competitive pressures. These may be Tesco competing with Sainsbury, Asda and Waitrose or it may be competition from the new discount stores from abroad such as Lidl, Aldi, Netto and others. There are similar pressures in the public sector. For example, Trust Hospitals compete for business from fund holders and health authorities, Local Authorities must implement Compulsory Competitive Tendering for an ever-increasing proportion of the services they provide, Government Agencies have to be competitive in pricing and cost control in order to meet targets and so on. Faster pace: The faster pace of society and business is apparent in many ways. New models of all types of manufactured goods have shorter life cycles, this in turn means that product development must also be speeded up. The knowledge and training that people have rapidly becomes obsolete because of changing requirements. Existing work patterns and practices need to be updated more or less continuously to keep pace, current information rapidly becomes out of date, technology seems to change month by month and so on. Increased globalization: Because of lower trade barriers, faster transport and communications, and the easier flow of capital, effectively there is a world market in manufactured and agricultural products and raw materials such as oil, coal, iron ore etc. In addition, banking and financial services operate on an international scale. The effect of these developments is that there is increased competition for virtually every product, commodity or service. There is a further problem with the global marketplace; that of volatility. Currencies, markets and political environments change continually and often unpredictably. The global marketplace has caused dramatic changes in the location of certain types of manufacturing businesses. Many Western firms have set up manufacturing plants in various parts of Asia and China to take advantage of lower labor and overhead costs w...
