The Environment of Business
1. Introduction
The business that will be analysed is Woolworths Financial Services (WFS). WFS is a financial service provider call-centre, based in Observatory. The company offers a range of financial products and services. These include the Woolworths’ in-store card, credit cards and revolving personal loans. The call-centre services all the Woolworths stores across South Africa.
WFS is in a joint venture with ABSA, as its financial partner.
2. Scanning the Internal and External Environment
The task at hand is to conduct an environmental scan of WFS, by identifying the relevant internal factors that are impacting the business as well as the external drivers.
In order to do this in a systematic manner the use of…show more content… Style is one of those values. From top management, throughout the business the ethos is that all tasks need to be executed with a sense of style. The management style of WFS lends itself to live this value.
Shared Values – WFS prides itself in the core set of values that all employees live by. These values are so important to the business that it makes up 40% of staff KPIs. The values are entrenched in the business and are a key to WFS’ success.
When scanning the external factors affecting WFS then the business tool, PESTEL is a good way to do it.
Political – The current instability in the South African political arena affects WFS in various ways. As they are a financial services institution, they have to abide by the bureaucracy that can negatively impact the business. The political unrest causes direct staff impact when the staff are unable to come to work and therefore not achieve the targets set out.
Environmental – The water crisis has meant that WFS had to relook at its operations, as it services the entire country from the Cape Town based offices. Should Day Zero arrive the impact on the business will be massive and WFS has to ensure business continuity. This has meant that huge costs had to be incurred to mitigate the possible…show more content… WFS needed to become truly Customer Centric and established a Customer Experience (CX) team, created a CX methodology, linked the CX to WFS business strategy. WFS implemented a Voice of Customer (VoC) tool and ensured that all business changes are linked to key customer experiences.
With regards to the introduction of new technology WFS introduced the Mobi App, which customers can now use to perform multiple functions. In the past customers had to go into a store or call into the call-centre in order to check their balances or repayment amounts etc. With the new Mobi App customers can obtain the information at their own leisure, by merely using their mobile devices.
Below is an example of the scorecard that addresses the People element at WFS. There is a huge emphasis on employee satisfaction in the workplace and the business does 6 monthly satisfaction surveys called Pulse. This allows every staff member the opportunity to inform management of how they feel about the business, management and the physical environment. WFS has an Analysis Methodology that provides managers with a framework to unpack the survey results. There are clear execution guidelines that enable managers to address the outcomes in order to ensure employee