Q. 3 Silver Line Manufacturers produce several varieties of automobile components. They have 3 to 5 suppliers who supply materials regularly. Recently, procurement manager of Silver Line discussed in the meeting that they have to look out for new suppliers since they would be expanding their business operations to many places. How do you think Silver Line have to go about this situation? [10 marks]

Answer:

A marketing oriented company always keeps tab on its external environment carefully to analyze opportunities and threats. This external environment influences company’s strategies in two levels i.e. external macro environment and external micro environment. The macro environment involves political and legal, economic and natural, social and cultural and technology environment. The micro environment consists of supply chain, customer and competitor. These factors are uncontrollable by the organization. Even the best company faces threat if one of the external environments is adverse to it. A moderate company will be successful if the external environment favors it.