Name- Sayed Mujahid

Module name- Business in Global context

Module leader- Prof. Siddhartha Bose
Module number- BSP4002
Student Id- st20095332
Course – BABM Level -4.
Topic- The Summative Assessment
 Business in Global context

Business environment plays a vital role in any organization as it helps in

identifying the threats and opportunities. Business environment is necessary for
businesses because one of the major factor in improving an organization’s
performance is to have a better environmental and cultural practice prevailing
within the Company. Business environment depends on two factors: 1) Internal 2)
External.
Internal Factors include employees, shareholders, stakeholders, internal cultural
environment. The external factors may refer to political, social, technological and
economic factors. Internal factors affect the organization directly while external
factors affect indirectly.
Let us try and critically analyze business in global context under the light of
following factors.
1) Impact of natural environment on business
2) Happiness of employees and its effect on business
3) Ethics and CSR activities to uplift the society and brand building.
4) Effect of technology on business.

Critical Evaluation
Sustainability of environment has been an issues of major concern off late. Many
business and political leaders have started to show their interests in sustainability
of environment. One of the peculiar example is the Paris climate conference which
was held in the year 2015. According to a research, China emits around 29% of
world’s carbon and USA emits 15% of world’s carbon. USA announced to
controlled carbon emission of approximately 27% by 2025 which means that 5.3%
of reduction. Also, China declared to reduce 66.5 % reduction in carbon emission
per unit increase in GDP. This will reduce the presence of greenhouse gases by
10.3%. Major Business organizations like Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon also
declared to contribute to the society. A group of private investors have started a
group of Break through Coalition that invests billions in the clean- energy
companies in order to digitize the energy industry. One of the biggest
philanthropist Mr. Bill Gates announced to donate $ 1 billion to this novel cause.
The similar statements were given by Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson- CEO of
virgin, Jeff Bezos CEO of Amazon. The Paris conference coupled with the
environment issue proved to be one of the platforms that gathered the world
leaders and corporate jargons. CEO of virgin group said that it is not only the
political leader or the business people who are eager to take actions, various other
leaders such as the pope Francis, Iran’s Supreme leader- Ayatollah Khamenei have
also initiated the save Earth programs. (UL, 2016)
Paul Polman- CEO of Unilever “The conservation is shifting to opportunities…
more and more business people understand that the solutions are available today at
relatively low cost.”
Social Entrepreneur is the upcoming and an innovative idea that seems to be very
catchy. Social Entrepreneurship is a Non-profit organization that focuses on
solving social and environmental problems of the society.
A lot of Social Entrepreneurs are finding India as one of the major market to tap
on. Waste management, Deep Clean Services, Green Infrastructure, Water
management are a few social issues not only in India but in rest of the world. But,
since India is a large market therefore many budding entrepreneurs are trying to
figure out new ways and means to make business out of these social problems. One
such example is the Earth5R. Earth5R was started by Saurabh Gupta in the year
2014 with an aim to work for the betterment of earth. The 5 R’s on which the
organization focuses on are: 1) Reduce 2) Reuse 3) Recycle 4) Repair (Earth5R, 2015)
5) Respect. The company was initially started with two interns and today it
comprises of a team of 120 people and has its presence outside of India in
countries like Switzerland, France and Germany. The team members in this
organization consists mainly of youth volunteers. The company conducts
workshops for other corporate organizations on various topics like:
a) Organic life.
b) Public transport.
c) Tech Detox.
After every project completion there is a discussion sessions on learnings and
sectors which require improvement and thus the company conducts various
sessions within the organization. Similar to TED talks the company has its Earth
talks, where individuals have conversation on various issues like sustainability,
global warming, how urban lifestyle can be transformed into sustainable lifestyle.
The company also has its own Earth Journal, which discusses different initiatives
Earth5R has taken also it discusses other problems where it needs to be worked
upon. (Contributors, 2015)
Therefore, Sustainability- A major concern of society has been converted into a
Non-profit business model. Thus, turning it into a global business that touches
lives and environment.

Understanding the impacts of Employee Productivity

According to the research done by American Psychological Association that
approximately 80% of doctor’s visits in USA are due to stress. 60%- 80% of work
place accidents take place because of stress. A survey conducted by Karolinska
Institute states that higher the rank of the person in the hierarchy, lesser is the
chance of that person to contract heart diseases and other cardiovascular diseases.
(Vice versa.) In a joint research done by Queens School of business and Gallup
organization, disengaged employees experienced lower productivity, lower
profitability, and no job growth of 18%, 16% and 37% respectively and eventually
resulting in lower productivity of organization. (Harvard Business Review, 2015)
What do these stats and researches indicate?
To have a working environment not viable for employees to work can make an
organization a sick unit. It is true that sometimes stressful situations prove to be
motivating but continues exposure to stress may decrease the productivity of
employee and may result in health issues. According to a research done by
economists at the University of Warwick which states that a happy employee is
12% more productive than the unhappy ones. Thus, one can imagine the efficiency
and the productivity of the company if they have a perfect “Happy environment” in
the organization. This is the only reason why companies like Google and YouTube
take utmost care of their valuable employees. (Harvard Business Review, 2015)
Marilyn Suttle – “People who work in an environment where doing their best is
recognized have better chance of feeling good about their work.” Efficiency and
productivity also increases when the employee is recognized or payed incentives
for his extra efforts.
Also, one of the main factor is the employee should have knowledge that how
his/her work will add value to the project on which the company is working.
 Causes of demotivation :
1} Under assignment : sometimes it happens such that a skilled operator
is assigned a routine job or a monotonous work at work place this leads
to an individual’s demotivation.

2} over assignment: if a good worker is given over assignment because

his/her way of performing is better, he/she may feel demoralized. This
leads to the factor of BOSS-burnout stress syndrome

According to a survey done by Harvard business school with 669 managers around
the world, “to rank 5 employee motivators in terms of its importance,” and around
95% of the managers rated “supporting progress” as the least motivators. This
shows that managers need to understand the psychology of their employees and
there it is very important to understand that involvement of employees in
supporting the business will not only motivate the employees but also help
business grow. Studies also shows that happier employees tend to show more
productivity, are more creative and committed to their assigned work. Also,
happier employees tend to think of new ideas more often than the unhappy ones
(Nytimes.com, 2011).

Leaders should make it a point that employees are motivated when they work.
There are various theories for employee motivation one of it is Maslow’s theory.
Maslow’s theory: It is probably one of the famous theory of
motivation. According to Abraham Maslow’s theory of motivation, in
every human being there exists a hierarchy of five needs which are
as follows:
a) Physiological: bodily needs, hunger, thirst.
b) Safety: protection from emotional and physical harm.
c) Esteem: Internal factors such as autonomy, self-respect and
achievement, and external factors such as recognition, attention
and status.
 d) Self-actualization: Includes growth, self-fulfillment and achieving
our potential.

According to this theory, physiological and safety needs are lower-

order needs as they can be satisfied externally while esteem, social
and self-actualization is higher-order needs as they can be satisfied
internally.
Thus, if the basic needs are satisfied the employee him/herself will be motivated to
perform tasks.
Also, Ethics play a very important role within the organization. An organization
that does not compromises on the ethics is a successful organization.
Ethics and its impact in an organization.
Following are the impacts of unethical behavior in a Company:
1) An organization which does not follows ethics has a negative effect on
employees. They may get a sense that being ethical in that organization may
not help them climb the hierarchy of the organization. Also, they may
become more result oriented and may miss out some legal paper works
which can result extra penalty by the government.
2) When the leaders of the organizations do not follow ethics properly, there
are chances of them losing respect of his junior employees. It is also difficult
for any such organization to achieve success. (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2014)
Following are the impacts of ethical behavior in a Company:
1) Credibility of a company depends on its ethical practices. One of the best
ethical practice that any company can follow is the ethical sales. Telling the
customers about the advantages and disadvantages of products helps
customer rely on the company.
2) Data these days are of at most importance. Every company that has its
customer’s information is responsible not to disclose it. Also, companies
have certain employee information too, that also, only the concern personnel
should access. Any practice of disclosing customer or employee data is
unethical. (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2014)
As mentioned in the 3rd patch work, Company UltiPro has an excellent ethical
record. UltiPro follows ethical practices. Any company that takes care of their
employees have better chances of becoming a great and successful organization.
To have the best employees, a company must provide them with certain facilities.
In case of UltiPro, they gave their employees free health care checkups, also a free
vacation tour in every two year.
Effect of technology on business
Things have changed in past 5 years than it has changed in last 50 years. All credit
goes to technology for this drastic change. One can reach any corner of the world
with the click of mouse or with the touch on the screen. But there have been many
pervasive impacts of technology since the beginning. But off late people can see it
clearly.
Google self-driven bicycle: Google announced to start its series of self-driven
bicycles in the year 2016. According the survey every year there are approximately
around 50,000 bicycle related accidents. Thus, with the help of self-driven bicycles
accidents can be reduced. The main aim behind the self-driven bicycles is to make
biking safer, smarter and easier for its users. The expertise of google employees
coupled with google technology has made this project come true. The bicycle has
two major features:
1) A person can call the bicycle from any location.
2) It has a comfort mode that adjusts the paddles of the bicycle.
In an interview the deputy mayor of Amsterdam, Kajsa Ollongren said that self-
driven bicycle will help improve employee productivity as they can work even
while travelling.
For Google better technology and customers satisfaction is what matters the most.
Therefore, Google has touched many lives and it will be doing so in the years to
come.
Molotov TV: Molotov TV is a French startup which seems to be the future of
televisions. It a startup that is view as a competition to Apples smart TV. The new
generation does not love to watch TV at the time decided by channels. Hence,
Molotov has all the Aired content, live shows and upcoming new movies in their
app. Also, Molotov has tie ups with many French channels. Free channel can show
movies one year before Netflix and premium ones can show movies two year
before them. Molotov TV have these free and premium channels in their app. (Dillet,
2016)

A Molotov TV user can synchronize on other devices like mobile phones and
Tablets.
Therefore, Molotov is a new innovation in the market of entertainment.

 Loss of employment: Technology has these days over taken the labours.
The number of unemployed youths are very high. It won’t be wrong if it is
said that structural unemployment will be the biggest public policy of the
decade. Technology these days has surpassed the accuracy of doctors. IBM
has designed a computer named “Watson” that is capable of diagnosing
cancer faster and accurately than a physician. This shows that technology
these days have replaced not only labours but also skilled professionals. Big
MNCs like google, Apple, Amazon have developed a whole new market
and are swiping away other industries because they are in the position of
completing the same task with less number of people and with more
efficiency. Being a developed nation is not always good, as use of
technology is more in these countries. According to an article of Harvard
business review it was accessed that after the market collapse of 2008
around 15-50% of population in the western countries are unemployed, as
many companies shifted towards the uses of technology in more aggressive
manner.

 Vulnerability to privacy: Data gathers like Facebook and Google have

precise information of every individual using them. Privacy in the age of
information has become a myth. Every single app an individual downloads
from play store gives access to our cell phone data to them. The
E-commerce product we browse starts to flash on our google screen as
advertisements. Thus, security and privacy of every individual has become
a major question to the individuals as well as for the governments.

 Metcalfe’s Law: During the years of IT boom that is during late 1990’s and
early 2000’s Robert Metcalfe, the founder of Ethernet postulated a law.
According to the law “Network increases with the square of the number of
 users.” Hence it shows that productivity can significantly grow. But
according to an article in the Harvard business review the productivity has
gone down since 2007. This was because, as the cost of communication
decreases the number of interaction increases; thus giving an inverse
relationship.

 Online transactions: Generally when it comes to banks, privacy and

security becomes the accountability of the bank. But due to net banking and
mobile banking vulnerability to security has increased. Hacking is the new
widespread disease that is a major threat to banks as they are accountable
for their customer’s security. There are other methods also that pose a
threat to security of the customer as well as the bank.
1} E-mail bombing: Using this method large number of emails is sent to the
victim in order to crash the person’s email account and thus causing a failure in
transaction.
2} Denial of services: This is another way that crashes the resources by
flooding computer with more request than it can handle.
3} Virus/worms: Viruses are half codes that get attached to the programs
and thereby they manipulate the data or even delete them. While worms do not
delete data instead they slow down the system thus causing delay.
Also, some issues cannot be dealt by net banking and mobile banking. Certain
aspects of banking like depositing cash, withdrawing cash or other issues
related to services cannot be handled by online banking even if there is a real
time customer service chat option available.
Learning outcome
It is very important for any business to have concern for environment and they
should actively participate in helping earth achieve sustainability. Moreover, it is
worth noting that “Earth has enough for every man’s need but not for every man’s
greed.” Ethics is important for an organization to become successful and to have a
good customer base. Technology has changed the business concept over years and
new innovations every year is one hand challenging but it is also helping them
grow.
Every organization should have certain does and don’ts also they must have a
foundation of ethics and culture within the organization.
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