Introduction
Understanding the business and economic environment is an essential part of learning economics. For these purposes, there are different methods of assessment allowing people to get an insight into a specific industry and a particular company within that industry. An example of such a tool is STEEPLE – Social, Technological, Economical, Environmental, Political, Legal, and Ethical Analysis. This paper aims to apply that assessment method to analyze the external business environment of a specific company over the last years. The company chosen for analysis is Rightmove PLC, which operates as a property marketplace within the home moving industry. The STEEPLE analysis appears as an efficient method of evaluating a company’s business environment.
Structure of the Industry
The home moving industry is a large set of business companies helping their customers to switch homes, moving from one place to another. An organization operating within the industry provides its clients with various services related to finding the best home moving option to reduce costs and time consumption and seek the most appropriate marketing solutions. Nowadays, there are more than 14,000 home moving companies in the United Kingdom, with almost 3,500 of them located in London (BoldData, 2022, para. 2). This region thereby holds approximately 25% of the market share of the home moving industry (BoldData, 2022, para. 2). Most companies with the highest overall revenue are also situated in London. Nevertheless, the amount of organizations operating in the field makes home moving a large industry with a complex structure in the UK.
Company’s Business Organization
Each company within a particular industry has an even more complicated structure with much more elements. In relation to the structure of the home moving field, Rightmove PLC is not in the top 50 companies in the United Kingdom (BoldData, 2022). However, the company relies on strong leadership and effective business strategies to increase its effectiveness and, more importantly, provide its customers with top-quality services. Rightmove PLC is run by the Board, consisting of many directors who have different backgrounds, yet all of them are relevantly experienced and have obtained many skills and knowledge to do their job effectively. According to the company, the Rightmove’s Board promotes the company’s success in the long term to satisfy its stakeholders, consumers, and employees (Rightmove PLC, 2022). The company wants to attract as many home hunters as possible, which is why Rightmove actively implements innovations to become the most efficient provider of home moving services in Britain (Rightmove PLC, 2022). Overall, the company seeks to take a more important place in the UK home moving industry structure.
STEEPLE Analysis
Social Factor Analysis
The social factor in STEEPLE analysis includes different demographic factors related to the general population and separate communities related to the business framework. In the home moving industry overall and Rightmove PLC specifically, the most important social factor is associated with changes in population, namely migration and immigration (Saidova and Muminjonova, 2022). Such changes usually involve the necessity for people to find a new home, which is why the demand for home moving services increases correspondingly. As it is known, people have not migrated often during the last few years due to the coronavirus pandemic, which is why Rightmove PLC probably experiences decreases in demand for their services.
Technological Factor Analysis
Technological factors can also significantly influence the business environment of a specific company or even an entire industry, considering the rapid technological progress nowadays. For instance, there is an active transition to low-energy building in the UK, which significantly influence the home moving industry (Kivimaa and Martiskainen, 2018). Rightmove PLC (2022) claims that the company relies on innovations to increase the efficiency of its services. Over the last years, changes and developments in technology have seriously impacted the industry and the company, making the home moving process more accessible, mainly because of the Internet access availability. It has become much simpler for Rightmove PLC to provide their services, and for their customers – to receive them with minimal operational costs for both parties.
Environmental Factor Analysis
The environmental aspect of the STEEPLE analysis primarily concerns the impact the company has on the environment within its territory of operation. However, this aspect mostly matters for agricultural and similar companies that can, for example, increase pollution in a particular area. Rightmove PLC only provides its customers with help and additional opportunities to find a home, meaning that the company’s actions do not affect the environment in any way, and that aspect of STEEPLE is not applicable.
Political Factor Analysis
Political factor includes any political involvements, such as laws and regulation related to the marketing industry, that can affect the company’s activity in any way. That factor may include market rules, tax policies, regulation in the labor market, and much more. For instance, the employment sector in the UK has significantly increased recently in the field of services compared to manufacturing, agriculture, and other areas. Such a change can potentially provoke increased governmental attention to the labor market and corresponding laws in the industry of services.
Legal Factor Analysis
Legal aspects of the STEEPLE analysis have much in common with the political factor, but they are more specific and have a narrowed scope. Legal aspects associated with the activity of Rightmove PLC involve regulations related to market relations and, most importantly, the right of ownership and the correlated organizations (Saidova and Muminjonova, 2022). The company helps its customers find and legally obtain physical property, which is why the ownership issues in place have to be under control.
Ethical Factor Analysis
Modern ethics relates to almost every area of human life nowadays. The corresponding aspect of STEEPLE involves following the rules of business ethics (Saidova and Muminjonova, 2022). Rightmove PLC (2022) openly shares its values which refer to the company’s ethics: doing what is right, being honest, taking responsibility, and more. Overall, the company’s behavior towards its employees, customers, and society appears to correlate with the commonly accepted ethical values.
Economical Factor Analysis
Firstly, it is essential to discuss microeconomic factors that affect the demand for the services provided by Rightmove PLC. The company is located in London, which statistically has the highest demand for home moving services across the United Kingdom, significantly increasing an important microeconomic factor – interest rate (Hargreaves Lansdown, 2022). Then, the supply in the industry is determined by several factors, including the number of suppliers, price ranges, technological conditions, and access to supply chains (Saidova and Muminjonova, 2022). If the interest rate in a particular territory rises, the supply may rise accordingly in response, and vice versa.
The competitiveness in the UK market in the home moving industry is considerably high. As mentioned previously, there are almost 15,000 moving companies in the country. According to Rightmove’s annual report for 2021, the company had approximately 19,000 customers, which is not much considering the sizeable British population (Rightmove PLC, 2022). Such a significant number of companies involved in the industry creates severe competition. If that number rises further, many organizations operating in-home moving may lose their profits or even have to leave the market.
Additionally, some random shocks can undermine the UK government’s fiscal policy. According to Saidova and Muminjonova (2022), the tax burden is one of the significant economic factors related to the STEEPLE analysis. Such an unexpected occasion as the coronavirus pandemic that started two years ago has significantly impacted many business organizations since then. Undermined business activities of home moving companies can negatively affect their capability to pay taxes. Therefore, the UK’s tax policy affects the home moving companies overall and Rightmove PLC specifically.
Problems and Challenges Faced by the Company
There has been a significant challenge faced by Rightmove PLC since 2021. Butler (2021) reports that difficulties in hiring drivers have led to a severe price increase for home moving. Companies across the country now have to set higher prices since the demand for removal vans has risen by approximately 200% (Butler, 2021, para. 4). Rightmove PLC is not an exception, and the organization may lose a considerable part of its customers if they do not attend such a major price increase. The company’s decisions should now focus on dealing with the issue without decreasing customer satisfaction. If Rightmove PLC does not find an appropriate solution soon instead of simply raising the prices, the organization’s commercial profits may reduce along with customer loyalty.
Conclusion
Overall, an effective tool to analyze the business environment of a specific company is the STEEPLE framework. Applying that analysis method to the home moving company in the United Kingdom, namely Rightmove PLC, has helped identify what external factors can influence a company’s business activity and the overall economy. STEEPLE and other similar assessment tools can improve the decision-making process in business and help researchers understand the business environment better.
Reference List
BoldData (2022). Moving Companies UK.
Butler, S. (2021). Cost of moving home rises as UK removals firms put up prices.
Hargreaves Lansdown. (2022). Rightmove PLC.
Kivimaa, P. and Martiskainen, M. (2018). ‘Dynamics of policy change and intermediation: the arduous transition towards low-energy homes in the United Kingdom’, Energy research & social science, 44, 83-99.
Rightmove PLC (2022).
Saidova, M. X. and Muminjonova, E. K. (2022). ‘Using STEEPLE analysis in business process’, International Scientific and Current Research Conferences, 10 February.