Environmental analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Environmental analysis - Essay Example Taking into consideration the facts, stated above this article seeks to discuss the business environment and will focus more on environmental analysis and its importance to every business organization. Several experts and scholars have come up with various definitions of environmental analysis. Environmental analysis, according to Marketing Intelligence (nd), involves studying the organization’s environment with an aim of pinpointing the environmental factors that impact the operations of the organization significantly. While some scholars prefer to divide the business environment into three major categories (operating, internal, and general environment), most experts prefer to categorize the business environment into two; the internal and external environments. Environmental factors may work for or against the business and hence they must be accorded due consideration if the business must remain in business according to Armstrong (1996). There have been developed quite a number of business environmental analysis techniques by several different scholars and organizations. Some of these techniques include PESTLE, SWOT, MOST, CATWOE, Five Whys, De Bono 6Hat, MoSCoW, and VPEC-T among others. However, the most common techniques commonly used include SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis. During a SWOT analysis, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the organization are considered according to Hill and Westbrook (1997). The strengths of the organization include its competitive advantages, while its weaknesses are those aspects that it needs to improve on. Opportunities are those openings that the organization has for potential growth while the threats are those obstacles that it faces. A PESTLE analysis on the other hand involves the consideration of political, economic, sociological, technological, legal and environmental factors that impact the organization’s performance (Marketing Intelligence, nd). The

A critical evaluation of a the Carrier Bag Levy introduced in Northern Essay

A critical evaluation of a the Carrier Bag Levy introduced in Northern Ireland - Essay Example On the other hand, exceptions to the levy include for the purposes of containing food for takeout, non-packaged foodstsuffs, some medicines, goods that have been contaminated by soil, and sharp implements such as knives and razor blades, among others. The proceeds are intended to be funneled into environmental and public good uses. Plans include increasing the levy to as much as 10p per bag, owing to the success of the levy in drastically reducing the use of plastic bags on the retailer level, with estimates of up to 80 percent in bag use reduction (Invest Northern Ireland 2014; BBC 2013; BBC 2013b; BBC 2013c; Department of the Environment Northern Ireland 2014; Clark 2014; NIDirect Government Services 2013). Washington State in the United States is noteworthy for having imposed a plastic bag tax four years prior, to the tune of 5 US cents per plastic bag, and while government claims a 60 percent reduction in plastic bags used, contrary figures indicate that plastic bag use has swell ed, as evidenced by sustained increases in tax collections from plastic bag use (Williams 2014; Wilson 2013). Meanwhile, in countries like Rwanda, a total ban on plastic bags as opposed to a tax has led to the successful elimination of plastic bags in the country (Clavel 2014). Critiquing the carrier bag levy in the context of Adam Smiths taxation canons, one can see for instance that there is some debate with regard to whether it passes the muster on the canon on collection economy. As Smith expounded, this canon says that the tax should not be a discouragement to business and should be inexpensive to collect. From the point of view of the businesses, the carrier bag levy is not a discouragement to the conduct of business, because the retailers merely act as collection agents of the tax by the government. The retailers being the collection agents and the remitting agents