1.

0 INTRODUCTION

Global Consulting Engineers is a South African based consulting engineering firm that was
formed in 2005. The organisation is a family business and has interests in civil engineering
consulting and project management. The organisation has strong teams which are led by a
company director in each discipline. It boasts of 3 chartered professional engineers, one
registered land surveyor and a professional project manager among its stuff compliment.
Global Consultings globalisation strategy focuses on establishing a presence in locations in
Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) and other countries where there is a rise in the middle class and in
light of this, the organisation has opened an office in Zimbabwe. The organisations business
model is underpinned on private public partnerships (PPP) in order to foster its presence and
their business model targets regions where their services would be relevant.
Global Consulting specialises in civil and structural consulting and its clientele includes but
not limited to local municipalities, private developers, government and individuals who are
building their private properties. .

The instruments which can be used to analyse the business operating environment are SWOT
analysis, PESTEL analysis, Porters Five Forces Model and the StructureConductPerformance Model. However this paper examines the business operating environment of
Global Consulting using the SWOT and PESTEL analysis.

2.0 Business operating Environment

It is imperative to identify and analyse both internal and external business operating
environment of GLOBAL CONSULTING using more than one model.
2.1PESTEL model
The PESTEL model looks at political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, environmental
and legal factors.
2.1.1 Political factors
The political environment is not stable. The political environment in South Africa
Cheap politicking and inconsistence of policies by the ruling party killed the
proliferation of the industry, mining and agriculture which anchore the existence and
purpose of GLOBAL CONSULTING.
Global Consulting as a research centre was supposed to be under the Ministry of
Science and Technology and have research collaborations with universities but,
because of political lobbying, it was placed under the presidents office where
decisions on policies, which are not based on merit, take long.
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 The top management of GLOBAL CONSULTING is not appointed on professional

merit but on political stamina and connections. This compromises the quality of
research output and the international research institutions are not keen to do
collaborations with GLOBAL CONSULTING.
Loss of funding when Zimbabwe unilaterally withdrew from Commonwealth.
2.1.2 Economic Analysis
The interest rates are high in Zimbabwe and the cost of borrowing money for research
projects is very expensive.
Employment rate is very low. The government has instructed all its institutions to
freeze posts and it is mulling retrenchments
The cost of foreign currency exchange is low as Zimbabwe has adopted multicurrency
regime. This means that GLOBAL CONSULTING can procure instruments and
equipment without incurring high cost of exchange rate
2.1.3 Social-Cultural Analysis
Zimbabwe is a British former colony and English language is its formal language.
Therefore GLOBAL CONSULTING can do research collaboration with all Englishspeaking countries
Zimbabwe has got a good culture of hardworking and hence GLOBAL
CONSULTING has got hardworking perseverant employees
GLOBAL CONSULTING has developed a corporate social responsibility culture and
it has got great concern for environment
2.1.4 Technological factors
GLOBAL CONSULTING has embraced nanotechnology and it has acquired
instruments and equipment that can embrace nanotechnological research
GLOBAL CONSULTING has managed to acquire state of the art infrastructure vis-avis instruments that can do research on genetic engineering
2.1.5 Legal factors
The changes in the labour laws have affected the human capital of GLOBAL
CONSULTING. The recent changes to the labour laws where an employee contract
can be terminated on three months notice has propelled brain drainage as the job
security is at stake
Tax laws and regulations-GLOBAL CONSULTING is enjoying duty-free imports on
capital equipment and instruments.
Environmental protections laws. Disposing of harmful chemicals is regulated by
EMA and the Environmental Impact Assessment fees are too exorbitant.
2.2 SWOT Analysis

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SWOT analysis is the identification and assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities

and threats. It is the traditional means of searching for insights into ways of realising the
desired alignments between the external and internal environment and is intended to yield
strategic yields
Strengths
Highly educated and experienced
technocrats
Good infrastructure like state of the
art buildings.
Highly advanced equipment
Close to the president and can easily
influence policies
Protected by the Act of Parliament

Weaknesses
Lack of managerial skills, scientist
without managerial skills are poor
leaders
Lack of funding as the government is
financially unsound
Red tape in procurement as GLOBAL
CONSULTING goes through State
Procurement Board
Poor organisational culture and
structure

Opportunities
Has got Government support
Exemption from duty
Does not declare dividends to
shareholders
Potential to do research
collaborations with English-speaking
countries

Threats
Poor corporate governance
Political interference
Sanctions
Brain drainage
Legal changes to labour laws
Withdrawal of Zimbabwe from
Commonwealth

3.0 Discussion
Some pertinent questions are:
Is environmental scanning necessary to scientific research organisations?
What are the best analysis instruments used to assess the business operating
environment?
Why is environmental uncertainty an important concept in strategic management?
Why is it necessary to frequently assess the business environment?
Environmental scanning is important to any organisations as it provides intelligence decisionmakers and ensures that all issues of every stakeholder are addressed. The best analysis
instruments of any organisations are subject to debate but it depends on the sector of the
organisations. For instance, the writer finds SWOT and PESTEL models as the best two
instruments to assess GLOBAL CONSULTING as a research institution. Environmental
uncertainty encourages calculated risks over hunches and is more likely to result in strategic
management instead of reactive. Yesteryear success breeds hubris. Hubris begets
complacency and complacency breeds normalisation of arrogance and arrogance brings
failure. This is the reason why business environment should be assessed regularly.
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