PEST Analysis
In business and marketing, there are many factors that can affect the business environment from both inside and outside the corporation. Many internal elements can be controlled within the business itself, but the organization has little control over external forces such as politics, the economy, society or technology. The micro-environment and the macro-environment can both affect the way a corporation conducts business (Haughey, 2008).

There are distinct differences between the micro- and macro-environments. Within a firm, a business deals with individuals such as shareholders, customers and vendors. These individuals are able to control certain aspects of the company's operation to maximize its profits. This is known as the micro-environment (Gillespie, 2007). Unlike the micro-environment where factors can be monitored and controlled, however, the macro-environment deals with factors that affect the firm from outside the business sphere. Political, economic, social and technological changes, otherwise known as PEST, are examples of factors….

PEST analysis and comparison of Australia vs. Singapore:
Opportunities in advertising

Although much of the world suffered severe economic setbacks during the recent global recession, two of the hardiest economies have proven to be that of Singapore's and Australia's. Australia has a projected budget surplus for 2012?2013 and the unemployment rate is expected to fall to 4.75% in late 2011?2012, "around levels consistent with full employment" (Australia, 2010, U.S. State Department). Singapore's economy grew 17.9 per cent in the first half of 2010, even while the United States' was struggling (amesh 2010).

Because of their resilience and prosperity, both nations are highly attractive to foreign investors, given their relative wealth, expanding population, and location. However, an advertising firm considering exploring either marketplace must keep other considerations in mind when evaluating opportunities, including the social climate of these nations, the government's attitude towards freedom of speech, and the cultural values expressed in each nation's….

Social Issues

Social factors relate to assessing the social, cultural, demographic, and environmental profiles of addressable markets (Sears, 2011). These trends are shaping the way Americans live, work, produce, and consume. Such a dynamic society gives Sears the opportunity to be a trendsetter in its various product categories. Sears currently faces many threats from many different retail chains like Wal-Mart and Target. These stores are beginning to offer customers a single store to fill all their shopping needs. Like Sears, such stores offer many of the same products at competitive prices, plus the consumer has the ability to conduct other shopping as well. Similarly, Lowes and Home Depot have been consistently garnering a large portions of Sears' appliance sales. Sears is able to influence how it does business with its partner vendors through environmental sustainable practices of recycling and offering products and services that promote environmental health for customer and employees.….

Moreover, controlling laws are in constant flux, making this area a particularly challenging one for the company. Despite these challenges, people always need groceries and Costco is ready to deliver the goods -- literally -- and these issues are discussed further below.
Economic

Although Costco enjoys a healthy share of its market, the company has not been immune from the Great Recession of 2008 as reflected in its historic stock performance shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2. Costco Stock Performance: July 2003 to Date

Source: http://charting.nasdaq.com/ext/charts.dll?2-1-14-0-0-5120-03NA000000COST-&SF:1|5-WD=539-HT=395-

Despite this temporary downturn, the company has regained its momentum and has exceeded its pre-Great Recession performance levels. As noted above, though, while Costco is continuing to grow, the 800-pound corporate gorilla in the department/specialty retail store sector is still Walmart, with the company trailing at a distant second followed closely by Target Corporation as shown in Table 1 and illustrated graphically in Figure 2 below.

Table 1

Costco….

2005, Amazon.com released its first generation of the Kindle, a hardware and software device that allowed people to read electronic books (Ieadeview, 2010). Since 2005, the Kindle has new competition, including the Nookbook, Sony eader, and the iPad. As the original mainstream electronic book device, the Kindle will have to struggle to keep its leadership in the hardware and software e-book markets. Studying the economic, social, and technological factors may determine its market competition, the marketing problem, and create a strategic recommendation.
The Kindle creators have made a product that continues to bring in revenue. Once the customer purchases the Kindle, the only market that they can purchase from is the official Kindle bookstore. This is a great position for Amazon.com to be in as it may provide a steady cash flow. However, some people may be reluctant in purchasing the Kindle because one seller means limited purchasing opportunities. If….

Personal Development Plan -- PEST Analysis
Factor

Opportunity

Threat

Political

The government argues that the budget allocated to the emergency medical services is large. Legislators are working on how to reduce the budgets through various large contract negotiations. New policies on the drugs imported have been introduced. Paramedics are striking due to salary irregularities in the department of emergency medical services.

Negotiation of large contracts by the legislators will allow the government to save funds, which will be used to buy other emergency services equipment. The funds will be used remunerate the paramedics so that they can be motivated and offer emergency services to their level best. Striking paramedics will make the government pay attention to the services they offer them salary increment (Martin 2006).

New policies on the imported drugs might lead to a shortage of drugs because the companies dealing with drugs might be given a limit, which might not be enough to serve the….

Amazon Web Services’ Expansion to Russia and Mexico Executive Summary
While globalization has posed numerous potential opportunities and threats in the international business arena, many of these opportunities and threats are specific to individual countries (Zhuplev, 2016). Therefore, a country risk analysis becomes a crucial element to consider for companies doing business on the international scale. In this view, country risk analysis has been the subject of extensive research in recent times with a focus on a range of opportunity and threat factors such as the economic, political, social and technological environments. The type of institutions involved in these analyses is equally broad ranging from debt-rating agencies, research organizations, political agencies, business entities and international entities like the World Economic Forum. Indeed, comparing countries such as Russia and Mexico as will be done in this study will influence the decision that Amazon Web Services will make regarding the market to invest and….

Branding
Ponds PEST Analysis

Political

The political environment in Turkey is one that can be defined by relative stability; especially compared to other countries in the geographic region. In 2005, the EU and Turkey began formal EU accession negotiations. Turkey has adopted many European Union directives, regulations and laws in anticipation of accession. hile continued delays have cooled popular interest in EU membership, Turkey's political and business leadership remains committed to joining the EU, and the current government understands that the process itself contributes to Turkey's global competitiveness (U.S. Embassy, 2012). The political stability of the country make is a prime target for various exports to Turkey.

Economical

Because of its proximity to the unrest in North Africa, Turkey has been punished by equity investors and as a result the country has gone from one of the best performing emerging markets in 2010 to levels not seen since March 2006 (Business Insider, 2011). However, undeterred….

Porter's Model Of 5 Forces
PEST Analysis

Value Chain Analysis

The paper is an analysis of the Holiday Inn Franchise. The paper will start giving an introduction of the franchise and its success followed by the main body which will include the objectives and values of the hotel as they stand today. The management functions, planning and organization of the hotel will also be discussed here followed by leadership styles, SWOT analysis, and Porter's model of 5 forces, PEST Analysis and the value chain analysis. This will be followed by conclusions and recommendations on the future aspects or growth potentials of the hotel

Holyday Inn is the part of InterContinental Hotels (IHG) and is one of the most prominent brand hotels. It has a global reputation to provide best quality services, value and comfort. It has one of the world's largest networks of hotels which include a total of 238,440 bedrooms and 1301 hotels….

External Environment of the U.S. estaurant Industry
restaurant industry is one of the most vibrant in the world. New players come to America due to some factors as the strength of U.S. economy, a population with high purchasing power, and the diversity of cultures resulting in popularizing various profitable cuisines. The country is the world's center stage of trade and has been growing to accommodate more ideas and creativity in investments. With the increase in the number of new entrants to the country, better forms of trade are witnessed. The better part of all these is the fact that the political environment is conducive for the inception of better trade options for the people interested in doing business. The Demographics also support the whole course in a big way. These factors are discussed below in light of how the industry has grown to the current robust state.

The External Factors

The Demographics

The population….

Annual reports are strong for the breadth of information discussed, but with respect to depth are better used for internal analysis. They provide an overview of external issues but that overview should be supplemented with other research. Trade magazines and academic journals often have very specific articles that may or may not be of relevance to an external analysis. hen they are relevant, they tend to provide excellent detail. Analyst conference calls, as with annual reports, are best used for internal analysis, but in these calls if management feels that external forces were the key factor in firm performance in the past quarter, the discussion will center on that performance. The Bureau of Economic Analysis is valuable for learning about broad economic trends, but those trends are not put into context of the industry. Newspaper articles may be excellent sources, but they can also be useless. Information literacy is….

External Environmental Analysis
Overstock.com

This is an online business that offers direct retail sales as well as online auctions both at the international level and locally. It is an online market place where potential buyers can visit for designer brands and home goods at the best price bargains. It also offers a platform where sellers of items can get onto the market platform online and sell their items to other people within or outside the U.S.A.

Porter's Five Forces model and the overstock.com (Mind Tools Ltd., 2014)

Supplier power- this refers to the concentration of other businesses or suppliers that can provide the same service that overstock.com offers. This threat can be rated as high since there are several websites like amazon, ebay among several others that offer the same services.

Buyer power- this refers to the ease with which the buyers of the goods or services can drive down the prices hence undermining the….

The main advantage is that the stories are well documented and written in an objective manner.
008, GSK Outlines Plans to Become More 'Biotech-like', Fierce Biotech, http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/gsk-outlines-plans-become-more-biotech/008-06-10 last accessed on June 3, 009

009, GlaxoSmithKline Plc., Hoovers, last accessed on June 3, 009 -- Hoovers is a centralized database that reveals information on multiple organizations. The benefit is that the data offered is extensive and comprises features such as industry forecasts, competition nature and organizational financial highlight, alongside with description of the respective company. The downside of the source is however given by the reduced amount of free information and for more extensive data, the user has to create a paid account.

009, The Industry Handbook -- Biotechnology, Investopedia, http://www.investopedia.com/features/industryhandbook/biotech.asp last accessed on June 3, 009 -- Investopedia.com has been developed as an initiative of the highly popular and leading business publication Forbes. It can be useful for novice as well as….

These refer to the characteristics of the political and regulatory environment (P), the economic environment (E), the socio-cultural environment and finally, the technological environment. The analysis of the climate in which an organization activates is also known as the PEST analysis.
4.1 Company

Product Line

Starbucks offers a wide selection of coffee-based beverages, with both caffeine and without caffeine. Aside their coffee beverages, they also offer whole-bean coffees, food items and coffee-related products and hardware equipment. "Starbucks stores offered a choice of regular or decaffeinated coffee beverages, a special "coffee of the day," and a broad selection of Italian-style espresso drinks. In addition, customers could choose from a wide selection of fresh-roasted whole-bean coffees (which could be ground on the premises and carried home in distinctive packages), a selection of fresh pastries and other food items, sodas, juices, teas, and coffee-related hardware and equipment."

About 61% of the sold items are coffee-based beverages,….

In the long-term, we need to focus on improving the financial performance and improve out financial position. Based on the brief market analysis, we identified those products that are more popular among consumers and the type of consumers we should address these products to and we will try to focus on them. We will also take under consideration the cost structure of our production and try to focus on those products for which the ratio of costs to sales is the lowest. The marketing department will run a more thorough analysis on market structure, cost structure and consumer behavior so that we get more accurate signals of market changes, because it seems that the market is becoming more dynamic every day. In terms of boat shows, we will continue to participate to most events Yellowtail participated in the past, while trying to strengthen our relationship with existing suppliers and develop….