Background of Hangout Plaza in the UK - Term Paper Example

? Business and Country Analysis Part This part is consisting of the company background of selected organization. For the purpose of the study the company Hangout plaza has been selected. This part will analyze the business nature of Hangout plaza, a brief description about the company and the organizational structure of the company. Company Background Hangout Plaza is an US based fast food chain. The fast food chain company is operated by franchisee basis. The Hangout Plaza offers popular and quality food products like hamburger, chicken French fries, cheeseburgers, several breakfast items, soft drinks, desserts and milk shakes. In order to serve healthy fast food Hangout plaza expanded the menu that includes wraps, smoothies, fruit items and salad. Moreover, to attract large customer base the company have started happy price meal. The meal is given by discounted price. Hangout plaza is the popular fast food chain in US within the competitive industry. Moreover, in order to implement international business diversification Hangout plaza is looking for several international markets. The company has decided to expand their business unit in India. India is one of the largest potential Asian markets for fast food chain industry. The major objective of the study is to analyze several macro environmental industry factors that may impact on the industry. Moreover the trade, investment and foreign policy profile of India is implemented due to identify the opportunity and threats for the Hangout Plaza’s operation in Indian competitive fast food market. Part 2 This part is important as this part will analyze the impact of different external environmental factors like cultural, political, legal, ethical and economical factors on the business performance of Hangout plaza in India. Moreover this part will highlight on the trade, investment and foreign policy profile of India considering the business practices of Hangout plaza in India. Cultural Environment Culture and social factors has a key impact on the business performance of any organization. Hangout plaza in US is offering a liberal society. In US, religion does not affect much to fast food chain organizations. The culture of US supports Hangout plaza to operate and serve food products. The society of India is versatile. India is the country of the people of several religion backgrounds. The religion has a large impact on Indian culture and society. Different people from different religion in India choose different types of food product (Schaefer, 2006). In India Hindus does not eat beef, Muslims only used to take Halal meat. Moreover, they do not eat pork. So Hangout Plaza has to carefully prepare the menu in order to do business practices in India due to different people of different religion. The favorable social factor that will influence Hangout plaza is the changing life style of Indians. People are gradually adopting western culture. Now-a-days people like to hangover with relatives and friends outside in restaurants. These are few negative and positive cultural and social factors that may impact on the business performance of Hangout Plaza. Political Environment Hangout plaza in US got the advantage of the political stability of country. Hangout plaza is well popular in US but there are some health issues that are affecting the business performance of Hangout Plaza. Consumption of fast food increases the cholesterol level of human body and obesity issues. Government of US has restricted the marketing activities of fast food companies in order to reduce the health related issues. The introduction of several healthy food items in menu like wraps, salads, milk shakes has again increase the brand awareness of Hangout Plaza in Customer’s mind. Moreover, creating job opportunity, good relationship with government has eased the business operation of Hangout Plaza in US. India is one of the controversial countries in terms of politics. Different political ideologies are becoming the barrier for new foreign companies to do diversification in India. Bharatiya Janata Party is one of the strongest political parties in India. They have opposed many international fast food chains to enter in Indian market. There are against fast food chains because the companies offer non-vegetarian meal to customers (Korten, 2001). The party wants to see the business operation of Vegetarian restaurants but the support of leading political party and UPA government is supporting the entry of foreign fast food players in Indian market. Moreover the changing trend towards fast food chain and the liking of young generation may influence Hangout Plaza to operate in Indian market. Legal Environment As Hangout plaza is entering in Indian fast food chain industry the company has to face several legal barriers. They have to obey the rules and government regulations such as business registration, operating hours, labor and employment law, tax requirement, and product quality and environment certification. The biggest challenge they may face like availability of legal land and the health related rules and regulation. As the fast food items are the junk foods that created several diseases Hangout plaza has to serve different healthy fast food items (Schlosser, 2012). Moreover, to overcome the availability of land problem, company should directly apply to the government land bank to avail the appropriate legal land in order to successfully do business practices. Economic Environment US are the strongest economy in the world. The high GDP, per capita income and high disposable income of American tends to massive consumption of fast food (Schor, 1998). Considering Indian economy India has stable economy. Slowly and gradually India is becoming one of the developed economies in world. India is having the low tax rate, sufficient availability of land, capital and skilled labors, booming economy, higher GDP, increasing per capita income and higher disposable income of middle class people can influence the hang out plaza to enter in Indian market. Ethical Environment Hangout plaza follows a strong ethical culture in US in terms of both product and customer service. Considering ethical environment in India, the company has to face few ethical barriers like consumer law, employment law, and business ethics law. As the company follows strong business ethics it would not be difficult for them to adopt strong business ethics in India. They have to give supreme values to the customers and employees in order to run business ethically. This will create a healthy company reputation within the company and can achieve several advantages from government itself in terms of business practices (Halbert and Ingulli, 2011). Trade, Investment and Foreign Policy Profile Although India is opening up their economy slowly and steadily, compared to the other developing countries the tariffs in India for foreign players is continued to be high. There are several views over this high tariff policy. Few of the leads think that India as a rapid globalize others think that highly protectionist economy. However, government of India welcomes the international fast food chain to operate in India as it increases the FDI of country (Gov, 2010). The strong economical relationship of India with US has influenced several US based organization to enter India for business operations (State, 2012). Before 1991 India was closed economy. In order to strengthen the economy and to increase the foreign currency the government of India started globalization. They started to welcome several foreign players of different industries. The advantages of opening up the economy are reducing the unemployment ratio, increasing FDI etc. which significantly impacted on India’s economy in last decade. Moreover, from the organization perspective, companies can get huge number of resource, skilled and efficient employees, and effective land for business practices. Therefore, the foreign trade and investment policy has helped both the foreign companies and Indian economy. Therefore, India is pushing aggressively the global trade regime. Among all the developing economies in the foreign trade and investment negotiation India has taken a leadership role. As a result it has been notified that the government influence and favorable foreign trade and investment policy in India will motivate Hangout plaza to enter in Indian market for business operation (Worldbank, 2011). Recommendations As Hangout plaza is one of the leading fast food chain in US, it would not be difficult for the company to do global diversification. As the company is trying to diversify their business in Indian market, firstly they should handle several external environmental factors while serving different menus of fast food (Heath, 2010). As India is political controversial and sensitive cultural country, Hangout plaza should carefully introduce their food products in Indian market according to the preference of different people of different religion and cultural background. Moreover, the company has to build a strong relationship with the government and several politicians in order to run business comfortably. The factors like availability of capital, land, efficient skilled employees and healthy foreign investment and trade policy may help Hangout plaza to operate in Indian competitive fast food market. References State. (2012). U.S. Relations with India. Retrieved from: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3454.htm. Gov. (2010). Foreign Investment Policy. Retrieved from: http://deity.gov.in/content/foreign-investment-policy. Worldbank. (2011). India: Foreign Trade Policy. Retrieved from: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/EXTSARREGTOPINTECOTRA/0,,contentMDK:20592520~menuPK:579454~pagePK:34004173~piPK:34003707~theSitePK:579448,00.html. Heath, R. (2010). The Sage Handbook of Public Relations. California: Sage. Scholosser, E. (2012). Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Model. Austin: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Schor, J. (1998). The overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer. New York: Basic Books. Korten, D. (2001). When Corporations Rule the World. California: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Schaefer, R. (2006). Sociology. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Halbert, T. and Ingulli, E. (2011). Law & Ethics in the Business Environment. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Read More