Alliance Boots Pestel Analysis Business Essay

Alliance Boots Pestel Analysis Business Essay The global pharmaceutical industry has been overwhelmingly changing in the last decade creating rigorous globalization and increased competitiveness. The global market shares are creating new challenges for pharmaceutical companies strengthening the consolidation of the world pharmaceutical industry through alliancing and acquisitions as a strategic orientation for global pharmaceutical companies. Many global companies including pharmaceutical believe that alliance will not only create awareness but will also create successful strategic collaborations capable of creating more global interaction opportunities and integration with other markets. The aim of this report is to explore Alliance Boots future strategic directions. Organisation Background It is a multinational company with strong recognition and reputation as one of the leading pharmaceutical and beauty companies in the world. Alliance Boots revenue is more than  £22.5 billion in excess; it also has various outlets in more than 20 countries. Alliance Boots core areas of business are pharmaceutical and beauty, formed in 2006 as a merger Boots Group and Alliance UniChem and recently a global merger with Walgreens. The company main purpose is to help its customers to look and feel better than ever, by providing exceptional customer and patient care with great value for its customer. Product brands Alliance Boots Pharmaceutical Wholesale Division is experiencing a rapid growth and global sales; the company believes that its product innovation and development competences are some of the resourceful factors, which enable the company to develop new and existing products for global consumption. Some of these products are, No7, Soltan and Botanics, 17, Almus and Alvita that were successfully launched in recently. Organisation Structures Alliance Boots have over 185,000 employees and numerous pharmaceutical outlets. The aim of the company is to work closely with manufacturer of pharmaceutical, beauty and health products and use experienced pharmacists to provide services to their customers. Alliance Boots headquarters is in Zug Switzerland. Alliance Boots Strategy Options It is important that when a global business organisation wants to adopt a sustainable development strategy for its products and brands, such strategy needs to be applicable across a wide range of different product types, also has to be flexible to cope with the rapid turnover of products. Alliance Boots also believe that: The strategy also has to be robust so as to be able to cope with the main three routes by which products are introduced at Alliance Boots(own manufacture, third party supply of Alliance Boots brands and proprietary brand). Its strategy must provide leadership on where and how improvements and such improvement must be commercially successful. Marketing strategy Alliance Boots believe that by putting its customers first for all its pharmaceutical and beauty products with outstanding quality and service at a competitive cost will help the company to achieve excellent profitable margins in the global competitive market. Its unique strategy will also help Alliance Boots with continue profit growth through a balance of strong global sales growth. Ansoffs Matrix Ansoffs Matrix is a unique marketing tool, which provides strategic choices to business organisations in order to achieve the objective for growth. Ansoffs Matrix has for main categories namely: Market penetration: Market penetration creates a good avenue for a company like Alliance Boots to sell existing products into existing markets. It is important for Alliance Boots to continuing promoting its product with the new features and good quality .This is helping Alliance Boots to invest heavily and focus more on research and development in new market research creating more distribution channel. Market development: Alliance Boots uses Market development as a growth strategy to sell its existing products into new markets, including new geographical markets; for example product exportation to a new country. It also includes new product packaging new distribution channels (e.g. Boots Pharmacy stores across UK and selling via e-commerce and mail order). Its ability to target new market makes Market development a unique strategy. Product development: Alliance Boots uses Product development as growth strategy creating a unique avenue for its business to introduce new products into existing pharmaceutical markets with great expectation that they will gain more customers and market share. Such strategy may involve the development of new capabilities and requires Alliance Boots to develop modified products, which can appeal to existing markets. Diversification: Alliance Boots Diversification strategy allows the company to diversify easily to another geographical market. In 2012, Alliance Boot acquired Nanjing Pharmaceutical Company Limited; Nanjing has a strong market position and operating distribution centres in 12 cities and across eight provinces in China. Such diversification into China Pharmaceutical market now makes Alliance Boots, as the largest shareholder is Nanjing Pharmaceutical Group Limited creating new products and opportunities in the Chinese market. Alliance Boots SWOT Analysis Alliance Boots Swot analyses are: Strength: Alliance Boots has an excellent and long-standing relationship with all its customers. The company also has a strong historical reputation for all its quality, using nectar card to gather customer intelligence. Availability of Boots Pharmacy stores everywhere in the UK and Europe. Weaknesses: Due to strong competition with other pharmaceutical companies in the global market, Alliance Boots is struggling to cope with the increased competition in the market. Opportunities: Alliance Boots continue to use the internet opportunity to keep increasing its presence by using online shopping to transact with its domestic and global customers. Using it retail stores advantage across the global market such as Boots Pharmacy to create the right products with right combination of price and promotion to achieve the firms aims of long-term growth. Threats: The major threat to pharmaceutical industries including Alliance Boots is the government higher tax on the price on medicine that Alliance Boots and other retailers must deal with. Porters Five Forces: The five forces of Porter can be used to make an analysis and attraction of business organisation structure as follows: Supplier Power: It plays important role in competitive force, more suppliers one can greatly increase y bargaining power with these suppliers. For example, Alliance Boots successfully bargained with over 80 suppliers to lower prices of some of the drugs they sell over the counter in 2007. Buyer Power: Increasing customer loyalty is a way of reducing the power of the buyer, the introduction of nectar card by Alliance Boots is a way to reward its customers. Because of this, it allows the buyers to save considerably. It also allows Alliance Boots to capture useful information and monitor consumers purchasing habits. Threats of New entrants: There has been huge increase in the number of new entrants in the pharmaceutical marketing making difficult for Alliance Boots to expand in the way the company wants. For example, Tesco is planning various new supermarkets across Britain that would restrict Alliance Boots ability to expand. This poses a real threat, which means that Alliance Boots need to change its marketing strategy with possibility of reducing prices through advertising. Threat if substitute: In order to save money many businesses may decide to outsource their products and service to another company at a cheap cost. Alliance Boots did not outsource its products and services; instead, the company IT department was able to make changes in the way customers pay for their products by replacing its traditional till machines to touch screens capability giving customers a faster way to shop on their own. Competitive Rivalry: This affects many businesses in terms of price competition and products identification. For example, other rivals in the business like Lloyds Pharmacy, Superdrug are expanding rapidly. Because of this, Alliance Boots are constantly improving its stores marketing strategy making its products more affordable and available everywhere in the UK and continue to provide outstanding customer service. Alliance Boots PESTEL Analysis Political Factors: Various political decisions can have a huge impact in the business operate and its performance. For example the impact of government UK policies on the business allowing some major supermarkets to open numerous pharmaceutical stores within their stores. The government believes that such policy will increase NHS services and improved healthcare. Such move will not help Alliance Boots, instead, it will create a huge competition, which will eventually make Alliance Boots to lower its products prices and operate for longer hours. Economic Factors: The global economic recession is badly affecting every business sector including healthcare, with many businesses suffering. There has been a huge increase in the prices of global healthcare affecting the way customers spend and how much they want to spend in buying healthcare products especially Beauty products. In addition to this, the rising fuel costs also have a huge impact in the supply chain channel of Alliance Boots leading to an overall price increase increasing prices and passing over the cost to consumers. Social Factors: the prices of its The social factors is creating more awareness about how everyone should take care of himself or herself through, exercise, eating habit, type of food that is good for the body and many more. For example, government campaign that is promoting healthy eating (eatwell.gov.uk 2012 online) as a result in the rapid increasing level of obesity within the UK (Department of health 2012 online).Such information is boosting Alliance Boots sales by encouraging its customers to try its healthier products at a cheaper price than other companies. Technological Factors: The evolution of internet is helping online retail sales, Alliance Boots is making use of the internet technology to its advantage with internet is now generating more than a third of all revenue for Alliance Boots products and services. Alliance Boots Centre for Innovation is investing hugely for the development of inventive products and technologies that focus on: Ways to diagnose treat and monitor key aspects of health, beauty and wellbeing. Providing positive support to ageing products and working very hard to produce new products. Environmental Factors: Many countries are now committing to green energy ever than before due to the risk of global warming is becoming a reality, Many companies like Alliance Boots have been told to play key role in reducing carbon footprint and increasing energy efficiency (Bream 2008). Because of this, Alliance Boots will have to invest more on greener products (selling of organic healthy product) and reducing their impact of carbon footprint on the environment. Legal Factors: There are various legal issues that are facing the way companies operate globally, for example, Alliance Boot Cases include application to European Court of Justice in sex discrimination case of Neath versus Hugh Steeper Limited. New laws keep emerging everyday especially on healthy product and drinks, which mean Alliance Boots will have to be more cautious about it packaging and labelling policies, which will be extra financial liability on the Alliance Boots. Globalisation Drivers The drivers of globalisation can be classified into Market Drivers: Increasing travel create global consumers Growth of global and regional channels Establishment of world brands 2. Cost Drivers: Fast-tracking technological innovation Transportation and distribution channel 3. Government Drivers Reduction of tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers Privatisation in previously state-dominated economies 4. Competitive Drivers Strong rise in global strategic alliances with other companies. Rise of new competitors with intension of becoming global competitors Future Strategic Partnership Walgreen Co., US largest drug store chain is the latest future strategic partnership and direction that Alliance Boots is taking. Under this new strategy, Alliance Boots and Walgreen Co are bringing together the strengths and proficiency of both companies to create the first global pharmacy-led, health and wellbeing enterprise. Recommendations In order for Alliance Boots to maintain its global presence and continue to be one of dominant forces in the Pharmaceutical companies, the following are the vibrant future strategic direction that Alliance Boots must take for its business. Delivering of new innovative medical research using the next generation technology. A new global approach to marketing by sponsoring various events related to wellbeing of Alliance Boots customers. Expansion of general merchandise ranges which in return will create sales with greater growth potential and effectiveness. Conclusion In conclusion, strategic management with a dedicated market focus is a driver to build a successful future globalization and merger processes of pharmaceutical industry. The greater the strength of the competitive drivers, the greater the tendency for an industry to globalise. Alliance Boots continues to internationalise its key product brands, selling them to distributors, independent pharmacies and retail partners including online shopping sites globally.

Express and Courier Industry

Global express and courier industry overview Introduction The primary business of the express industry is the delivery of time-sensitive shipments, typically with a transit time of two to three days. These are delivered mainly by air and ground. The industry has been witnessing significant growth as a result of the constant rise in demand for express and courier services over the last decade across user industries, including manufacturing, pharmaceutical, financial services and high-tech sectors. In the last decade, the advent of e-commerce business models and their subsequent penetration along with increasing demand from the financial services sector contributed to strong industry growth. Most companies provide an additional range of activities besides pure transportation, including online tracking of shipments, online payment collection and insurance facilities. However, in recent times, the industry has witnessed a deceleration in growth as a result of rising fuel costs and reduced demand from user industries due to the global economic slowdown. Major players Traditionally, due to low demand and high costs of operation, the express industry has been dominated by national postal departments. While some of them still continue to be dominant in their respective national markets, others have evolved into larger regional and global players with multi-modal operations such as Deutsche Post World Net (which also operates DHL) and La Poste. Globally, the industry is dominated by the big four — Deutsche Post World Net (DHL), FedEx, United Postal Service (UPS) and TNT, all of which have strong multi-modal arms with worldwide operations. Key markets The US is the single largest market for express services, followed by Europe and the Asia–Pacific region. In recent years, the Asia-Pacific region has experienced tremendous growth, largely attributed to increased demand for express and courier services in China and India as well as sustained demand growth in Japan, Korea and Australia. Strong economic growth and increased international trade due to manufacturing outsourcing from the western countries has particularly resulted in the fast-growing demand for express and courier in India and China. Key challenges Rising fuel prices: Rising fuel costs have been the biggest concern of the express and courier industry globally over the past two years. Rising fuel costs have affected the industry directly via an increase in input costs and also indirectly by hampering growth prospects due to decreased demand from user industries. Environmental concerns: As part of the transport industry, the express industry has also come under renewed pressure from both environmental groups and governments to lower its carbon footprint. Environmental laws have necessitated increased usage of vehicles run on alternative fuel to transport and deliver shipments across the globe. DHL, UPS and FedEx have begun to deploy vehicles run on alternative fuel for deliveries and collection, especially in the mature US market. Outlook Over the past two years, the global express market has been reeling under the pressure of rising fuel and transportation costs and decrease in demand from the western countries. However, demand for express services is set to rise over the medium term with sustained growth of the Chinese and Indian economies. Over the longer term, the industry is expected to witness the emergence of large integrated players in the emerging markets of China and India. The market is expected to witness consolidation activities and a shift toward third-party logistics (3PL) and fourth-party logistics (4PL) players.

Life is Beautiful

Life is Beautiful Sooner or later everyone wants to find an answer what he or she lives for. The majority of us is trying to understand the meaning of human life. During thousands of years the mankind tried to answer the question, what the meaning of life is and what life itself is – pleasure or suffering. As concerning the meaning of life, every person should execute his or her own program. Since programs for all people are different, the meaning of life is different as well. All people want to find marital happiness, experience true love, have reliable friends, etc. Life is really beautiful, because we are masters of our fate and creators of our happiness. We should take certain decisions that change our destiny in one way or another every day, every hour, every minute. The true purpose of life is to do as many good deeds as possible. The main protection for any person is kindness of the soul. And our main goal is not to hurt anyone, either directly or indirectly. The meaning of human life is to give love, kindness and warmth, receiving joy, smiles and human gratitude in return. We must be tolerant and kind to others, love this world, enjoy each passing day in order to be happy not only when receiving something, but sharing something as well. Take a look around life is beautiful! Love this world, love all mankind, love all creatures! We are here to live our life with dignity. Always remember that all difficulties are only tests to be endured and make us stronger. Only we can decide how to live. And only we are able to realize that life is beautiful.

Essay on Abortion Policy - 4189 Words

Abortion Policy Abortion is one of about six major issues that the public considers when voting (Witwer). It is a complex issue that has been passionately debated for centuries. The various methods used to carry out the procedure range from disassembling the fetus and crushing the skull in order to suck it all out of the woman’s womb to the procedure called RU-486, that gives the woman a pill to prevent her body from giving the fetus the nutrients to stay alive. Also, some consider certain forms of birth control, Norplant, IUD, and emergency contraceptives to be abortions as well. Many people argue about when in the pregnancy abortions should be allowed, if there should be an age limit, if abortion should be allowed only in certain†¦show more content†¦(Wlezien). Those in the pro-life group are typically much less educated, poorer, conservative and Christian. Organizations such as the NARL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) and Choice USA are a few of th e pro-choice groups (Wlezien) (Luker, pg.3). Public opinion presents an important part when deciding a stance. Class, location, beliefs, age, and political affiliations contribute to the difference of opinion among people. According to an article printed in Political Behavior, authors Wlezein and Goggin suggest that public opinion on abortion varies little through the years with a large increase in the 1980’s that resulted in the majority of the public being in favor of abortion â€Å"as it is now† (Wlezien, 381). Since the decision of Roe V. Wade in 1973, approximately 23% of adults believe abortion should be legal in all cases, 19% believe it should be illegal in all cases and a majority of 56% believe it should be legal in some cases (Wlezien, 381). Wlezein and Goggin conducted a general social survey that indicated that an overwhelming majority of at least 81% proved that a legal abortion should be possible if the woman’s health is seriously endangered by the pregnancy, if she became pregnant as a re sult of a rape, or if there is a strong possibility of a defect in the baby (Witwer). Though this data is from 1989, a poll conducted in 1999Show MoreRelatedPolicies in Relation to Abortion4374 Words   |  18 PagesPolicies in Relation to Abortion Before and After the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Case New Mexico State University Jennifer Walker Abstract The Roe versus Wade Supreme Court Case has had a huge impact on abortion laws in the United States. Before 1973, abortions were illegal and criminal, with few exceptions. Overnight, the decision in the case legalized first trimester abortions while leaving the specifications of the other trimesters up to the states. 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