Unit 1 pass 1 Business environment (Blessing)
For this task l will describe the purposes of Sainsbury’s and World Wide Fund and compare the difference between their statuses as a public limited company and a charity. I will also explain their ownership and the sectors they are in.
Sainsbury’s is the third largest retail supermarket in the UK. It was founded in 1869 and quickly expanded through good leadership and business ideas reaching its peak in the 1970s.Sainsbury’s sell food products, clothes and a variety of other thing such as outdoor equipment. Sainsbury’s aim to make profit and they have main objectives that are key to their growth and expansion. These include developing new business and providing high quality food. Sainsbury’s current market share in the UK is 16.5% and they also have interest in property and banking. Their revenue from last year was over 22 billion.
World Wide Fund For Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund) is a charity organisation whose ultimate goal has always been “people living in harmony with nature” they are about respecting and valuing the natural world and finding ways to share the earth’s resources fairly. To achieve that, they spend a lot of time working with communities, with politicians and with businesses too. The main things that WWF do is safeguard rare species of wildlife and plants and also protect the vital ecosystems found in forests, rivers and seas. In 2010 their revenue was £525 million.
Sectors
The primary sector involves getting raw material through farming, oil drilling and coal mining. Both WWF and Sainsbury’s do not operate in the primary sector. Although World Wide Fund exist to “conserve the worlds ’biological diversity ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustained together with pollution and wasteful consumption.”
The secondary sector is the process of manufacturing products acquired from primary production. It involves assembling products for example building and turning raw products such as oil into plastic. Sainsbury’s also operate in the secondary sector because the buy raw material to produce their own brand products at cheaper value.
The tertiary sector is the commercial services that support the primary and the secondary sectors. Transport and banks are good examples of the tertiary sector but retail services such as those provided by Sainsbury’s are tertiary as well. Sainsbury’s sell products that they buy from manufacturers and they also provide banking services as well. WWF also operate in the tertiary sector because they in no trading/selling of raw material within the charity.
Ownership
Limited liability is when an investor cannot lose any more money than they invested in a business if that business ever went bankrupt. This investor or partner is not personally responsible for the debts and obligations of the company in the event that these are not fulfilled.
Because Sainsbury’s is a public limited company it is owned by loads of shareholders including some employees of Sainsbury’s who are allowed to invest as part of their company saving scheme. These shareholders have no responsibility within the business except to choose their board of directors. They have limited liability which protects their personal property if Sainsbury’s ever went bankrupt as I explained above.
On the other hand, no one can really own a charity in the same way they can own a business. A board of trustees has to be elected to run the charity. And they are the equivalent of director if the WWF charity organisation was a business. The executive team consists of 11 members who have their responsibilities within the charity.
Key differences
A normal business like Sainsbury’s is set up to earn a profit, a charity is not. All charities like WWF do not have to pay taxes because they don't earn a
