Stakeholders

Introduction
In this assignment I will be talking about two different businesses, Holly Lodge Girls’ College and McDonalds, and stakeholders involved with them and how they influence the businesses.
Holly Lodge provides education to its customers, and some of their aims and objectives are being committed to academic progress and supporting students to the best they can be, and prepare them to be responsible citizens with a shared set of values and sense of community as well as compassion and responsibility etc.
For McDonald’s they have many aims and objectives such as they’re committed to providing quality food quickly that their customers can trust with the best possible service, showing clear career paths to their employees that they can take, and helping out with the community and environment by litter picking for example.

Stakeholders
Stakeholders are an individual or group which is affected by a business, and has an interest in its success or failure and can be either an internal stakeholders i.e. employees, suppliers, managers; or external stakeholders i.e. customers, local community, trade unions.

Customers
Holly Lodge’s customers consist of its students and their parents. They both want good teachers and teaching environments otherwise they’re less likely to learn, with this they want the best grades possible so they can go on and get a good job and support themselves. Parents are also more likely to want the school to aid in teaching their child good values such as respect to others and a sense of responsibility that comes from doing and looking after their work. A final thing both types of customers want from the business is good school days; parents won’t want them too short because they may struggle trying to find someone to look after them if they’re young, and the students won’t want them too long because they’ll get bored and are less likely to pay attention. Holly Lodge’s customers influence the business as they have to know what the stakeholder’s want from the business in order to make it happen so it’s more appealing for them. For example, they know the length of time the school should run for, and what the customers want out of the school in terms of academic and social learning so incorporate this into their aims and objectives.
Customers for McDonald’s trust the business and want good quality and healthier food from them as healthy eating has become more prominent in our day to day lives, but also want it quickly to keep up with their busy schedules; and they also want good service that delivers their food and drink i.e. polite and friendly employees rather than bored and rude ones. This has led to the influence of McDonald’s changing their menu or adapting it to provide high quality and healthier food, and investing £43million in training the staff and development of the business such as upgrading the work places and the menus so they meet their aims and objectives that provide their customers with the products and services they want from them.
If either business doesn’t provide what their customers want or fails as a business, the customers will just change school or fast food restaurant without losing out on much as they’re an external stakeholder so won’t be affected on a day to day basis if anything happens to the business; but they business could lose a lot of money from this as customers are their main source of income either per transaction for McDonalds or per capita for Holly Lodge. If the business fails the customers will have to look for other schools and some may be further away so they’d have to potentially spend money on travelling, full from the amount of students there already, or they don’t meet the criteria needed to get in so finding a new school will be a struggle for them.

Employees
Employees at Holly Lodge want a few things from the business, things such as; good working hours and fair pay, a fair workload, and students who are unlikely to act up so it’s easier to provide education to the students. This leads Holly Lodge to aim to give their employees hours and workloads they can do with pay equal to the hours and effort they put into it, so they’re likely to remain at the business and keep on providing the education the business promises to its customers. Holly Lodge also tries to aim for a good reputation so is less likely to take in students who have had a record of misbehaviour in previous schools or the community, which makes the employees happier to teach as they know certain types of students won’t be in the school that they have to teach. If the employees can’t influence the school and their aims and objectives, they’re likely to contact their union and call a strike until situations have changed for them.
McDonalds’ employees are similar as they too want good hours, a fair workload, and an equal pay for the amount of time and effort they put into their work. They also want the chance for a promotion or at least more money for staying with them, otherwise they will either call their union or quit; this has influenced the business as 9 out of 10 managers and 1 in 5 franchisees started as a crew member. McDonalds’ aims and objectives are influenced by them as they show their employees how they can have good career paths with the business which is something they want, and they’re also given paid breaks so they’re not constantly working and still get money for their time and effort. They’re also given suitable training so they know how to work in the environment they’re in which influences the aims and objectives, so the employees are much less likely to quit or go on strike.
If the businesses were to fail or not provide their employees with their requirements, they’ll lose a lot of money from people quitting or going on strike. This would mean that the business would start to lose money as no one’s working for them, and start to build a bad reputation so customers aren’t likely to visit even if the employee’s requirements are met in the end. However, the employees can also have a lot at stake if the business was to fail as they would lose their job and would lose money, this would mean it may be hard for them to get to interviews if they can’t afford new clothes and to run their car to get to them.

Suppliers
Holly Lodge gets a lot of its supplies such as food and drink, and teaching supplies and equipment for classrooms and those who’ll utilise them. They’ll influence the business as they will have certain prices and amount of products per bulk order the business will have to buy, and if they don’t they’re unlikely to continue business with them which means Holly Lodge may have to look at other places which may ask for more money for less products per bulk buy. This may lead Holly Lodge to have aims and objectives that are adjacent to this such as; having a set amount of money they’ll spend over a certain about of time for so many products, and potentially coming up with a business deal where they’ll only buy certain products from another business for a cheaper price.
McDonald’s suppliers consist of around 17,500 British and Irish farms from where they get the most of their ingredients from. Having this many suppliers, the business would be influenced by them as they need to make sure that they stay and provide their ingredients to them, but also that McDonald’s gives them fair pay to help keep the farms running so they can get the supplies they need from them. This has led to the influence of McDonalds’ aims and objectives as they aim to use the highest quality food from free range British and Irish farms, and they can’t do that if they’re not meeting their suppliers needs as they’ll pull out of business deals they have with them.
If McDonald’s or Holly Lodge fail or lose business as an organisation, suppliers won’t be able to make money from them so will have to look elsewhere before they lose profit and fail too. For Holly Lodge, these stakeholders may not be in as bad a position as McDonald’s as there are thousands of other businesses where they can sell their supplies so are unlikely to take a big hit from the business failing. However, as McDonalds works alongside so many suppliers if it was to fail all the suppliers would lose out on a lot of money and a big business opportunity, so they may start to lose profit if they don’t find a big enough business or enough of them to make the money back from their products.

Managers
The manager of Holly Lodge is the head teacher and they would have a big influence over the business as they run it and have a say in what happens and what is the best course to follow to make sure the business is running efficiently. Some of the things the head teacher influences over the business to make sure it happens is that people go to the school otherwise it would fail, the business itself would have a good reputation which would increase the amount of people likely to get in, and to have good results in academic attainment. This ideas would influence the school’s aims and objectives as they don’t really want misbehaving students as it will tarnish the businesses reputation so potential consumers are unlikely to go to Holly Lodge, and try to provide the best teaching, equipment, and support possible for the students to achieve their highest academic achievement possible.
McDonald’s have similar managerial influences over the business. Although managers of individual outlets of the business may have their own influences over that particular restaurant, the managers who own the business as a whole will want as many people to visit the business as possible, to have a good and globally well-known name and reputation, and to ultimately make a profit. McDonalds’ aims and objectives reflect this as they aim to provide and serve high quality food to their customers from the business they know and trust, and to open up more outlets globally from the profits they make from the current outlets.
If the managers of either business don’t meet the aims and objectives of the businesses the customers and employees are unlikely to visit the businesses and will go elsewhere so the business will fail and the manager will have similar issues to those of the employees. They’ll have to find work elsewhere where positions may have already been taken, or struggle to get to interviews as they can’t afford to pay for travelling costs

Local Community
Holly Lodge is an inner city school in a popular area where there’s plenty of nearby business that the customers and employees can visit and also help out with in volunteering schemes for charities or other businesses. The local community also influence the school and its aims and objectives by not wanting any trouble from them i.e. vandalism etc. So the school helps the local community by aiming to teach its students a sense of community and how to be a good citizen, and to look after the area they live in, also a sense of responsibility and manners so they’re less likely to be involved in any negative behaviour. Holly Lodge runs the Duke of Edinburgh scheme where volunteering is part of the criteria so they can volunteer in local businesses which helps the local community, and even purchasing from the businesses helps them keep running.
The local community for McDonald’s influences the business and its aims and objectives as the business helps them in leading and supporting charity events and litter picking in the local community, and have been helping out with local football matches for the past decade. They also look out for their local environment by using more recyclable packaging (card instead of plastic packaging), and using more energy efficient lighting in some outlets where it works with the light outside so it changes how bright it is depending on how bright it is outside. This means less money is spent on the business and more can go back into the community.
If the businesses fail the local community may suffer as they won’t get as many customers because those who visit Holly Lodge and McDonald’s would’ve had to leave so they can’t help out voluntarily with charities, or to keep the area as tidy with the litter picking. They may also lose funding for the local football matches so they may stop and the youth may not have anywhere else to go so start committing petty crimes in the local community. However, if the business don’t live up to the local communities expectations they may not get many customers so it will fail and have to close down because they haven’t made a profit.

Trade Unions
There’s many unions for teachers i.e. NUT (national union for teachers), and ATL (association for teachers and lecturers) and at Holly Lodge like in other schools they have a list of requirements teachers should have when they’re working such as; Anti-Discrimination Law and Human Rights, health and safety at work so they’re not working in a dangerous or hazardous environment, suitable supplies to work with to help with their job, fair pay and hours, and workload so they’re not being over worked and underpaid, with also the chance to get more money.
McDonalds’ workers have similar trade union ideals as they want the workers to have good hours and workload, and pay to match the time and effort they put into their work. They also need to be in a good work environment that coincides with health and safety installments so they’re not in any danger in the workplace that can be easily preventable.
The trade unions influence both businesses aims and objectives as they aim to promote a safe work environment, and pay at least minimum wage to their workers, and offer clear career paths for those who want them. However if the business don’t follow what the trade unions want for their workers, the trade unions may recommend that their workers quit or go on strike. This would cause McDonald’s to lose profit as no one will be working so they can’t run the business, and Holly Lodge will have to close as no one will be teaching and the students will have to stay home. The repercussions would be a bad reputation for the businesses so customers and employees are unlikely to associate with the businesses so they’ll lose a lot of money and business, so McDonald’s and Holly Lodge need to make sure they live up to this stakeholders demands from them.

Conclusion
In conclusion I have found that the stakeholders and businesses can lose a lot from each other if either decides to pull out from investing time and money into them; so there’s a lot of reasons and ways for both the businesses and stakeholders to influence each other.