Unit 1: Exploring Business
Businesses introduction
In this Unit, I’ll be comparing two businesses. I’ll be comparing Leyton Sixth Form College and Nandos. Leyton
Sixth Form College is a public sixth form which accepts students aged 16 + and provides education for them.
There are around 2100+ (2016) students attending this college. It was established in 1929 and it was known as
a founding institution, however, since 1985, it’s become a sixth form college. This college has over 200
teachers and this institution is allocated in Waltham Forest, Greater London. Nando’s was established in 1987
in South Africa. There are over 1200 outlets in 30 different countries. They’re known for their USP (unique
selling point) regardings to their peri peri chicken and Portuguese mixed cuisine and culture.
Learning Aim A: Explore the features of different businesses and analyse what makes them successful
Learning aim B: Investigate how businesses are organised
P1: Explain the features of two contrasting businesses
The business mission, vision and values, aims and objectives
Leyton Sixth Form College
Leyton Sixth Form College provides education to students ages 16+, they give you an option to do either 3
(even 4) A-Levels (35 options) or a BTEC (15 options). Their aim is to be able to provide students with a good
education to then take these grades they earned at the end of the 2 years course and either start working,
apply for an apprenticeship/ attend university therefore, helping them achieve long term career sustainability.
They embrace the British values of democracy, freedom of speech, rule of law etc. They meet their mission
statement of living up to the expectation of safety and safeguarding as a top priority. They have security at the
front gate throughout the day and they specifically have a safeguarding team for students to reach out to
when in need of help or difficulty. They are also a very diverse community which accepts students from all
backgrounds and are also very welcoming towards every religious community. They went to the extent of
providing a multifaith prayer room. They also have people within the college which have months to celebrate
different cultures and races such as black history month.
Nando’s
Nando’s provides a friendly, warm Portuguese food cuisine. Their aim is to serve food that is low in fat and
high in protein. Also Nando’s wants their customers to experience their special chicken culture and have
memorable moments with them. Their values consist of pride, passion, courage, integrity and family. They
provide customers with vegan/vegetarian and halal food and small sides. They emphasise family and love &
they’re also known to have started as a family business. Their signature is their peri peri chicken, which is
grilled, living up to their expectation of healthy meals. Their mission is to go worldwide and to allow each and
every Nando branch to consider having a unique twist which matches the demographic of worldwide
representation.
Features of the business: Leyton Sixth Form College VS Nando’s
Ownership type: There are different types of ownership which involve private companies which are under the
private sector which may have the letters LTD associated with the company name. Secondly, a public company
will have the words PLC and the other types of ownerships such as sole trader and partnership. Not for profit
,organisations are the ones who deal with natural disasters or exist to serve people who are needy for example
Ofam, Redcross.
Liability: There are two types of liability, the first being limited liability. This means that if a company was
challenged, they will not be accounted for based on individuals. Therefore, this gives the company further
protection. However, unlimited liability is the opposite therefore, any financial loss will be the owners
responsibility.
Sector: There are many different sectors which companies will fall under. For example, the primary, secondary
and tertiary sector. The primary sector involves the process of growing raw materials, secondary involves the
manufacturing stage and lastly the tertiary sector involves providing a service.
Purpose: A purpose for a business is their reason for existence. Purposes are different depending on the
business ownership, sector and so forth. Purposes can also be highlighted in a business's aims, objectives and
mission.
Scope of activities: This refers to whether a company is local, national or multinational. This information can be
located on a company's homepage and is relevant to identify the size and scale of the business.
Size: Size refers to whether a company is ‘small (10-49) medium (50-249) or large (250)
Leyton Sixth Form College
Leyton Sixth Form College is a public sector business which means it’s owned and supported by the
government, everything is provided by them therefore the college has limited liability as they do not have full
responsibility of financial risk. As Leyton Sixth Form College are providing a service (service of education) this
means that they fall under the tertiary sector.
Furthermore, the purpose of Leyton Sixth Form College is to provide students with high level education and
for students to get the best grades possible. They provide service to each individual student, therefore, it’d
come under the tertiary sector.
LSC is a singular and local business, therefore, they have only 1 main branch as previously mentioned, owned
by the government. They’ve employed over 200 teachers, for over 30 different subjects and along with
securities who also provide and play a huge role in the way the college operates. LSC would be considered as a
medium enterprise because it has approx 200 employees , it also has approx 2000 students.
Outside of college, they provide extra activities such as Duke of Edinburgh. Doing this leads to an award which
will help when it comes to applying to university and UCAS points. And also their partnership with Queen
Mary’s university of London (QMUL), gives their students a chance to receive/earn a certificate which will be
showcased on students application forms for universities and gives them a higher probability of acceptance in
QMUL.
Nando’s
Nandoes is a private limited company (ltd), which started as a family business and over time grew
internationally. They are a private limited company as they are profit based and are also privately owned.
Nando’s has a limited liability as the owners are not personally liable for any of the companies financial losses,
however the business is limited liability and any debts will be collected from selling business assets rather than
owner’s personal assets. Nando’s falls under the tertiary sector as they are providing a service of food to their
customers.
,Nando's purpose is to allow customers to feel that their cuisine is unique and embraces culture as one of their
core values into every dish, their purpose is to also show how food can be healthy and tasty bringing people
together guilt free into healthy eating habits.
Nando’s is considered as a large enterprise due to the many countries it’s branched out in and has the title of
being multinational. Also, in South Africa and Australia, you have an offer to open up a franchise, whereas, in
other countries, you can only open up an outlet.
Lastly, nandoes has approximately ‘34,000 employees ‘ making it a large scale organisation.
Leyton Sixth Form College
A reason why LSC is successful is through their aim to ‘nurture academic excellence and creative talents to
enable our students to realise their potential’. This aim is backed with an objective which is to provide them
with different teachers with departments they can aid to improve certain aspects of their education or study
an additional curriculum so they can add that onto their statement for university and on their CVs. And
another aim would be to help students achieve the highest possible grade they can which links to the aim
above but this is different, they have an objective attached, which they have achieved: ‘75% of students
achieved top A*, A and B grades or the vocational equivalent’. This showcases their size of business as 2000+ is
a lot and to get majority to pass and get an even higher grade can deem them to be established as a successful
business. This also evaluates how this type of business is successful as they are achieving their aims and
objectives, and they also allow themselves to improve on with their aims and objectives which also makes
them successful seen as this goes to show their level of determination on representing themselves to the best
of their ability; this type of business is an institution that provides services and the second objective above
supports the type of business Leyton Sixth Form College represents themselves as.
NANDOS
A reason why Nando’s is successful is through their size of business, as they own over 362 branches in the Uk
and they’re a casual dining establishment. This goes to show that they are a business that have the capability
to maintain many consumers as they’ve obtained many loyal customers through the loyalty Nando’s card, this
helped them as they are having those regular customers and this brings the business to a succession. Another
way we can establish that Nando’s is successful is through their type of business as mentioned above they
have a casual dine establishment, there aren’t as many casual dine establishments as they are ‘the most
popular fast spreading casual dine in the Uk’, this overall showcases how successful they have been over the
years as it only grows popular annually. And Nando’s have had aims and objectives that have proven their
success, their aim is ‘change lives’, bringing in a different cuisine and having an immediate effect on the
citizens of the UK showcases that they have become a successful business and achieved their aims and
objectives.
, P2: Explain how two contrasting businesses are influenced by stakeholders
Leyton Sixth Form College
In this section, I'll be discussing the relationship with internal and external stakeholders of Leyton Sixth Form
College and Nando’s on how these stakeholders play their roles in these businesses.
Starting with Leyton Sixth Form College, their main internal stakeholders are: The Principal, Students and
Teachers.
Starting with LSC, teachers are one of the main internal holders that play the role with a strong impact of
keeping track of their students' work and will grade them on it based on whether they’ve met their objectives
or not. Teachers usually tell their students what to do verbally but also send information via email in case a
student forgets. A teacher communicates with the principal through meetings to set goals and reward
achievement & then after either email or phone call to contact students’ parents. This helps bring a stronger
and more maintainable relationship alongside it being an advantage since parents have a right to know what
their child is currently doing, also, it’s for discipline reasons.
However, a breakdown in communication which can occur is when parents call home only and receive no
response. This can cause a delay in the teacher getting in contact with parents delaying communicating
important topics for example, behaviour/ grades. This can also be negative as it means the teacher does not
have extra support by an adult. Additionally, teachers will also want to communicate positive feedback via
email, call or even in person. Overall, teachers are provided with the responsibility of educating students who
choose to learn in that institiuion. They are also responsible for students' attendance and communicating this
in person and during tutorials, if they don't follow up, they’d get into trouble with the principal.
Speaking of the principal, they tend to hold a vital role and biggest influence in working with the college
system. They have the responsibility of maintaining and controlling the college property in order for it to
function in a certain way due to the leadership role they carried. The role is to also make decisions for the
college, supported by the government plans for example, working close with the local authorities, ofsted and
governors. The principal communicates with everyone involved in the business. For example, students who
join LSC were first greeted with a welcome assembly in person. She also makes sure that she communicates
students on email for topics like school closures.
