff are
performing, they can make immediate changes without consultation. The owners also have
the power to sell the business at any point, meaning they affect the business the most
compared to any other stakeholder. Due to them Volkswagen Group being a PLC. This is
because in a PLC, the shareholders are the primary stakeholders, and shareholders are
looking for a return on investment and to make as much profit as possible.
Having this sort of power means that the business is directed by the decisions of these owners
such as what direction the business will be taken in and how the business communicates with
one and other. Written presentations such as financial and non-financial reports are the
appropriate form of communication at Volkswagen Group as well as formal and informal
reports. Other forms of internal communication at Volkswagen can include emails, for
messages that need to be sent out to a lot of people quickly and video/ conference calls. These
calls will be used for when different parts of the business in different countries need to
communicate. As well as all this, PowerPoint presentation will also be used as a form of
internal communication, when presenting future ideas and business plans. This
communication is the very backbone of the huge amounts of success that Volkswagen Group
has had as they help paints picture of how Volkswagen Group are performing and where the
company is going.
Now, we’ve talked about how the owners communicate internally but how do they
communicate externally? With Volkswagen Group being a multi-national enterprise, they
must communicate efficiently and effectively to reach out to as many of their stakeholders
and customers as possible, and the best way to do this is through advertisement.
, Advertisement is great way to communicate new products to a mass market of current and
potential customers and it is done through TV adverts and billboards. The importance of
communication cannot be understated and is fundamental to the success of Volkswagen
Group. VW also interpret a lot of their advertisement through social media to virtual
communities. Social media allows Volkswagen Group’s marketers to connect and engage
with a wider range of potential customers and increase awareness about their brand. Using
platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, VW can engage their audience by using
strong social media strategies and create engaging content to attract these potential
customers.
Another internal shareholder is the managers. Managers are put in place to make sure
proceedings at Volkswagen Group are run smoothly. They aim to keep employees in line and
motivated so that work as productively as possible, and they want good wages. Managers will
often communicate with the owners and top-level executives to keep them informed about
what is happening on the ground floor via reports, whether that is financial and non-financial
or formal and informal. Managers will keep employees motivated by trying to create a
supportive work environment and by showing appreciation for their work and even giving
reward achievements. Managers will often, unlike the owners, communicate and interact with
employees on a more personal level such as face-to-face meetings. However, as a quicker
form of communication they may use emails and texts when speaking to several employees
about the thing. Managers have a high level of power within VW, but not as much as the
owners. They have the powers to deal with problems and employees without the authority of
the hierarchy of the business. This is because the responsibility has been given to them by the
owners of Volkswagen Group and they deal with problems at a lower responsibility of the
more important stakeholders. Conflicts between managers and owners can arise due to wages
and benefits. For example, the owners of VW will obviously want the best managers for the
job but won’t want to pay them anymore than they have to. Also, conflict between a manager
and an employee(s) at Volkswagen Group, can happen for any number of reasons, including:
Criticism that an employee sees as unfair; an unsupportive culture at VW and a lack of
recognition for hard work. These conflicts can lead to break downs in communication at
Volkswagen Group and will massively impact the business’s success due to communication
being a key part of it.
Having been given this power, managers now have the authority to fix problems and deal
with employees appropriately, in extreme cases managers can even fire employees. This
could be because of a lack of, or poor work being done or handed in, or more serious
incidents, such as making a faulty car which results in severe injury or the death of a
customer. Managers have a particularly significant role in the communication throughout the
business, they are responsible for relaying the reports over to the owners of VW which is then
relayed to the shareholders of Volkswagen group. Without the managers Volkswagen would
have a massive breakdown in communication as well as a lack of discipline amongst
employees. Managers will often oversee many staff, making it hard for them to speak to
every individual of the team, this means that the managers at VW communicate via emails to
their employees. This makes communication between staff and managers quick and effective.
Managers will only speak to employees in person if it is specific to them or if a serious
incident has occurred.
The final internal stakeholders are the employees themselves. Without the employees,
Volkswagen Group would not be able to run, making them fundamental to the success of
VW. Employees are set with the task of many jobs that are beneath the owners and the
managers, such as manufacturing cars, marketing, and the sales team. Employees want
For this assignment I have been asked to prepare report that investigates and assesses the
reasons for the success of two businesses. The businesses I have chosen to report on are
Volkswagen (private sector) and the UK sepsis Trust (charity)
Volkswagen
Features and purposes
Volkswagen was founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front in Nazi Germany and grew
rapidly after its first car (the VW type 1) was brought out. The majority ownership of the
Volkswagen Group these days belong to Porsche Automobil Holding SE with a 31.4 %
ownership and Foreign institutional investors with a 25.9 % ownership. An impact of Porsche
having a majority ownership is they now can veto against any resolutions put forward to
them, meaning that all business decisions must pass through Porsche Automobil. Not only
was this but Porches’ fight to gain majority shares an ownership also hugely profitable for
Volkswagen Group. With the shares that were owned by the government and Porches, there
were very few shares left for anyone one. This led to the share price of Volkswagen Group to
€200 a share to over €1000 a share and raised Volkswagen’s capital drastically.
Volkswagen Group is in the private sector and is a public limited company making their
liability limited solely to the business. Liability in business is something that a company owes
to someone and the advantage of having limited liability is that if your business was to go
into administration and then eventually bankrupt, only the business would have to pay off the
debt, and your personal assets would be safe. You would only lose the amount of money that
you have put into the business- nothing else will be lost. As well as having limited liability,
being a PLC also allows people to buy shares into Volkswagen Group which has huge
advantages for them - it gives a business the ability to raise additional finance through share
capital and increased negotiation opportunities with suppliers due to larger companies being
able to benefit from a reduction in their unit costs due to buying in bulk. This will impact the
success of Volkswagen Group as less expense is spent on stock, creating larger amounts of
revenue coming in and bigger profit margins
Volkswagens Group’s purpose is to make cars for people all over world to drive. The original
Volkswagen was also named the ‘Peoples’ car’ in the early 1930’s as it was a luxury that
average working people could afford, have a brand as strong as this made Volkswagen cars
very popular for middle- and lower-class people when it first came out. This shaped
Volkswagen Group’s future as being known as a good, affordable car leading to them selling
over 3.4 million cars in 2019 through Lamborghini, Porsche, Audi and many more of their
passenger cars.
Volkswagen Group is a part of the tertiary sector and was originally invented to make money.
The tertiary sector is the service and retail sector of the processing and selling of goods
process and is the third part of this 4-part process. The other sectors include the primary
sector, where the raw materials are gathered and collected; the secondary sector which is
where the raw materials get manufactured into products and the fourth part of the process is
the quaternary sector, which provides information services such as computing and
consultancy. Volkswagen’s objectives for the future are to make more sustainable and safe
mobility solutions for the next generation to drive. They also aim to get to stop manufacturing
,diesel running cars by the year 2025 and start producing more electric vehicles, for a ‘greener
planet’. Although Volkswagen is and international business, the actual size of company is
hard to capture in just a single number or word, they own many other major car brands such
as Lamborghini, Bugatti and more. Volkswagen’s total assets for 2020 amounted to a huge
€497.114 billion, and it's all thanks to the at least 660,000 employees. Having this many
assets help further develop the business as profit can be reinvested to create more efficient
processes and help Volkswagen Group make more new advancements on their cars.
Stakeholders
A stakeholder is anyone who has an interest in a business and is likely to be impacted by the
decisions the company makes. There are two types of stakeholders within a business: an
internal stakeholder and an external stakeholder. An internal stakeholder is directly involved
in the company, such as an employee or an investor, whereas external stakeholders are not
directly involved in the company but are directly affected by the decisions the company
make, for example a supplier, or a creditor.
Internal Stakeholders
Volkswagen group has three main internal stakeholders that are directly linked and work
within them, these are: The owners, the managers and then the employees.
The owners of Volkswagen Group (such as Herbert Diess – the CEO of Volkswagen group)
have the biggest influence in the business, as most owners of any business do. This is because
they have the power to make decisions within and for the business, whether that is deals with
manufacturers, suppliers and other businesses, or dealing with problems internally such as
employees. The owners of VW specifically, are the most important stakeholders as they
control the business. If they are unhappy with how the business is run or how staff are
performing, they can make immediate changes without consultation. The owners also have
the power to sell the business at any point, meaning they affect the business the most
compared to any other stakeholder. Due to them Volkswagen Group being a PLC. This is
because in a PLC, the shareholders are the primary stakeholders, and shareholders are
looking for a return on investment and to make as much profit as possible.
Having this sort of power means that the business is directed by the decisions of these owners
such as what direction the business will be taken in and how the business communicates with
one and other. Written presentations such as financial and non-financial reports are the
appropriate form of communication at Volkswagen Group as well as formal and informal
reports. Other forms of internal communication at Volkswagen can include emails, for
messages that need to be sent out to a lot of people quickly and video/ conference calls. These
calls will be used for when different parts of the business in different countries need to
communicate. As well as all this, PowerPoint presentation will also be used as a form of
internal communication, when presenting future ideas and business plans. This
communication is the very backbone of the huge amounts of success that Volkswagen Group
has had as they help paints picture of how Volkswagen Group are performing and where the
company is going.
Now, we’ve talked about how the owners communicate internally but how do they
communicate externally? With Volkswagen Group being a multi-national enterprise, they
must communicate efficiently and effectively to reach out to as many of their stakeholders
and customers as possible, and the best way to do this is through advertisement.
, Advertisement is great way to communicate new products to a mass market of current and
potential customers and it is done through TV adverts and billboards. The importance of
communication cannot be understated and is fundamental to the success of Volkswagen
Group. VW also interpret a lot of their advertisement through social media to virtual
communities. Social media allows Volkswagen Group’s marketers to connect and engage
with a wider range of potential customers and increase awareness about their brand. Using
platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, VW can engage their audience by using
strong social media strategies and create engaging content to attract these potential
customers.
Another internal shareholder is the managers. Managers are put in place to make sure
proceedings at Volkswagen Group are run smoothly. They aim to keep employees in line and
motivated so that work as productively as possible, and they want good wages. Managers will
often communicate with the owners and top-level executives to keep them informed about
what is happening on the ground floor via reports, whether that is financial and non-financial
or formal and informal. Managers will keep employees motivated by trying to create a
supportive work environment and by showing appreciation for their work and even giving
reward achievements. Managers will often, unlike the owners, communicate and interact with
employees on a more personal level such as face-to-face meetings. However, as a quicker
form of communication they may use emails and texts when speaking to several employees
about the thing. Managers have a high level of power within VW, but not as much as the
owners. They have the powers to deal with problems and employees without the authority of
the hierarchy of the business. This is because the responsibility has been given to them by the
owners of Volkswagen Group and they deal with problems at a lower responsibility of the
more important stakeholders. Conflicts between managers and owners can arise due to wages
and benefits. For example, the owners of VW will obviously want the best managers for the
job but won’t want to pay them anymore than they have to. Also, conflict between a manager
and an employee(s) at Volkswagen Group, can happen for any number of reasons, including:
Criticism that an employee sees as unfair; an unsupportive culture at VW and a lack of
recognition for hard work. These conflicts can lead to break downs in communication at
Volkswagen Group and will massively impact the business’s success due to communication
being a key part of it.
Having been given this power, managers now have the authority to fix problems and deal
with employees appropriately, in extreme cases managers can even fire employees. This
could be because of a lack of, or poor work being done or handed in, or more serious
incidents, such as making a faulty car which results in severe injury or the death of a
customer. Managers have a particularly significant role in the communication throughout the
business, they are responsible for relaying the reports over to the owners of VW which is then
relayed to the shareholders of Volkswagen group. Without the managers Volkswagen would
have a massive breakdown in communication as well as a lack of discipline amongst
employees. Managers will often oversee many staff, making it hard for them to speak to
every individual of the team, this means that the managers at VW communicate via emails to
their employees. This makes communication between staff and managers quick and effective.
Managers will only speak to employees in person if it is specific to them or if a serious
incident has occurred.
The final internal stakeholders are the employees themselves. Without the employees,
Volkswagen Group would not be able to run, making them fundamental to the success of
VW. Employees are set with the task of many jobs that are beneath the owners and the
managers, such as manufacturing cars, marketing, and the sales team. Employees want
