Environmental audit - Essay Example

DISCUSSION Anything that impinges on the firm can be included in the environment. The environment is not stable; in fact, it is increasingly turbulent due to the era of change and uncertainty in which we live. Changes are happening faster and faster, requiring continual response on the part of businesses. Thereby, it is becoming increasingly imperative for companies to carry out feasibility studies and environmental audits to assess the nature of the new market and plan the strategies accordingly.

Tesco is one of the largest food retailers on the globe. It operates approximately 2318 stores and its employer base is over 326,000 people. The largest market of Tesco is UK where it operates under four banners including Extra, Superstore, Metro and Express. Tesco spans itself over almost 40,000 food products along with clothing and other non-food lines. Moreover, the company's self owned products which make 50 percent of the sales are at three levels, value, normal and finest. Tesco has geographically expanded it self to locate in six countries in Europe along with UK, the Republic of Ireland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey and Poland.

It also operates in Asia, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and Taiwan Jordan is a constitutional monarchy which gained independence from the British in 1946. It consists of a well-educated population and the economy is supported through foreign loans, remittances and international aid.. The environmental audit revolves around the PESTLE factors, which are the political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental elements. The PESTLE analysis would be used to develop strategies to help understand the environment that the company is entering and would operate in future.

PESTLE analysis gives an overall picture of the feasibility of the venture and helps the organization in dealing with critical issues associated with entering an entirely new market. (Jewell, 2000) The political environment concerns the activities of the state and trends in politics. Jordan is moving towards privatization, but still the government is in control. The mixture of privately and government-owned enterprises is called a mixed economy. The Business Freedom count of Jordan is 68.7 Business freedom is referred to the quantitative measure that assesses the overall regulatory burden to start, operate and close a business and depicts the regulatory efficiency of the government.

The business freedom score is calculated between 0 to 100, 100 being the score of countries with the freest business environment. (The Heritage Foundation, 2011) Operating in a globalized environment with stores around the globe, Tesco's performance is highly influenced by the political and legislative conditions of the countries that it operates in, including the European Union (EU). (South, 2007) The economic variables play an important role in the environmental audit. The economic variables include the rate of growth of output and income, the level of employment, the rate of inflation, the exchange rate and the balance of payments.

(Jewell, 2000) Jordan has been progressing towards its economic infrastructure which has aided economic growth regardless of the challenging global economic environment. Levels of trade, fiscal, and investment freedom