How the macro environment affects the decisions of managers in any organization Essay Example

industry. For example, the market demand will increase when the Real GDP is increased because consumers tend to spend more on the products or services as their income increases. At this point, consumer purchasing power is high. However, when the consumer price inflation increase, consumers may tends to spend less on products or services due to the increase in price of the products and services where consumer purchasing price is low.

Therefore, these can determine the consumers’ buying behavior in term of the politic on the products and services that they will spend for their daily usage based on (The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited, 2011). All of the policies been made could affect the business in several ways such as how their products are produced, sold and been promoted throughout the organization. Besides that, it is certified F&N Beverages as halal by JAKIM Malaysia as this can allow those Islamic people to purchase and consume the product.

Economic

Economic refers to macroeconomics factors such as exchange rates, business cycles and economic growth rates around the world. The F&N Beverages Marketing Sdn Bhd. division reported a solid performance, registering its third consecutive year of record growth, building on the momentum of expanding volume and reinforcing market share leadership in the ready-to-drink segment via a broad portfolio of offerings in their products such as carbonated soft drinks, isotonic, Asian drinks, teas, and juices. Besides that, it has set a new historical benchmark due to the overall revenue that increases 21.3 percent.

Operating profit grew 42.1 percent driven by robust sales volume growth of 19.6 percent. This growth momentum was achieved on the back

of sales and distribution superiority, combined with targeted marketing activities, including the launch of some key new products, and supported by brand leadership. The year 2010 was marked by an increase of RM0.25 sen per kilogram in the price of sugar which is a key ingredient that would have a major impact in producing their beverages. Although it has a major impact on their products but was balanced by the benefits of continuous cost-saving and increased organizational efficiencies.

Sociocultural

Social changes involve changing of attitudes and lifestyles. Many Malaysian citizens are practicing healthier lifestyles as compared as before. People now are demanding for beverages that are low in calories, sugar, carbohydrates, and total fat. Therefore, F&N beverage has to adapt to the increasingly health-conscious consumers and refocus more marketing resources and efforts into ‘healthier products to meet the customers’ needs before it is too late. Besides that, changing lifestyles also lead to different demands from the consumers. Therefore to cater for the needs of consumers, F&N beverage marketing came out with different kind of flavors of 100 PLUS which include ‘original’, ‘lemon lime’, ‘tangerine’ and ‘Aqtiv’ to satisfy the needs of the consumers.

Technological

Technological change creates opportunities for product improvements and new marketing techniques such as the internet and e-commerce. Technological factors that contribute to the improvement of company’s result are as follows:

• The effectiveness of the company’s advertising, marketing, and promotional programs. New technology such as the internet and multimedia are used as a tool to provide advertisements to attract their customers. This technology is used to sell their products.
• Introduction of cans and plastic
  

bottles have increased the sales for 100 PLUS as these are easier to carry around

Environmental

Environmental defined as specifically for ‘green issues’ such as pollution and waste.It includes all elements that will often occur on earth such as air, water, weather, and climate change. Changes in the environment can affect many industries including farming, tourism and insurance. Changes in climate often occur when there is global warming and this external factor is becoming a crucial issue for firms to consider in an organization. Therefore, it has a greater impact on many industries to protect the environment. This will affect the industries to move into producing more environmentally friendly products and processes. It will affect the demand patterns and create business opportunities for them. At F&N, they believe that their commitment to integrity in everything they do will bring benefits to the environment.

They have implemented and executed various environmental stewardship initiatives that compliance requirements in order to minimize their environmental footprint throughout each phase of their products’ life cycle. Furthermore, F&N Holding Bhd. provide cleaner operations at their soft drinks, dairies and glass container plant. The setting up of F&N at the soft drinks manufacturing facility in Shah Alam has helped lessen logistics, storage handling cost and improved their overall manufacturing

efficiency. F&N introduce new packaging style to its products with refinable bottles. The refineable glass bottles are more environmentally friendly compare to the plastic ones. Although glass bottles are expensive to make compare to plastic bottle but it will be worth due to reuse over and over as this can also cover up its cost. This makes the product cheaper and environmentally friendly as the customer who buys and finishes the drink must return it to the vendor which in return comes back to the company to rewash it and use it again.

Legal

Legal factors are related to the legal environment in which the firm operates. With the F&N group being geographically present in more than 20 countries, the group’s businesses will be facing different degrees of political exposure. Therefore, the company has to maintain close working relationships with local business partners and authorities to adapt to any changes of law and regulations of the government. Besides that, F&N group should also adopt the ISO 9001: 2008 standard. This standard provides a set of standardized requirements for a quality management system, regardless of what the organization does, its size, or whether it is in the private, or public sector. The ISO 9001: 2008 standard provides a tested framework for taking a systematic approach to manage the organization’s processes so that they are consistently producing products that satisfy customers’ expectations.